Boiling point of propanic acid is much more higher than that of n-butyl alcohol

Carboxylic acids have higher b.p than alcohols having comparable molcular weight for e.g propanic acid have much higher b.p (141 degree celcius) than  n-butyl alcohol (118), although both of them have same molecular weight.
A pair of alcohol (n-butyl alcohol) molecule are held toghter by only one hydrogen bond but a pair of  carboxalic acid (propionic acid) molecular are held toghter not by one but by two hydrogen bonds. More the number of hydrogen bonds between the molecules, more heat should be supplied to break them and the substance. So, b.p of carboxylic acid is higher than that of alcohol of comparable molecular weight.

Read More

Computer AI passes Turing test in 'world first'

A computer program called Eugene Goostman, which simulates a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy, is said to have passed the Turing test at an event organised by the University of Reading.

The test investigates whether people can detect if they are talking to machines or humans.
The experiment is based on Alan Turing's question-and-answer gameCan Machines Think?
No computer has passed the test before under these conditions, it is reported.
The 65-year-old Turing Test is successfully passed if a computer is mistaken for a human more than 30% of the time during a series of five-minute keyboard conversations.
On 7 June Eugene convinced 33% of the judges at the Royal Society in London that it was human.
                                                               Man or machine? A glimpse at one of the conversations.

Other artificial intelligence (AI) systems also competed, including Cleverbot, Elbot and Ultra Hal.
Judges included actor Robert Llewellyn, who played an intelligent robot in BBC Two's science-fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, and Lord Sharkey, who led the successful campaign for Alan Turing's posthumous pardon, over a conviction for homosexual activity, in 2013.
Eugene was created by Vladimir Veselov, who was born in Russia and now lives in the United States, and Ukrainian-born Eugene Demchenko, who now lives in Russia.
Transcripts of the conversations are currently unavailable, but may appear in a future academic paper.
The judges and hidden human control groups were kept apart throughout the test.
The event was organised by Reading University's School of Systems Engineering in partnership with RoboLaw, an EU-funded organisation examining the regulation of emerging robotic technologies.
Alan Turing was an English mathematician, wartime code-breaker and pioneer of computer science.

Historic

The event has been labelled as "historic" by the organisers, who claim no computer has passed the test before.
"Some will claim that the Test has already been passed," said Kevin Warwick, a visiting professor at the University of Reading and deputy vice-chancellor for research at Coventry University.
"The words Turing test have been applied to similar competitions around the world. However, this event involved the most simultaneous comparison tests than ever before, was independently verified and, crucially, the conversations were unrestricted.
"A true Turing test does not set the questions or topics prior to the conversations. We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing's test was passed for the first time on Saturday."
Lord Sharkey, a leading expert in robotic technology and artificial intelligence, said: "It is indeed a great achievement for Eugene. It was very clever ruse to pretend to be a 13-year-old Ukranian boy, which would constrain the conversation. But these competitions are really great to push developments."

