This unique image from NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope from early 2009 features Saturn with the rings edge-on and both poles in view, offering a double view of its fluttering auroras, in this image release by NASA on March 22, 2011. Created by the interaction of the solar wind with the planet's magnetic field, Saturn's aurorae are analogous to the more familiar northern and southern lights on Earth. (Reuters)
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: A new report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says the university has succeeded in attracting more women to its science and engineering faculties, but questions remain about the equity of women professors.
PRAGUE: Little Mole, a cartoon hero for many children, will join astronauts aboard NASA’s shuttle Endeavour.
Argentine aerospace engineer Pablo de Leon, a NASA team member, collects samples as he tests a space suit designed for possible use in Mars at Argentina's Marambio base in Antarctica in this handout photo dated March 13, 2011. The NDX-1 space suit, designed by De Leon, endured frigid temperatures and winds of more than 47 mph (75 kph) as researchers tried out techniques for collecting soil samples on Mars. The $100,000 prototype suit, created with NASA funds, is made out of more than 350 materials, including tough honeycomb Kevlar and carbon fibers to reduce its weight without losing resistance. (Reuters)
LONDON: “Mega-heatwaves” like the one that hit Russia and other parts of eastern Europe last year are up to 10 times more likely to occur over the next 40 years and could have serious consequences, scientists said on Thursday.
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: A new report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says the university has succeeded in attracting more women to its science and engineering faculties, but questions remain about the equity of women professors.
WASHINGTON: A new study is raising questions about when ancient human ancestors in Europe learned to control fire, one of the most important steps on the long path to civilization. Researchers say that while there is evidence of early humans living in Europe as much as a million years ago, they found no clear traces of regular use of fire before about 400,000 years ago.
After that, Neanderthals and modern humans living in Europe regularly used fire for warmth, cooking and light, they found.
WASHINGTON: The US Geological Survey on Monday raised the magnitude of the deadly earthquake that struck offshore northern Japan on Friday to 9.0 from 8.9.
• Big quake is all but certain, only timing unclear
• Older buildings, infrastructure are most vulnerable
• Experts say spending on retrofitting has lagged
• Extent of fire would help determine damage
WASHINGTON: Elephants quickly learned to cooperate to solve a problem, researchers report in Monday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Regional IT professionals, engineers and scientists face disappointment, inconvenience and expense as conferences and educational events planned for Bahrain this year are being canceled or rescheduled due to the recent unrest.
WASHINGTON: A NASA scientist reports detecting tiny fossilized bacteria on three meteorites, and maintains these microscopic life forms are not native to Earth.
LOS ANGELES: Land a rover on Mars to collect rocks and soil samples that could later be returned to Earth. If that’s a budget-buster, then orbit Jupiter’s moon Europa, which may have a liquid ocean beneath its frozen surface, or study Uranus’ atmosphere.
NEW YORK: Here’s how Apple Inc.’s iPad 2, unveiled on Wednesday, stacks up against competing tablets.
SAN FRANCISCO: More than a year after igniting the tablet computing craze, Apple Inc. prepares to unveil the second version of its blockbuster iPad — possibly minus lead showman Steve Jobs. Plenty has changed over the course of the year.
JERUSALEM: A new Israeli weapons system knocked down a Palestinian anti-tank rocket in its first combat test Tuesday, the military said, showing off technology that could protect the heavy vehicles that have been the mainstay of the world’s ground forces for decades.
SAN DIEGO: The Pentagon has poured millions of dollars into the development of tiny drones inspired by biology — including the hummingbird — each equipped with video and audio equipment that can record sights and sounds. They could be used to spy, but also to locate people inside earthquake-crumpled buildings and detect hazardous chemical leaks.
The smaller, the better.
Besides the hummingbird, engineers in the growing unmanned aircraft industry are working on drones that look like insects and the helicopter-like maple leaf seed.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: The International Space Station got a sorely needed storage room Tuesday, a 21-foot(6.4-meter)-long supply closet packed with goods and a humanoid robot that will remain boxed up for another two months.
TOKYO: A technology company is organizing the world’s first marathon for robots in Japan, a country known for its love of gizmos.
MEXICO CITY: Monarch butterfly colonies in Mexico more than doubled in size this winter after bad storms devastated their numbers a year ago, conservationists said on Monday although the migrating insect remains under threat.
BARCELONA, Spain: Nokia Corp. will get billions of dollars from Microsoft Corp. to ditch its current smart-phone software in favor of Windows Phone 7, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said Sunday, in a defense of the deal.
