India's manned space probe

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), a unit of the country's premier Indian space research programme, plans to send two humans into space by 2015.

The project is awaiting a final clearance from the central government. "The pre-project approval of Rs.95 crore ($19 million) has already come and the approval of the main project is being awaited. The human spaceflight program is to develop and launch an orbital vehicle to carry a two-member crew to the earth's lower orbit. The estimate is that it should happen by 2015. The director also confirmed reports that space suits for the project will be manufactured at organisation's unit here. This is just one of the many things which the organisation would be doing here as part of the major programme.

Mars' interaction with water

The edge of a solar panel on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, in a trench on the Martian surface, where a sample of soil was taken, is seen. This event again raised the old topic of presence of water on Mars.


The spacecraft discovered two minerals that suggest past interaction with water. Still some clarifications has to be made. Scientists are excited with this latest achievement and now they are focusing on their future projects related to Mars.

Quantum Computers, an another step.

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have overcome a hurdle in quantum computer development, having devised a viable way to manipulate a single “bit” in a quantum processor without disturbing the information stored in its neighbours. The approach, which makes novel use of polarized light to create “effective” magnetic fields, could bring the long-sought computers a step closer to reality.


A great challenge in creating a working quantum computer is maintaining control over the carriers of information, the “switches” in a quantum processor while isolating them from the environment. These quantum bits, or “qubits,” have the uncanny ability to exist in both “on” and “off” positions simultaneously, giving quantum computers the power to solve problems conventional computers find intractable — such as breaking complex cryptographic codes.
One approach to quantum computer development aims to use a single isolated rubidium atom as a qubit. Each such rubidium atom can take on any of eight different energy states, so the design goal is to choose two of these energy states to represent the on and off positions.
Ideally, these two states should be completely insensitive to stray magnetic fields that can destroy the qubit’s ability to be simultaneously on and off, ruining calculations. However, choosing such “field-insensitive” states also makes the qubits less sensitive to those magnetic fields used intentionally to select and manipulate them.


To solve this problem, the NIST team used two pairs of energy states within the same atom. Each pair is best suited to a different task: One pair is used as a ‘memory’ qubit for storing information, while the second ‘working’ pair comprises a qubit to be used for computation. While each pair of states is field-insensitive, transitions between the memory and working states are sensitive, and amenable to field control. When a memory qubit needs to perform a computation, a magnetic field can make it change hats. And it can do this without disturbing nearby memory qubits.


The NIST team demonstrated this approach in an array of atoms grouped into pairs, using the technique to address one member of each pair individually. Grouping the atoms into pairs, Lundblad says, allows the team to simplify the problem from selecting one qubit out of many to selecting one out of two — which can be done by creating an effective magnetic field with a beam of polarized light.


The polarized-light technique, which the NIST team developed, can be extended to select specific qubits out of a large groupwithout affecting those nearby. Their work was published in Nature Physics and appreciated by the readers. It is considered as a big step in this new generation of computers.

Lightning on MARS

For the first time, direct evidence of lightning has been detected on Mars, say University of Michigan researchers who found signs of electrical discharges during dust storms on the Red Planet.




What was saw on Mars was a series of huge and sudden electrical discharges caused by a large dust storm. Clearly, there was no rain associated with the electrical discharges on Mars. However, the implied possibilities are exciting. According to the researchers, electric activity in Martian dust storms has important implications for Mars science.




It affects atmospheric chemistry, habitability and preparations for human exploration. It might even have implications for the origin of life, as suggested by experiments in the 1950s.
The findings are based on observations made using an innovative microwave detector developed at the U-M Space Physics Research Laboratory. The kurtosis detector, which is capable of differentiating between thermal and non-thermal radiation, took measurements of microwave emissions from Mars for approximately five hours a day for 12 days between May 22 and June 16, 2006.




On June 8, 2006 both an unusual pattern of non-thermal radiation and an intense Martian dust storm occurred, the only time that non-thermal radiation was detected. Non-thermal radiation would suggest the presence of lightning.




The researchers reviewed the data to determine the strength, duration and frequency of the non-thermal activity, as well as the possibility of other sources. But each test led to the conclusion that the dust storm likely caused dry lightning.




This work confirms soil measurements from the Viking landers 30 years ago, and it challenges 2006 experiments that suggested otherwise.




Data from the Viking landers raised the possibility that Martian dust storms might be electrically active like Earth's thunderstorms and thus, might be a source of reactive chemistry. But the hypothesis was untestable. In 2006, using theoretical modeling, laboratory experiments and field studies on Earth, a group of planetary scientists suggested that there was no direct evidence that lightning occurred on Mars. This new research refutes those findings.