Sources: bbc technewa

Read More

Vitamin D and the nursing mother

Everyone seems to agree that vitamin D is important for throughout our life. This is certainly as true in the first year of life as it is later on. For it is during the first year that in addition to its role in calcium metabolism, this critical nutrient reduces both the risk of current infections and the late-life development of such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.
Both the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) agree that vitamin D intake during the first year of life should be 400 IU/d. My own estimation of the requirement (for different ages and body sizes) is 65-75 IU/kg body weight per day. For average body weights in infants during the first year of life that rule of thumb computes to somewhere between 300 and 500 IU/d for infants. So, while there is still contention with respect to the optimal intake for adults, there really is no disagreement about how much is needed for infants, either among various authoritative sources or arising from different approaches to the evidence. With respect to infants, 400 IU/d seems to be just about right.
The question is, how is the infant to get that vitamin D? Human milk, in most nursing mothers, contains very little vitamin D. Infant formulas, from various manufacturers, all contain some added vitamin D in amounts calculated to be sufficient to meet an infant's needs. But extensive studies during the first year of life reveal that less than one-fifth of all infants ever get as much as the recommended 400 IU/d from any source, and fewer than one out of 10 breast-fed infants meet the requirement. As a result, the AAP urges that all infants, regardless of whether they are breast or formula fed, receive their 400 IU/d as pediatric drops. Unfortunately, this recommendation, while appropriate, is not often followed. Most babies are just not getting the vitamin D they need. The late-life consequences of this shortfall could be enormous.
It must seem strange that on the one hand we stress that human milk is the best source of nourishment for our babies, and on the other seem to ignore the fact that human milk doesn't contain the vitamin D those babies need. The explanation, very simply, is that the disconnect is artificial. Nursing mothers have so little vitamin D in their own bodies that there is little or none left over to put into their milk. But it has not always been this way. We know that the vitamin D blood concentrations that are regularly found today in Africans living ancestral lifestyles are high enough to support putting into breast milk all the vitamin D an infant needs. But the bulk of the world's population today is not living on the high equatorial plains of East Africa nor exposing much of its skin for most of the day.
Fortunately, we don't have to return to East Africa. It turns out that, if we give nursing mothers enough vitamin D to bring their blood levels up to the likely ancestral levels, then they automatically put all of the vitamin D their baby needs into their own milk, thereby ensuring that the infant gets total nutrition without the need to resort to vitamin D drops.
How much vitamin D does the mother need so as to ensure an adequate amount in her milk? As with everything else related to vitamin D, there is a lot of individual variation, but it appears that the daily intake must be in the range of 5,000-6,000 IUs. As no surprise, that's just about the amount needed to reproduce the vitamin D blood levels in persons living ancestral lifestyles today. And while 5,000-6,000 IU may initially seem high, it is important to remember how much the sun produces for us. A single 15 minute whole body exposure to sun at mid-day in summer produces well over 10,000 IU.
There is one important proviso for nursing mothers concerning the needed intake. Those who live in North America and have to rely on supplements should be certain that they take their supplements every day. While for other purposes it is possible to take vitamin D intermittently (e.g., once a week), that doesn't work for putting vitamin D into human milk. The residence time of vitamin D in the blood is so short that, if the mother stops taking her vitamin D supplement for a day or two, vitamin D in her milk will be low (or absent altogether) on the days she skips.
There is a glaring disconnect here between these well-attested physiological facts and the official IOM recommendation for nursing mothers, i.e., only 400 IU/d -- the same intake for her as IOM recommends for her baby (whose body weight is less than 10% of her own). The IOM, if it were to be explicit about its current recommendations, would be telling nursing mothers something like this:
"The evidence we analyzed indicates that your own body needs only 400 IU of vitamin D each day. Unfortunately, that won't allow you to put any vitamin D into your breast milk. Sorry about that . . . So, if you want to ensure that your baby is adequately nourished, you are going to have to resort to giving your infant vitamin D drops."
That would be a hard message to sell, and clearly, it makes little sense on its face. As I have already noted, women living ancestral lifestyles (whether or not they are nursing an infant) have far higher blood levels of vitamin D than contemporary urban Americans. Milk production (and its optimal composition) are simply two of the many functions that vitamin D supports in a healthy adult. This breast-feeding example is not a special case; it is just one of the many pieces of evidence that point to the fact that current vitamin D recommendations for adults are too low -- way too low.
Vitamin D supplements -- and in this case vitamin D drops -- are literal lifesavers for infants today. But what about two or three generations back -- before nutritional supplements come into existence, but long after migration out of Africa? Ninety years ago vitamin D had not yet been discovered, and there certainly were no vitamin D supplements that could have been used. How did we get by through those thousands of years? There are two answers. Most of us, living in temperate latitudes, got a lot more sun exposure than we do today, and of course there were no sunscreens, so there was no blocking of the solar radiation that produces vitamin D in our skin. Those of us living in far northern latitudes survived mostly by depending upon diets that were very high in seafood, which is naturally a rich source of vitamin D. And those of us who got vitamin D by neither route were at increased risk of a whole host of vitamin D-related disorders, most obvious and most easily recognized being rickets.
The bony deformities of rickets were common a century ago in Europe, North America, and East Asia, and were largely eradicated in growing children by use of cod liver oil and, in the US, by the introduction of vitamin D fortification of milk in the 1930s. Fortunately, growing children can repair some of the bone deformities of rickets if they are given vitamin D soon enough. But, repairing rickets, while a good and necessary thing to do, is not sufficient. It is too late, by the time we recognize the deformities of rickets, to ensure maximal protection against the autoimmune diseases (for example), for which susceptibility is mainly determined in the first year of life.
To sum up, we now better recognize the importance of vitamin D in the earliest stages of life. Furthermore, there is, as noted earlier, quite good agreement on how much an infant needs. Where we lack consensus is how to make certain that all of our babies get the amount they need. Why not rely on giving nursing infants vitamin D drops, as the AAP recommends? Two reasons: 1) It's been tried and has failed; and, 2) When it does work in individual infants, it provides no benefit for the mother. By contrast, ensuring an adequate vitamin D input to the mother during pregnancy and lactation is almost certainly the best way to meet the needs of both individuals.
An "adequate" intake for nursing mothers, as noted earlier, is not the 400 IU/d the IOM recommends, but is instead in the range of 5,000-6,000 IU/d, taken daily. If they get that much, they will meet not only their own needs, but their infant's as well. And they will have the satisfaction of knowing that they are supplying all their baby's needs, the natural way.

Read More

Sleep's memory role discovered

The mechanism by which a good night's sleep improves learning and memory has been discovered by scientists.



The team in China and the US used more advanced microscopy to witness new connections between our brain cells - synapses - forming during sleep.

Their study is published in the journal Science, showed  that even intense training could not make up for lost sleep.

Experts said it was an elegant and significant study, which uncovered the mechanisms of memory.

It is well known that sleep plays an important role in memory and learning. But what actually happens inside the brain has been a source of considerable debate.

Researchers at Newyork University School of Medicine and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School trained mice in a new skill - walking on top of a rotating rod.

