Picture of the Day

A combo of pictures created on June 18, 2010 shows Japan's electronics giant Hitachi's humanoid robot 'Emiew2', 80 cm tall and weighing 14 kg, standing up from a kneeling position at the company's laboratory in Tokyo on June 18, 2010.

The robot is also equipped with 14 microphones on its helmet which can pick out human voices from background noise. AFP

Controller-Free Xbox Gets a Name: “Kinect”

Tech USA Today has revealed that the Xbox 360’s new motion gaming peripheral will be called “Microsoft Kinect,” replacing “Project Natal,” the old development name. There are also some new details about the games that will be available for the device.
As we reported earlier today, one of the games will be a white water rafting simulation. It turns out that game (River Rush) will actually be part of a suite of games called Kinect Adventures. Another suite titled Kinect Sports will… Continue Reading

10-10 Series (Karl Landsteiner)

1. When did Karl Landsteiner win Nobel Prize for Medicine?
a) 1930

2. When was Karl Landsteiner born?
b) 14 June 1868

3. Where was Karl Landsteiner born?
d) Vienna

4. Which university did Karl Landsteiner attend?
c) Vienna

5. When did Karl Landsteiner publish his discovery of human ABO blood group system?
a) 1901

6. For what did Karl Landsteiner win Nobel Prize for Medicine?
b) Discovery of human blood groups

7. Who co-discovered Rhesus System with Karl Landsteiner?
c) Alexander Wiener

8. When did Karl Landsteiner publish The Specificity of Serological Reactions?
d) 1936

9. When did Karl Landsteiner die?
b) 26 June 1943

10. Where did Karl Landsteiner die?
d) New York

Siddha system of medicine

 

Siddha system of medicine is practiced in some parts of South India especially in the state of Tamilnadu. It has close affinity to Ayurveda yet it maintains a distinctive identity of its own. This system has come to be closely identified with Tamil civilization.  

 

The term ‘Siddha’ has come from ‘Siddhi’- which means achievement.  

 

Siddhars were the men who achieved supreme knowledge in the filed of medicine, yoga or tapa (meditation) (Narayanaswamy, 1975).

 

It is a well-known fact that before the advent of the Aryans in India a well-developed civilization flourished in South India especially on the banks of rivers Cauvery, Vaigai, Tamiraparani etc. The system of medicine in vogue in this civilization seems to be the precursor of the present day Siddha system of medicine. During the passage of time it interacted with the other streams of medicines complementing and enriching them and in turn getting enriched. 

 

The materia medica of Siddha system of medicine depends to large extent on drugs of metal and mineral origin in contrast to Ayurveda of earlier period, which was mainly dependent upon drugs of vegetable origin.

 

According to the tradition eighteen Siddhars were supposed to have contributed to the development of Siddha medicine, yoga and philosophy. However, literature generated by them is not available in entirety. In accordance with the well-known self-effacing nature of ancient Indian Acharyas (preceptors) authorship of many literary work of great merit remains to be determined. There was also a tradition of ascribing the authorship of one's work to his teacher, patron even to a great scholar of the time. This has made it extremely difficult to clearly identify the real author of many classics.

 

 

WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WiMAX is a wireless digital communications system, also known as IEEE 802.16, that is intended for wireless "metropolitan area networks". 

WiMAX can provide broadband wireless access (BWA) up to 30 miles (50 km) for fixed stations, and 3 - 10 miles (5 - 15 km) for mobile stations. In contrast, the WiFi/802.11 wireless local area network standard is limited in most cases to only 100 - 300 feet (30 - 100m).

With WiMAX, WiFi-like data rates are easily supported, but the issue of interference is lessened. WiMAX operates on both licensed and non-licensed frequencies, providing a regulated environment and viable economic model for wireless carriers.

WiMAX can be used for wireless networking in much the same way as the more common WiFi protocol. 


WiMAX is a second-generation protocol that allows for more efficient bandwidth use, interference avoidance, and is intended to allow higher data rates over longer distances.

Nanotechnology

Image via Wikipedia

Nano is actually a SI prefix denoting 0.000 000 001, and for instance one nano-meter means one billionth of a meter. Obviously nano is referring to the fields dealing with such small scales (roughly 1–100 nm). It should be emphasized that ‘nano’ as a field of study, deals with size; and nano scale of e.g. time, concentration, etc are not normally considered as the nano discipline (the reason is given below).

Nanotechnology describes the creation and utilisation of functional materials, devices and systems with novel functions and properties that are based either on geometrical size or on material-specific peculiarities of nano-structures. Purely geometrically the prefix “nano” (greek: dwarf) describes a scale 1000 times smaller than that of present elements of the micrometer-sphere (1nm corresponds to the millionth part of a mm). This scale has become accessible both by application of new physical instruments and procedures and by further diminution of present microsystems. Also structures of animated and non-animated nature were used as models for self-organising matter. Only if the mastery of this atomic and molecular dimension succeeds, the prerequisites for the optimisation of product properties within socioeconomic areas such as energy engineering, environmental technology as well as in information technology, health and ageing can be developed.

Mad Cow Disease

What Is Mad Cow Disease?

Mad cow disease is an incurable, fatal brain disease that affects cattle and possibly some other animals, such as goats and sheep. The medical name for mad cow disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (pronounced: bo-vine spun-jih-form en-seh-fah-la-puh-thee), or BSE for short.

It's called mad cow disease because it affects a cow's nervous system, causing a cow to act strangely and lose control of its ability to do normal things, such as walk.

How Do People Get It?

Only certain animals can get BSE — people don't actually get mad cow disease. However, experts have found a link between BSE and a rare brain condition that affects people, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Researchers believe that people who eat beef from cows that have BSE are at risk of developing a form of vCJD.