Mars continues to amaze us. Every new look at the planet gives us new insights.

Vacuum Bomb, the next big BOMB

Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast, dubbing it the "father of all bombs".
However this testing was done in the end of year 2007 but it raised the concern of other countries due to its better destructive efficiencies than the neculear. According to the sources it can reach the levels of nucler bomb in case of distruction, but unlike nuclear bomb its effects does not have long lasting effects.
The bomb is the latest in a series of new Russian weapons and policy moves as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert Moscow's role on the international stage.
Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon.The defense ministry stresses this military invention does not contradict a single international treaty and Russia is not unleashing a new arms race.
Such devices generally detonate in two stages. First a small blast disperses a main load of explosive material into a cloud, which then either spontaneously ignites in air or is set off by a second charge.
This explosion generates a pressure wave that reaches much further than that from a conventional explosive. The consumption of gases in the blast also generates a partial vacuum that can compound damage and injuries caused by the explosion itself. The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature and all that is alive merely evaporates.At the same time, the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one, or simply we can say it is environment destructive but also environment friendly.
"FATHER OF ALL BOMBS"
The Tu-160 supersonic bomber that dropped the bomb, widely known under its NATO nickname of "Blackjack", is the heaviest combat aircraft ever built.
Putin, who has overseen the roll-out of new tactical and anti-aircraft missiles and combat aircraft, has ordered "Blackjacks" and the Tu-95 "Bear" bombers to patrol around the world.
The new bomb was much stronger than the U.S.-built Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- MOAB, also known under its name "Mother of All Bombs". So, Russian designers called the new weapon 'Father of All Bombs'.
Showing the orange-painted U.S. prototype, the Russian bomb was four times more powerful -- 44 metric tons of TNT equivalent -- and the temperature at the epicenter of its blast was two times higher.
In 1999 Russian generals threatened to use vacuum bombs to wipe out rebels from the mountains during the "anti-terrorist operation" in its restive Chechnya province.
New York-based Human Rights Watch then appealed to Putin to refrain from using fuel-air explosives. It remains unclear if weapons of this type were used during the Chechen war.
U.S. forces have used a "thermobaric" bomb, which works on similar principles, in their campaign against al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
It (the bomb) will allow us to safeguard our state's security and fight international terrorism in any circumstances and in any part of the world.

Theory of Relativity proven

Perhaps one of the most famous equations in the world, in all scientific fields, is Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, E=mc2. This means that the energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the square speed of light. Recently, an international team whose members come from Germany, France and Hungary, led by Laurent Lellouch from the Center for Theoretical Physics in France, managed to prove that the theory is actually right from a subatomic perspective.
The group used a lot of computational power provided by some of the mightiest supercomputers out there in order to prove that results based on proton and neutron (the particles that make up the atomic nuclei) behavior concur with the relativity theory. Practically, the standard model of quantum physics states that neutrons and protons are themselves made up of even smaller particles, called quarks, which are bound together by particles named gluons (glue-on, pretty logical).

it took lots of effort to reach this results. Still some work has to be done on it. The scientists are excited with this latest development and hoping that it will help to explore new things in vast field of science.

The New Element 112

There is another element in the periodic table which is going to occupies the 112th space.The element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed the recognition of element 112 in an official letter to the head of the discovering team, Professor Sigurd Hofmann.
The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table, at present.
Already in 1996, Professor Sigurd Hofmann’s international team created the first atom of element 112 with the accelerator at GSI. In 2002, they were able to produce another atom. Subsequent accelerator experiments at the Japanese RIKEN Discovery Research Institute produced more atoms of element 112, unequivocally confirming GSI’s discovery.
To produce element 112 atoms, scientists accelerate charged zinc atoms — zinc ions for short — with the help of the 120 m long particle accelerator at GSI and “fire” them onto a lead target.
The zinc and lead nuclei merge in a nuclear fusion to form the nucleus of the new element.
Its so-called atomic number 112, hence the provisional name ‘element 112,’ is the sum of the atomic numbers of the two initial elements: zinc has the atomic number 30 and lead the atomic number 82.
An element’s atomic number indicates the number of protons in its nucleus. The neutrons that are also located in the nucleus have no effect on the classification of the element. It is the 112 electrons, which orbit the nucleus, that determine the new element’s chemical properties.
Still work is carried on to know more about this element and scientists expect that it might help in future to overcome our few needs.