They then looked inside the living brain with a microscope to see what happened when the animals were either sleeping or sleep deprived.

Their study showed that sleeping mice formed significantly more new connections between neurons  they were learning more.

And by disrupting specific phases of sleep, the research group showed deep or slow-wave sleep was necessary for memory formation.

During this stage, the brain was "replaying" the activity from earlier in the day.

Prof Wen-Biao Gan, from New York University, told the BBC: "Finding out sleep promotes new connections between neurons is new, nobody knew this before.

"We thought sleep helped but it could have been other causes, and we show it really helps to make connections and that in sleep the brain is not quiet, it is replaying what happened during the day and it seems quite important for making the connections."

Read More

Is Your Computer Male Or Female ?

Are you want to know gender type of your computer ? let's start to know This is funny trick that let you know the gender of your computer whether it is male or female. This trick work on mostly all windows operating system. So let get started.
First of all  
1. Open Notepad and paste the following codes.

CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice").Speak"i love you"

2. Go to save as and Save the file as gender.vbs 
   3. Then Now, open the save file
   4. If you hear male voice then your computer is male and if you hear female voice then its female.

Read More

Werners Theory

In 1893, Alfred Werner developed a theory for complex compound. Werner was able to explain nature of bonding in complexes.

The important postulates of Werner coordination theory are as following.

1. In Coordination compounds, the metal atom posses two types of valencies primary valancy and secondary valency.

Primary valancy corresponds to oxidation number of metal ion is reffed as ionizable valancy. Secondary valancy is ion and is referred valency Is ionisable valency. It also more or less fixed depending upon central metal atom. A number of ligand surrounds the central metal atom. A number of ligand surrounds the central metal atom i.e. coordination number corresponds to the secondary valancy of metal.

2. Every metal atom or ion has more or less fixed number of coordination numbers.
3. Ligand donates electron pair to the central metal atom. Ligands are commonly negative ion such  as Cl^–or neutral molecule containing lone pairs of electron e.g NH3.
4. Secondary valences are directional in nature so that complex ions have a fixed shaped depending upon the coordination number. For eg. if coordination number is six, the geometry of complex is octrahedral like [Co(NH3)6]3+.

The most common coordination number to transition metal complex is 6 and the shape is usually octrahedral. The coordination number 4 is also common, and give rise to either tetrahedral or square planer complex.

Read More

What is Buckminister fullerene ?

One of the most intresting development in late 20th century is the discovary of a new allotropic forms of carbonn, the fullerenc. It is the third form of pure crystaline form of the carbon after diamond and graphite. The new forms of carbon exist as C60 carbon cluster compound in the form of mustard coloured crystaline solid which dissolved in benzine to give magenta (Reddish purple) coloured solution. The molecule is of an extra ordinary structure consisting of C60 carbon atoms in a fused ring aromatic system which bends around and closer to form a "Soccer Ball" Shaped molecule with 20 six membred rings and 12 five membered rings and each carbon atom in it is sp2 hybridred and linked with three other carbon atom with one down and two single bond. It has been called Most Symmertical Molecule. The C60 molecule were first recognized and named as "Buckmiister fullerene" after the American architech enginear F.Buckminister (Bucky) Fuller. Who designed similar sheped down. More commenly, these molecules are now called fullerene and most informally "Bucky ball". This isomer of  carbon differ from diamond and graphite that diamond and graphite form lattice but fullerenes form discrete molecules.

Read More

D-block element (Transition element)

D-Block elements :

The elements in which last electron enters d-orbital of the penultimate (inner to ultimate) shell, i.e last electron goes to (n-1)d orbital are called d-block elements. D-block elements are also defined as those elements whose two outermost shell are incomplete (i.e partially field)

The general valance shell electronic configuration of d-block elements are also called transition elements. d-block elements is also called transition elements.

(        Variableoxidation state :

One of the most striking feature of the d-block elements is that they exihibit variety of oxidation states in their compound with the exception of a few elements most of the d-block elements show more than one oxidation state (i.e variable oxidation state). The following two reasons have been given to explain why d-block elements shows variable oxidation state.

(i)                  (n-1)d and ns orbitals in the atoms of d-block elements have almost the identical energy and hence electron can be removed from (n-1)d orbital as easily as they can be take part in different hybridization situation.

(ii)                After removing ns electron (s) the remainder is called core or kernel. In case of most of d-block elements, the core is unstable and hence can lase one or more elements resulting in the formation of cation having different oxidation state i.e the removal of one  or more electrons from the unstable core gives several oxidation state to transition metals.

Read More

What causes coronary heart disease?

Our heart is a always pump the size of a fist that sends oxygen-rich blood around our body. The blood travels to the organs of our body through blood vessels known as arteries, and then returns to the heart through veins.

Our heart needs its own blood supply to keep working. Heart disease occurs when the arteries that carry this blood, known as coronary arteries, start to become blocked by a build-up of fatty deposits.

The inner lining of the coronary arteries gradually becomes furred with a thick, porridge-like sludge of substances, known as plaques, and formed from cholesterol. This clogging-up process is known as atherosclerosis.