LONDON: Britain’s leading heart charity launched a 50 million pound ($80 million) research project on Tuesday into the potential of stem cells to regenerate heart tissue and “mend broken hearts.”
LONDON: Cellphone security threats rose sharply last year as a proliferation of Internet-enabled mobile devices like smartphones and tablets provided new opportunities for cybercriminals, security software maker McAfee said. San Antonio Spurs guard George Hill, right, drives past Detroit Pistons guard Will Bynum during the first half of their NBA basketball game in Auburn Hills, Michigan, on Tuesday. (Reuters)
SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc. launched a special service to allow people in Egypt to send Twitter messages by dialing a phone number and leaving a voice-mail, as Internet access remains cut off in the country amid anti-government protests.
SEATTLE: Google is accusing Microsoft Corp. of cheating to make its Bing search engine better. Microsoft says the way it is improving results isn't copying. Matt Cutts, head of Google's Web spam team, said Tuesday that Bing was returning search results that seem a little too close to Google's own. That was especially the case for obscure searches.
WASHINGTON: For the first time, Earth has a regular orbiting eye-in-the-sky spying on the solar system’s smallest and strangest planet, Mercury. NASA’s spacecraft called Messenger successfully veered into a pinpoint orbit Thursday night after a 6 1/2-year trip and 4.9 billion miles (7.89 billion kilometers) and tricky maneuvering to fend off the gravitational pull of the sun. It is the fifth planet in our solar system that NASA has orbited, in addition to the Earth and the moon.
If you want to see the old fashioned way of operating a consumer retail business, just walk into any corner grocery in Saudi Arabia. But for regional companies intent on thriving in a highly competitive marketplace, the days of managing accounts with a calculator and notepad are long gone. What does remain the same throughout the retail industry is the interest in focusing on customer needs and creating a targeted strategy of meeting them. For a regional brand with 61 stores.
It’s been 13 years that EMC has been the number one company in the global external data storage market. In Saudi Arabia, EMC is moving forward aggressively with a new general manager and new storage technologies and products. Of these recently introduced offerings, most interesting for the local business community are EMC’s new storage solutions targeting small and medium businesses (SMBs), which make up the bulk of commercial organizations in the Kingdom.
Every week, Arab News in conjunction with I.Zone — Apple Premium Resellers in Saudi Arabia — will highlight amazing apps in various categories. Apart from the chance to explore the world of apps, viewers will have the opportunity to rate and comment on the featured apps of the week.
• Home network access anywhere
• Social networking guardian
• Venture Capital for Palestine
• Try a free alternative
• Kitchen help for diabetics
• Comics worth a fortune
ALMATY, Kazakhstan: NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely Wednesday in the snowy expanses of central Kazakhstan after spending five months on the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carrying Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka landed at 1:53 p.m. (0753 GMT) about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the northern Kazakh city of Arkalyk. The capsule came back to harsh conditions, including a stiff wind that blew it on its side and rolled it 22 meters (25 yards) from its touchdown point through fresh snow.
WASHINGTON: The massive earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan Friday was the strongest quake in the area in nearly 1,200 years. It was also calculated to have caused the day to get a tiny bit shorter.
Japan quake magnitude raised to 9.0 from 8.9 -USGS
Every week, Arab News in conjunction with I.Zone — Apple Premium Resellers in Saudi Arabia — will highlight amazing apps in various categories. Apart from the chance to explore the world of apps, viewers will have the opportunity to rate and comment on the featured apps of the week.
For a few years it seemed that video games would take over as playtime favorites and each year game developers introduce new gaming technology to fascinate young and old alike. But now, traditional recreation brands are fighting back with technology to bring excitement and relevance to the games we’ve known and loved for decades. There are also entirely new products hoping to be considered a ton of e-fun. So let’s show you some of the newest ways to put a smile on your face — while making a dent in your wallet.
The readers of Arab News share bizarre stuff with me all the time. It wasn’t out of the ordinary that Firas sent me his telephone bill. But the STC invoice was definitely strange. It seems that STC has been having billing problems with customers who are on special unlimited network access plans.
NEW YORK: US eye specialists are welcoming the Nintendo 3DS game device, dismissing the manufacturer’s warnings that its 3-D screen shouldn’t be used by children 6 or younger because it may harm their immature vision. On the contrary, the optometrists say, it’s a good idea to get your kids to try the 3-D screen, especially if they’re younger than 6. It won’t do any harm, they say, and it could help catch vision disorders that have to be caught early to be fixed.
JEDDAH: Four young Saudi entrepreneurs shared their inspiring stories and future ambitions at the Jeddah Economic Forum on Tuesday, addressing an audience of university students and business leaders.
