500 Million Web Users
April 20, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
BEIJING CHINA NEWS: A top Chinese official has said the nation’s online population, already the largest in the world, is expected to exceed 500 million in the next two to three years.
Three-quarters of the web newcomers over the next few years would be from rural areas, the Global Times newspaper quoted Qian Xiaoqian, vice minister in the State Council’s press office, as saying.
China already has 384 million online users, according to the latest official figures.
Its spiralling online population has turned the Internet into a forum for citizens to express their opinions in a way rarely seen in a country where the traditional media is under strict government control.
The growing strength and influence of the web population has prompted concern in Beijing about the Internet’s potential as a tool for generating social unrest, and authorities have stepped up surveillance in recent years.
The government blocks web content that it deems politically sensitive in a vast system dubbed the “Great Firewall of China”.
On Monday, Internet giant Google said it had decided to redirect mainland web search queries to an uncensored site in Hong Kong to try to counter China’s censorship — a move that triggered an angry response from Beijing.
500 Million Web Users was first posted on March 25, 2010 at 11:55 am.
Copyright @ A Pakistan News.Com
Mosquitoes Turn ‘Flying Vaccinators’
April 20, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
A group of Japanese researchers developed a mosquito that spreads vaccine instead of disease.
Scientists have dreamed up various ways to tinker with insects’ DNA to fight disease. The new study relies on a very different mechanism: Use mosquitoes to become what the scientists call ‘flying vaccinators’.
Normally, when mosquitoes bite, they inject a tiny drop of saliva that prevents the host’s blood from clotting. The Japanese group decided to add an antigen-a compound that triggers an immune response-to the mix of proteins in the insect’s saliva.
A group by led by molecular geneticist Shigeto Yoshida of Jichi Medical University in Tochigi, Japan, identified a region in the genome of Anopheles stephensi-a malaria mosquito-called a promoter that turns on genes only in the insects’ saliva.
To this promoter they attached SP15, a candidate vaccine against leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease spread by sand flies that can cause skin sores and organ damage.
Sure enough, the mosquitoes produced SP15 in their saliva, the team reports in the current issue of Insect Molecular Biology. And when the insects were allowed to feast on mice, the mice developed antibodies against SP15
Mosquitoes Turn ‘Flying Vaccinators’ was first posted on March 25, 2010 at 5:35 pm.
Copyright @ A Pakistan News.Com
Asia Pollution Circles The Globe In Stratosphere
April 20, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
WASHINGTON : Pollution from Asia’s booming economies rises into the stratosphere during the monsoon season then circles the world for years, according to a report out on Thursday.
A study by the Boulder, Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) said the strong air circulation patterns linked to Asia’s monsoon rainy season serves as a pathway for black carbon, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants to rise into the stratosphere.
The stratosphere is the layer of the atmosphere located some 32 to 40 kilometers (20 to 25 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
“The monsoon is one of the most powerful atmospheric circulation systems on the planet, and it happens to form right over a heavily polluted region,” said NCAR scientist William Randel, the study’s lead author.
“As a result, the monsoon provides a pathway for transporting pollutants up to the stratosphere.”
Using satellite data and computer models, the scientists found that once the pollutants are in the stratosphere they circulate around the globe for several years.
“Some eventually descend back into the lower atmosphere, while others break apart,” read a statement on the study.
Researchers fear that the impact of Asian pollutants on the stratosphere may increase in next decades due to fierce industrial growth in countries like China and India.
Scientists however do not know the impact of climate change on the Asian monsoon, unsure if it will strengthen or weaken the monsoon’s vertical air movements.
The international study, published in the March 26 edition of the journal Science, was funded by the National Science Foundation together with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Canadian Space Agency.
Asia Pollution Circles The Globe In Stratosphere was first posted on March 26, 2010 at 5:17 pm.
Copyright @ A Pakistan News.Com
Atlantis Shuttle Launch Successful!
November 17, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
Atlantis Shuttle Launch Successful, The Atlantis Shuttle launch is a as the mission had no problems with the weather. The launch was initiated around Kennedy Space Center at 2:28 PM. The countdown contained no serious technical issues. Six astronauts are onboard space shuttle Atlantis. Atlantis will blast into the stratosphere to deliver big spare parts and a load of supplies to the International Space Station. Atlantis is scheduled to arrive at theInternational Space Station in approximately two days after launch. Crowd has gathered in numbers to witness the event. Atlantis’ six-man crew includes commander Charles Hobaugh, pilot Barry Wilmore, flight engineer Randy Bresnik, lead spacewalker Michael Foreman and astronauts Leland Melvin and Robert Satcher.
Atlantis Shuttle Launch Successful! was first posted on November 17, 2009 at 1:36 pm.