The plaques narrow the arteries and reduce the space through which blood can flow. They can also block nutrients being delivered to the artery walls, which means the arteries lose their elasticity. In turn, this can lead to high blood pressure, which also increases the risk of heart disease. This same process goes on in the arteries throughout the body, and can lead to high blood pressure which puts further strain on the heart.

If our arteries are partially blocked you can experience angina - severe chest pains that can spread across our upper body - as our heart struggles to keep beating on a restricted supply of oxygen. You are also at greater risk of a heart attack.

Some people have a higher risk of developing atherosclerosis due to genetic factors - one clue to this is a family history of heart disease in middle-age. Lifestyle factors that increase the risk include an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, diabetes, high blood pressure and, most importantly, smoking.

However, in the past couple of decades deaths from coronary heart disease have nearly halved, thanks to better treatments.

What happens during a heart attack?

A heart attack happens when one of the coronary arteries becomes completely blocked. This usually happens when a plaque, which is already narrowing an artery, cracks or splits open. This triggers the formation of a blood clot around the plaque, and it is this blood clot that then completely blocks the artery.

With their supply of oxygen completely blocked, the heart muscle and tissue supplied by that artery start to die. Emergency medical intervention is needed to unblock the artery and restore blood flow. This may consist of treatment with drugs to dissolve the clot or thrombus, or a small operation done through the skin and blood vessels to open up the blocked artery.

The outcome of a heart attack hinges on the amount of the muscle that dies before it is corrected. The smaller the area affected, the greater the chance of survival and recovery.

While a heart attack will always cause some permanent damage, some areas may be able to recover if they are not deprived of blood for too long. The sooner a heart attack is diagnosed and treated, the greater the chance of recovery.

Read More

Genepeeks firm to offer 'digital baby' screen for sperm donors

New York start-up Genepeeks will initially focus on donor sperm, simulating before pregnancy how the genetic sequence of a female client might combine with those of different males.
Donors that more often produce "digital children" with a higher risk of inherited disorders will be filtered out, leaving those who are better genetic matches.

Everything happens in a computer, but experts have raised ethical questions.
"We are just in the business right now of giving prospective mothers, who are using donor sperm to conceive, a filtered catalogue of donors based on their own underlying genetic profile," Genepeeks co-founder Anne Morriss told BBC News.
"We are filtering out the donor matches with an elevated risk of rare recessive paediatric conditions."
Ms Morriss, an entrepreneur, gave a presentation on the company at the Consumer Genetics Conference in Boston last week.

Advancing technology
She was motivated in part by her own experience of starting a family. Her son was conceived with a sperm donor who happened to share with Morriss the gene for an inherited disorder called MCADD.
MCADD (medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency) prevents those affected from converting fats to sugar. It can be fatal if it is not diagnosed early. Luckily, in Ms Morriss's case, the condition was picked up in newborn screening tests.
"My son has a pretty normal life," Ms Morriss said, "but about 30% of children with rare genetic diseases don't make it past the age of five."
Genepeeks has formalised a partnership with a sperm bank - the Manhattan Cryobank - and has a patent pending on the DNA screening technology.
The start-up benefits from the rapid pace of change in genetic technology.
Indeed, six months ago, Genepeeks' founders decided it was able to use a superior system for DNA analysis (called "targeted exon sequencing") than the one originally envisaged - a result, says Anne Morriss, of falling costs and increased flexibility.
For couples planning babies, other companies already screen one or both partners for genes that could cause disease if combined with a similar variant - so-called "carrier screening".

Digital filter
One academic who studies the use of genetic technology commented: "This is like that, but ramped up 100,000 times."
Ms Morriss's business partner, Prof Lee Silver, a geneticist and expert on bioethics at Princeton University, New Jersey, told BBC News: "We get the DNA sequence from two prospective parents. We simulate the process of reproduction, forming virtual sperm and virtual eggs. We put them together to form a hypothetical child genome.
"Then we can look at that hypothetical genome and - with all the tools of modern genetics - determine the risk that the genome will result in a child with disease. We're looking directly for disease and not carrier status. For each pair of people that we're going to analyse, we make 10,000 hypothetical children."
The process will be run for the client and each potential donor one by one, scanning for some 600 known single-gene recessive conditions. In this way, the highest-risk pairings can be filtered out.
Anne Morriss added: "At this stage our clients won't be receiving any genetic information back. We're very much focused on the practical utility of helping prospective parents who want to protect their future kids, giving them the option of additional analysis to what is currently being offered in the industry."
But the company's founders have plans to expand the screening beyond single-gene recessive disorders to more complex conditions in which multiple genes play a part.
Indeed, going to the trouble of simulating thousands of digital children deliberately lays the ground for this: "[It's] impossible to get towards an accurate risk calculation in any other way," said Anne Morriss.
And in a video produced by the company, Prof Silver says: "My hope for the future is that any people who want to have a baby can use this technology to greatly reduce the risk of disease being expressed in their child."

