Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

December 10, 2009

Asia Indoor Games held in 2009

Filed under: Sports — Winson @ 12:45 AM

The third Asia Indoor games held in Hanoi, Vietnam on 30 October –8 November 2009. The Asia Indoor Game is a Multi sport Event. This Event held every two years among athletes representing Asian countries. Olympic Council of Asia regulates this Asian Indoor Game. The first set of such games held in 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand. The games will consist of six to eight exiting sports including electronic sports, extreme sports, aerobics, acrobatics, dance sports, inline hockey, swimming and indoor athletics along with a 25 meter, short course in swimming. In 2013, these games will combine with Asian Martial Arts Games, merging in to one event held every four years.

The Sports committees around the world cutting down expenses due to the current global economic crisis. The upcoming Asian Martial Arts Games will also following decision by the Olympic Council of Asia. Around 45 national Olympic committees agreed the decision.

(more…)

December 4, 2009

13,722 Affected by Swine Flu

Filed under: Society & Politics — Winson @ 12:45 AM

A total of 13,722 people worldwide infected by swine flu. The European Union, as well some experts in America said that a pandemic might be inevitable, but they doubt the number deaths will be high. In Mexico, 168 deaths confirmed. In US, 169 are confirmed cases. In Canada 34 confirmed cases. In UK, there are eight confirmed cases. In Spain, there are 13 confirmed cases. In Germany, there are four confirmed cases.

The Swine Flu virus in India, taking the death toll to 463. Of the latest deaths reported from the Southern state of Karnataka alone, while only one death confirmed from state Maharashtra. Infection tally rises to 13,722. In the recent past their has been a spike in the number of cases being reported from Kerela. Of the latest 75 cases reported from Kerela alone. “Till Date samples from 72,483, people have been tested for Influenza virus ‘A’ (H1N1) in Government laboratories. Moreover, 13,722 of them have been found positive.

(more…)

December 1, 2009

Terrorists bomb on Russian Train

Filed under: Society & Politics — Winson @ 12:44 AM

The Novsky Express from Moscow to St.Petersberg was carrying 661 passengers. A terrorist bomb planted on Russia derails the train on November 28, 2009. In this attack, 30 killed and at least 100 were injured, some were in critical conditions. Russian authorities claim that the train targeted in an act of terrorism using homemade explosive it is equivalent to 15 pounds of TNT. The injured were transported to hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg by bus, train, and even helicopters. Investigators said that they had opened a large-scale terrorism investigation as detectives with sniffer dogs, looking for clues.

Suspicion will inevitably fall on Islamist radicals from Chechnya Russia’s North volatile region. The attack is most serious act of terror since the Beslan school siege in 2004 in which more than 330 people died. The same train service attacked in 2007 when a similar bomb injured around 30 people. The issue is a highly emotive in Russia.

October 29, 2009

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

Filed under: 2009,Nobel Prize — Tags: — Winson @ 2:47 AM

The 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to researchers Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for studying the way chromosomes are protected and for discovering the ‘immortality enzyme’ telomerase. The research could have ample implications on diseases such as cancer and other age related conditions. In keeping with the Nobel tradition, the Nobel Prize for medicine has been awarded first. The Nobel laureates shared a $1.4 million purse and a diploma, along with an invitation to the prize ceremonies to be held at Stockholm. For the first time in history, two women shared the Nobel Prize in medicine.

The scientists have been honored for their study of the way chromosomes are protected by the cap like telomeres and their discovery of the enzyme telomerase that allows cells to divide incessantly without dying. Telomeres are cap like structures at the tail end of the chromosomes that are bestowed with a unique DNA sequence that prevents their deterioration. The telomeres also act as deterrents to chromosomal rearrangement which may itself result in abnormalities. Telomeres are lost with each cell division exposing the chromosomes to unfavorable possibilities like cancer and aging. Blackburn and Szostak strived to explain that the unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from deterioration while Carol Greider and Blackburn identified the enzyme telomerase that replenishes or helps to rebuild the lost sequences of the telomeres. Cells age when the cap like telomeres are shortened. However, on the other hand, if the activity of the telomerase enzyme is sufficient enough telomere deterioration can be controlled and aging thwarted. Blackburn’s discovery proved the fact that stress has a definite impact on telomere reduction thus strengthening the mind body connection. Though increased telomere activity could ward off aging for a while it also increases a person’s risk to ward off cancer. This means that the steady shortening of the telomeres and the accompanying decreased telomerase activity is believed to be a process that is inbuilt in man as a survival mechanism.

August 29, 2009

Nobel Prize in Physics 2009

Filed under: Nobel Prize — Tags: — Winson @ 2:50 AM

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 with one half of the $1.4 million to Charles K. Kao, Standard Telecommunications Laboratories, Harlow, UK and Chinese University of Hong Kong, “for their groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”. The other half of the prize jointly to Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor.”

It was in 1966, when Charles K. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics, which involved the careful calculation of how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. Kao presented his research at the 1966 London meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Then the first ultra pure fiber was successfully fabricated four years later by the Corning Company.

In 1969, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (charge-coupled device). The two came up with the idea in just an hour of brainstorming. According to Boyle, the biggest achievement of his work was seeing images transmitted back from Mars. The CCD technology makes use of the photoelectric effect as was theorized by Albert Einstein. By this effect, light is transformed into electric signals and the challenge lies in gathering and reading out the signals in a large number of image points in a short time. The CCD is the digital camera’s electronic eye which revolutionized the way images were collected from spacecraft, by telescopes and in medical imaging, and has eventually replaced the film camera in every field of photography.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress