Current News:Google doodle celebrates Mangalyaan's one month in Mars orbit

In a tribute to India's space-technology prowess, Google is celebrating with a doodle today the completion of one month by Mangalyaan in an orbit around Mars. India's Mars Orbiter Mission, or Mangalyaan (Sanskrit for Mars craft), started orbiting Mars on September 24.

   Given that Google normally comes up with doodles to mark anniversaries, that is, annual events, this gesture of the search giant is rare. The doodle will be visible only in India.

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tech news:Samsung develops WiFi 5 times faster than existing systems

Download a film in just three SECONDS: Samsung develops WiFi FIVE times faster than existing systems

• This will allow HD video to be streamed from mobile to TV in real-time
• Early attempts to use 60GHz band failed as they used millimetre waves
• These waves travel by line-of-sight and have trouble penetrating walls
• Samsung overcame this using 'wide-coverage beam-forming antennae'
• The south Korean group said its technology will be available next year

read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2790843/download-film-just-three-seconds-samsung-develops-wifi-five-times-faster-existing-systems.html

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Current News: The Nobel Prize in Physics - 2014

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2014 to

Isamu Akasaki
Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan and Nagoya University, Japan

Hiroshi Amano
Nagoya University, Japan

and

Shuji Nakamura
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

"for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources"

This year's Nobel Laureates are rewarded for having invented a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source – the blue light-emitting diode (LED). In the spirit of Alfred Nobel the Prize rewards an invention of greatest benefit to mankind; using blue LEDs, white light can be created in a new way. With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources.

When Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s, they triggered a funda-mental transformation of lighting technology. Red and green diodes had been around for a long time but without blue light, white lamps could not be created. Despite considerable efforts, both in the scientific community and in industry, the blue LED had remained a challenge for three decades.

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Current News:Facebook Closes WhatsApp Acquisition, Jan Koum To Match Zuckerberg’s $1 Annual Salary

Facebook Closes WhatsApp Acquisition, Jan Koum To Match Zuckerberg's $1 Annual Salary

Facebook is now the legal owner of WhatsApp, following a filing made with the SEC today. This is the final step in a process begun when Facebook announced its intent to acquire the messaging company in February of this year. The Facebook deal passed its final regulatory hurdle when it received EU approval to go ahead with the acquisition of WhatsApp last week.

In the filing, the company details the awarding of 177,760,669 shares of Facebook's Class A common stock and $4.59 billion to WhatsApp stakeholders, plus 45,941,775 in restricted stock to WhatsApp employees to complete the deal. Koum will join Facebook's board, and will also match Zuckerberg's annual base salary of $1, without eligibility for the company's bonus plan, though he does get a signing bonus of 24,853,468 restricted stock units as incentive for joining.

read more:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/06/facebook-closes-whatsapp-acquisition/

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A solar cell that stores its own power: World's first 'solar battery' runs on light and air

Researchers at the Ohio State University have invented a solar battery

 Is it a solar cell? Or a rechargeable battery? Actually, the patent-pending device invented at The Ohio State University is both: the world's first solar battery.

In the October 3, 2014 issue of the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report that they've succeeded in combining a battery and a solar cell into one hybrid device.

Key to the innovation is a mesh solar panel, which allows air to enter the battery, and a special process for transferring electrons between the solar panel and the battery electrode. Inside the device, light and oxygen enable different parts of the chemical reactions that charge the battery.

The university will license the solar battery to industry, where Yiying Wu, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State, says it will help tame the costs of renewable energy.

"The state of the art is to use a solar panel to capture the light, and then use a cheap battery to store the energy," Wu said. "We've integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost."

He and his students believe that their device brings down costs by 25 percent.

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