Donor ethics

To some, such a prospect might appear like a step towards designer babies - until now the preserve of science fiction literature and films such as Gattaca, which envisaged a future of genetic "haves" and "have-nots".
Bio-ethicists approached by the BBC said Genepeeks was a logical outcome of the increasing demand for more information when making reproductive decisions.
However, some raised potential concerns about risk communication and the expansion of screening beyond rare single-gene disorders. But they suggested there were few, if any, regulatory barriers.
One ethicist told BBC News: "The biggest question for me, just from the outset, is the understanding of uncertainty. Even people who have been doing genomics for years still have a hard time figuring out exactly what a risk for a particular genetic predisposition really means for a family.
"Gene-environment interactions can lead to people either having disease or not having disease."
Dr Ewan Birney, associate director of the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, UK, echoed the point: "It's good that they're focusing on the carrier status of these rare Mendelian disorders where it's potentially more clear-cut. That said, these things are more complex than they first seem," he said.
"I'm sure the scientists appreciate that complexity. But when transmitting that complexity to everyday people, these things can sound more absolute than they really are."
He added: "The thing I would want to stress here is just how complex this is. It's great that people are thinking of using this technology in lots of different ways, but our knowledge gap is very large."
Risk communication to clients was, said Anne Morriss, "absolutely critical to anyone in this industry".
"We have to be crystal clear about what we're testing for, what risks we're helping to reduce; that there's no guarantee you won't give birth to a sick child," she said.
Prof Mildred Cho, associate director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics in California, raised questions over whether the sperm donor should also receive information about their genome gleaned from the screening process.
"Unlike hair colour, occupation or family history - those are things, presumably, the donor already knows - the thing that's different about this that I see is it could create information that the donor doesn't already have. It also has implications for the donor's other biological family members," Prof Cho told BBC News.

This week it also emerged that California-based consumer genetics company 23andMe had submitted the patent on a DNA analysis tool for planning a child.

Source bbc science news

Read More

Dell Announces Android and Windows Tablets

On Wednesday, Dell launched a slew of new devices, including tablets, laptops, and even a tablet/laptop hybrid. At a press event in New York City, the company showed off its Venue 7 and Venue 8 Android slates, Venue 8 Pro and Venue 11 Pro Windows 8.1 tablets, its newly refreshed XPS 15 and XPS 13 laptops, and its foldable ultrabook called the XPS 11.

The Venue 7 and Venue 8 tablets came as a bit of a surprise reveal, as Dell dipped back into the Android market it appeared to have left behind. Neither slate is particularly mighty, though: Both run Android 4.2.2 (upgradeable to KitKat) and are powered by Intel Atom processors. The 7 features a 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU while the 8 is driven by a 2.0 GHz dual-core processor. Ostensibly, Dell is aiming to satisfy the budget-conscious Android fan with this offering, judging from the way the rest of its (middling) specs read.

Both the Venue 7 and Venue 8 feature 1280 x 800 pixel IPS displays, USB 3.0, a battery life of 8 hours, and rather lackluster cameras (a 3-MP rear camera and VGA front-facing camera for the Venue 7, and a 5-MP rear camera and 2-MP front-facing camera for the Venue 8). The Venue 7 comes with 16GB of internal memory, and you can choose between 16 or 32 GB versions for the Venue 8. If that's not enough, the devices are expandable via a microSD slot. The 7 and 8 will be available on October 18, at $150 and $180 respectively.

Dell also dropped a couple of Windows 8 tablets at the event: the Venue 8 Pro and the Venue 11 Pro. With the launch of these two slates, the company officially moves away from Windows RT. The Venue 8 Pro, a pocketable 8-inch device with a 1280 x 800 IPS display and pen input, is one of the only competitors in the space of sub-10-inch Windows tablets. The slate includes Intel's new quad-core Bay Trail CPU, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and 10 hours of battery life. It's scheduled to go on sale on October 18 in the U.S., priced at $300.

The Venue 11 Pro, conversely, is a real rival for the Microsoft Surface Pro 2. It features a 1920 x 1080 HD IPS display, and can be powered either by Intel's quad-core Bay Trail processor or a fourth-generation Haswell CPU that goes up to Core i5. With its specs maxed out, the Venue 11 Pro can support 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it includes WiDi, NFC, a full-size USB port, HDMI port, and a microSD slot. Also worthy of note, the Venue 11 Pro's battery is removable—so in an emergency, users can swap it out with a fully charged one (if they're away from their charger).

In the realm of laptops, Dell refreshed its reliable XPS 13 and XPS 15 models, endowing both of them with Intel's Haswell processors. The XPS 15 got the drastic upgrade, as it now flaunts a truly impressive quad HD+ IGZO display; it's 3200 x 1800 pixels, higher even than the Retina MacBook Pro (2880 x 1800). It also boasts Nvidia graphics, 1TB of hard drive space in addition to a 32GB solid state drive (you can also opt for a single 512GB SSD), NFC, and voice features. Meanwhile, the Dell XPS 13 has gotten upgraded to sport a 1080p touchscreen, and improved graphics and battery life. The XPS 15 comes out on October 15 and goes for a $1500 starting price tag, while the XPS 13 will arrive in November, starting at $1000.

