Bern University has set up a professorial post in bee health with the aim of better understanding the insect and its dwindling colonies. The post, funded with a SFr5 million ($5.89 million) donation by the Biel-based Vinetum foundation, will be attached to the university’s veterinary faculty. It aims to study the largely […]
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1010425–black-hole-eats-star-causes-mysterious-flash?bn=1 Astronomers think they have solved the mystery of an extraordinary flash spied in a faraway galaxy, saying it came from a massive black hole that devoured a star after it wandered too close. The awesome energy released by the feeding frenzy was first detected by NASA’s Swift satellite on […]
Germany will open a special cyber-defence facility on Thursday amid warnings the country’s infrastructure is at serious risk from internet attacks by hackers and terrorists. The National Cyber Defence Centre in Bonn will be dedicated to thwarting such threats, according to German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich. Read More…
by Julia Slater, in Lucerne, swissinfo.ch Concerns about both climate change and safe energy supply in the post-Fukushima world have given a new impulse to one of Switzerland’s specialities: hydroelectricity. About 900 experts in dams from all over the world converged on Lucerne this week for the annual symposium of […]
Duo faced long struggle before finding a market for stormwater-treatment technology. As university students, Greg Yeoman and Mike Hannah worked hard and played the same way. Weekends and holidays usually involved some sort of beach-centred activity: surfing, fishing or scuba diving. It was that time at the beach that sparked […]
The enormous concrete shells are as tall as a house, and they were designed to listen for enemy aircraft in the 1920s and 30s. Pre-World War II acoustic experiments led to some extraordinary architecture — and to a remarkably effective technology which ultimately succumbed to the invention of radar. In […]
By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Water fixtures that reduce consumption of the precious resource are now being installed in households in west Amman neighbourhoods, where water use is above the average rate. Water-saving devices will be installed in 3,600 west Amman households by next week, under a campaign launched earlier […]
Germany on Monday announced plans to become the first major industrialised power to shut down all its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster in Japan, with a phaseout due to be wrapped up by 2022. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the decision, hammered out by her centre-right coalition overnight, […]
Germany has registered the sunniest and driest spring since records began in 1893, the German Weather Service (DWD) said Monday. But thunderstorms could end a hot start to the week. “Germany enjoyed a summer-like spring in 2011,” said DWD meteorologist Uwe Kirsche in a statement. Read More…
The PBS Web site briefly carried a fake story claiming that famed rapper Tupac Shakur was alive and living in New Zealand after a group of hackers took over the organization’s computer systems on Saturday night. In addition to posting the fake news story, the group, which identified itself on […]
By ARAB NEWS MADINAH: Pakistani Minister for Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan visited Thursday the King Fahd Qur’an Complex in Madinah. Giving the minister and her accompanying delegation a detailed briefing, Hassan Ahmed Al-Ghausi, director of the complex, said the complex is the world’s largest Qur’an printing facility of […]
Germany can expect significantly more violent weather in the coming years due to climate change, according to a new study from the Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Potsdam. According to the report seen by the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, severe storms will hit the country every ten years on […]
By ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: The internationally renowned “1001 Inventions” exhibition, which is touring the world in partnership with ALJ Community Initiatives (ALJCI), was crowned Best Touring Exhibition of the year at the annual Museums and Heritage Excellence Awards in London on May 11. The project won the title in a group […]
AMMAN (JT) – Her Majesty Queen Rania on Thursday attended the graduation of the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts’ (RSICA) second Masters of Fine Arts class. The RSICA board of directors, academic peers and friends and family of the 22 graduates as well as many of the school’s supporters […]
By Yahoo! A planet 20 light years away is the first outside our solar system to be declared ‘habitable’ by scientists. The rocky ‘exoplanet’ Gliese 581d meets key requirements for sustaining Earth-like life, including rainfall and possibly even watery oceans. The planet orbits a red-dwarf star similarly called Gliese 581, […]
Thanks to Jesse Thomas of interactive design agency JESS3, we now have an updated look at the structure of the geosocial universe as it exists in anno domini 2011. It wasn’t so long ago that the International Astronomical Union booted Pluto out of the solar system or that MySpace was overtaking […]
Berlin has announced plans to drive up the number of electric cars in Germany to one million by 2020, touting financial incentives worth two billion euros by 2013. German commentators wonder whether the money is being spent in the right place — or whether it is simply filling the coffers of large […]
A research team called the Human Brain Project hopes to build a complete computer model of what project leader Henry Markram calls a “magical machine.” They are seeking to secure a billion-euro grant from the European Union for the project, which could result in disease cures, new supercomputers and intelligent robots. […]
TEMPE, Ariz. — Like Einstein, he is as famous for his story as for his science. This week: A rare interview with a physics superstar, and up in the trees with a sleeping bird. At the age of 21, the British physicist Stephen Hawking was found to have amyotrophic lateral […]
A nation of car buffs, Germany is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the invention of the automobile this year. Tracy Moran looks at how Stuttgart, the country’s motor city, is revving up for the festivities. Gear heads the world over are preparing to mark an important milestone for the […]