Finally, Dell revealed more details about its XPS 11 foldable Ultrabook: It'll feature a Haswell processor, solid state storage, and a Gorilla Glass touch display flaunting a dense 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution. There's a keyboard too, of course, which folds around the XPS 11's back at 180 degrees. The XPS 11 costs $1000 and will be available this November.

Source: popularmechanicsdotcom

Read More

Google accused of illegal Gmail wiretapping

Washington: Google has been reportedly accused of illegally wiretapping Gmail content of its users to send them targeted ads.

The search giant has been accused by plaintiffs and privacy rights advocates over the years and the lawsuits have been merged into two separate cases, questioning the extent to the company's wiretapping via its emailing service and its Street View mapping project.

However, Google defending its methods has struggled to persuade overseers and its users that it protects consumer data, while arguing that the law is stuck in the past and has failed to keep up with new technologies, the New York Times reports.

The wiretapping rulings could have broad effects on Google's service, because nearly half a billion people worldwide use it and if it is a certified class action, the fines would be enormous and could have long-term consequences for all other e-mail services.

The plaintiffs have accused the search giant of scanning their email content violating state and federal anti-wiretapping laws, in order to provide targeted ads .

Judge Lucy H. Koh has denied Google's motion in the 43-page order and dismissed the company's argument that Gmail users consented to the interception and that non-Gmail users who communicated with Gmail users also knew that their messages could be read.

Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law said that the ruling has the potential to really reshape the entire e-mail industry.
Source : zeenewsindia

Read More

Google unveils major upgrade to search algorithm

Google search expert Amit Singhal outlines his vision

Google has unveiled an upgrade to the way it interprets users' search requests.

Read More

Chinese man has new nose grown on forehead

 A man from China's Fujian province has had a new nose grown on his forehead following a traffic accident last year.

The 22-year-old man suffered severe nasal trauma and his subsequent treatment caused his nasal cartilage to corrode. Surgeons came up with the idea of growing a nose on his forehead.

After nine months of growth, surgeons say that the the nose is in good shape and the transplant will be performed soon.

Source: BBC news

Read More

Jim Armitage: Cracking the code is the way to business success

Outlook A footnote from a meeting with Wonga's chief executive earlier this week. I know, I know: to many readers, Errol Damelin is the epitomy of all that's wrong with British capitalism. But when it comes to tech, the veteran of three different start-up firms knows his stuff.

And he says British schools are badly letting down our kids when it comes to IT training. All the hours spent teaching them how to use Powerpoint, Word and Excel are "totally useless", he says.

Anyone can teach themselves how to use those kinds of programs in their own time.

What our children really need to learn is how to write computer code. It is smart coders who will create and build the next generation of businesses.

Coding really needs proper teaching, and British schools are way behind other countries.

It is, says Mr Damelin "a major deficit in skills for the UK".

What's more, he adds, if taught in the right way, kids really love doing it. Who wouldn't want to be able to say: "There's an app for that. I wrote it!"

Read More

Scientists Use DNA to Assemble a Transistor from Graphene

Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms arrayed in a honeycomb pattern, just a single atom thick. It could be a better semiconductor than silicon -- if we could fashion it into ribbons 20 to 50 atoms wide. Could DNA help?

DNA is the genetic meterial which is also known as blueprint for life. Could it also become the template for making a new generation of computer chips based not on silicon, but on an experimental material known as graphene?
That's the theory behind a process that Stanford chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao reveals in Nature Communications.
Bao and her co-authors, former post-doctoral fellows Anatoliy Sokolov and Fung Ling Yap, hope to solve a problem clouding the future of electronics: consumers expect silicon chips to continue getting smaller, faster and cheaper, but engineers fear that this virtuous cycle could grind to a halt.

Why has to do with how silicon chips work.
Everything starts with the notion of the semiconductor, a type of material that can be induced to either conduct or stop the flow of electricity. Silicon has long been the most popular semiconductor material used to make chips.

The basic working unit on a chip is the transistor. Transistors are tiny gates that switch electricity on or off, creating the zeroes and ones that run software.

To build more powerful chips, designers have done two things at the same time: they've shrunk transistors in size and also swung those gates open and shut faster and faster.

The net result of these actions has been to concentrate more electricity in a diminishing space. So far that has produced small, faster, cheaper chips. But at a certain point, heat and other forms of interference could disrupt the inner workings of silicon chips.

"We need a material that will let us build smaller transistors that operate faster using less power," Bao said.

Graphene has the physical and electrical properties to become a next-generation semiconductor material -- if researchers can figure out how to mass-produce it.

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Visually it resembles chicken wire. Electrically this lattice of carbon atoms is an extremely efficient conductor.

Bao and other researchers believe that ribbons of graphene, laid side-by-side, could create semiconductor circuits. Given the material's tiny dimensions and favorable electrical properties, graphene nano ribbons could create very fast chips that run on very low power, she said.

"However, as one might imagine, making something that is only one atom thick and 20 to 50 atoms wide is a significant challenge," said co-author Sokolov.

To handle this challenge, the Stanford team came up with the idea of using DNA as an assembly mechanism.

Physically, DNA strands are long and thin, and exist in roughly the same dimensions as the graphene ribbons that researchers wanted to assemble.

Chemically, DNA molecules contain carbon atoms, the material that forms graphene.

The real trick is how Bao and her team put DNA's physical and chemical properties to work.

The researchers started with a tiny platter of silicon to provide a support (substrate) for their experimental transistor. They dipped the silicon platter into a solution of DNA derived from bacteria and used a known technique to comb the DNA strands into relatively straight lines.

Next, the DNA on the platter was exposed to a copper salt solution. The chemical properties of the solution allowed the copper ions to be absorbed into the DNA.

Next the platter was heated and bathed in methane gas, which contains carbon atoms. Once again chemical forces came into play to aid in the assembly process. The heat sparked a chemical reaction that freed some of the carbon atoms in the DNA and methane. These free carbon atoms quickly joined together to form stable honeycombs of graphene.

"The loose carbon atoms stayed close to where they broke free from the DNA strands, and so they formed ribbons that followed the structure of the DNA," Yap said.

So part one of the invention involved using DNA to assemble ribbons of carbon. But the researchers also wanted to show that these carbon ribbons could perform electronic tasks. So they made transistors on the ribbons.

"We demonstrated for the first time that you can use DNA to grow narrow ribbons and then make working transistors," Sokolov said.

The paper drew praise from UC Berkeley associate professor Ali Javey, an expert in the use of advanced materials and next-generation electronics.

"This technique is very unique and takes advantage of the use of DNA as an effective template for controlled growth of electronic materials," Javey said. "In this regard the project addresses an important research need for the field."

Bao said the assembly process needs a lot of refinement. For instance, not all of the carbon atoms formed honeycombed ribbons a single atom thick. In some places they bunched up in irregular patterns, leading the researchers to label the material graphitic instead of graphene.

Even so, the process, about two years in the making, points toward a strategy for turning this carbon-based material from a curiosity into a serious contender to succeed silicon.

"Our DNA-based fabrication method is highly scalable, offers high resolution and low manufacturing cost," said co-author Yap. "All these advantages make the method very attractive for industrial adoption."

The experiment was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the Stanford Global Climate and Energy Program.

Read More

Tribhuvan University published the results of B.Sc Third year-2069

Tribhuvan University office of the controller of examination Balkhu today (september-6-2012 )

 published the results of Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) Third year-2069. The examination of B.Sc third year was held six months ago in Magha-Falgun 2069.

Result statistics for B.Sc third year-2069

• Total number of students appeared for B.Sc third year exam: 4,966
• Total number of students who passed B.Sc third year result: 2,867
• Pass percentage in B.Sc third year exam result: 57.73%
• Total number of students expelled during B.Sc third year exam: Nine (9)

Students can view the results of B.Sc third year result here

Read More

Subisu CAN SofTech 2013

Around 59,000 people have visited the different stalls at Subisu CAN SofTech 2013 on the first two days of the event. According to Computer Association of Nepal (CAN), the number of spectators was recorded at 34,211 on Wednesday -- the first day of the event, while 24,722 people visited the event on Thursday.

The sixth edition of four-day long event being held at Bhrikuti Mandap Exhibition Hall with 120 stalls of different software solution companies and internet service providers is underway in the capital with an expectation of around 100,000 visitors according to the organizers.

CAN said the number of visitors can even extend the level of expectation as the event this year has more than double the stalls than previous times with more number of company´s participating. Previously until the fifth edition of the event, the stalls were limited to 40 at the DECC Hall in Tripureswor.
According to officials at CAN, the event solely aims to promote the ICT industry of the country and plays a crucial role to decrease the gap of digital divide between those who have access to information technology and those who don´t have.

“ICT industry can play a significant role in the competitiveness invited by open-market concept,” said Binod Dhakal, president of CAN. However, Dhakal emphasized the need to systematize the growing use of technology in the country bringing in use suitable policy for ICT industry by government.
Meanwhile, Uma Kant Jha, the minister of Science, Technology and Environment, talking at the inaugural ceremony on Wednesday, assured of suitable policy for the ICT industry in Nepal in near future.

Software solutions, internet service providers and telecom operators, among others, are showcasing various software related to education, cyber security, banking, information management, account management, anti-virus, security solutions, wireless solutions, printing solutions and power solutions amid the event.
The four-day long event concludes on Saturday.

Source : myrepublica

Read More

Yahoo's new logo

After a month-long typography fashion show Yahoo crowned a new corporate logo Wednesday night.

While still purple and in all caps, the company's new logo dumps the serif-like font for a sans-serif presentation with distinctive interior elevations. It also adds a twist to its familiar exclamation point, allowing it to dance around half the logo during page refreshes before settling at the end of the company's name. An alternate version includes a reverse white-on-purple presentation.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer described the process of designing a new logo in a Tumblr post this evening that said the new logo reflects the personality of the company she took over last summer: "whimsical, yet sophisticated."

There are no straight lines in the new logo because "straight lines don't exist in the human form and are extremely rare in nature, so the human touch in the logo is that all the lines and forms all have at least a slight curve," she wrote.

The design team wanted a mathematical consistency to the new logo and leaned toward letters with thicker and thinner strokes. Lowercase and sentence case presentations were also considered, Mayer wrote.

"But, in the end, we felt the logo was most readable when it was all uppercase, especially on small screens," she wrote.

Yahoo announced in early August that it would parade a series of new logos each day for one month, after which the logo that best exemplified the company's "renewed sense of purpose and progress" would be unveiled. However, while the updated logo is intended to reflect a new corporate personality, Yahoo made clear it would retain the familiar exclamation point, purple complexion, and trademark yodel that have represented the company for the past 18 years.

While changing a logo is unusual, due largely to the cost and effort that go into building logo recognition, it's not unheard of. To maintain consumer recognition, new logos tend to retain at least some element of their predecessor.

Google unveiled a new logo in May for its recently acquired Motorola Mobility, replacing the decades-old red button "M" for a rainbow of colors and a "Google company" tagline. A little more than a year ago, Microsoft introduced a redesigned logo that retained the long-standing four-color Windows image but did away with the wavy look for a squared-off image.

Not all logo redesigns resonate well with consumers. A new AOL logo in 2009, designed to reflect its divorce from Time Warner, was met with derision. The design, which dumped the familiar all-caps logo, was called "lame" by GigaOm's Om Malik. "It is ambiguous at best, and as sexy as the obese, shapeless humans living on Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet in Pixar movie 'WALL-E.'"

News soucers : http://news.cnet.com

Read More

Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch

• 1.63-inch LED touchscreen
• 1.9-megapixels Camera
• Spiker
• Microphone
• 4 G.B internal memory
• Inbult battery
• 315mAh ie 3 day of battery life 
• 10 times more option
• 70 + apps at lunch
• MRP $299
  
  

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled a smartwatch on Wednesday that works as an accessory to its market-leading Galaxy smartphones, with a small screen offering basic functions like photos, hands-free calls and instant messaging. The world's top handset maker hopes the Galaxy Gear will boost the appeal of its range of Android-powered smartphones, as it battles to maintain its supremacy in the rapidly saturating high-end mobile market against arch rival Apple Inc.

The smartwatch features a 1.63-inch (4.14-cm) screen as well as a basic camera, and will connect to Samsung's latest Galaxy Note 3 smartphone via wireless Bluetooth technology. It will make calls, display messages, record videos and snap photos, all while the user's phone stays in their pocket or handbag. The success of Samsung's latest smartwatch - clunky earlier versions in 1999 and 2009 didn't go down well with consumers - will be measured as much in how it affects sales of high-end Galaxy smartphones as in sales of the device itself.

But it is also a shot across the bows of Apple and Google Inc, which are widely believed to be working on their own wrist-worn devices in what analysts expect to be the next phase of the mobile communications boom.
"We had smartwatch-type products before, but they were mainly for making phone calls. What's different with the Gear is it's got far more useful functions. It's usability has increased significantly and design is not bulky," said J.K. Shin, Samsung's co-chief executive and head of mobile business.

Hardware design
There's no question that the Galaxy Gear is a good-looking gadget. The 1.63-inch colour touchscreen is framed by a matte silver bezel, and the band is available in six attractive hues ranging from the subtle "jet black" and "rose gold" options to the more eye-catching "wild orange" and "lime green" varieties.

The band, which consists of a textured rubber material, feels sturdy enough to suffer the rigours of everyday activity, but the soft touch finish adds a premium feel that matches the rest of the Galaxy Gear's upmarket aesthetic.
Importantly, the relatively large display isn't as in-your-face as you might expect, and the watch itself doesn't feel too awkward or heavy when worn. There are two microphones on either side of the watch face that work in tandem for noise cancellation during phone calls, and the speaker is built into the band's buckle.
The 1.9-megapixel camera is located on the top end of the watch band, but its positioning isn't ideal. To take photos or videos of what's directly in front of you, you'll need to tilt the Galaxy Gear so that the screen is completely horizontal – unfortunate, as the screen's limited viewing angles make it difficult to see in this orientation.
The relatively small 315mAh battery means you'll need to charge the Galaxy Gear as often as you charge your smartphone, with a run-time of roughly 25 hours. The bundled charger consists of a leather-look dock that wraps around the watch face and plugs into a wall socket.
The Galaxy Gear 3 will be released alongside the Galaxy Note 3 in more than 140 countries around the world from September 25. Its Australian release is expected to be close to, if not contemporaneous with, the worldwide launch. Pricing is yet to be announced.
Telstra is the only Australian carrier that has confirmed it will be selling the Galaxy Gear smart watch along with the Galaxy Note 3. Vodafone, Optus and Virgin Mobile have all confirmed they will be selling the Galaxy Note 3.

Read More