A partially exploding star, known as a nova, has recovered more quickly than expected, say scientists who have analysed new data from the ESA`s XMM-Newton X-ray satellite.

Nova explosions are not completely destructive phenomena. In fact, after an explosion occurs, the star recovers and starts shining again. Until now, astronomers have not known how long this process takes. In this case, however, the exploding star recovered in less than three years. This is surprising, given the fact that t

An international team of astronomers today report the discovery of a huge distorted disk of cold dust surrounding Fomalhaut – one of the brightest stars in the sky. The most likely cause of the distortion is the gravitational influence of a Saturn-like planet at a large distance from the star tugging on the disk. This provides some of the strongest evidence so far that Solar Systems similar in size, or even bigger than our own, are likely to exist.

One hundred planets are already known to e

Three ESA missions are due to send down robotic `spaceprobes` when they arrive at their alien destinations. Since these craft will be going where no one has gone before, how can scientists be sure what it will be like down there? How do you ensure that your spaceprobe is prepared for anything?

Experts take every precaution to ensure that these probes will not burn up entering an alien atmosphere, or meet a spectacular, untimely end via a crash landing on inhospitable terrain. These probes ex

The International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) at Northwestern University and Path1 Network Technologies, Inc. have demonstrated an innovative capability for global, high-quality, high-performance digital video at the recent international iGrid2002 Conference in Amsterdam.

The biennial iGrid (International Grid) event is dedicated to showcasing leading-edge applications enabled by globally high-performance networks. This experiment demonstrated high-performance, end-to-end

A test conducted by two Chicago computer scientists to push trans-Atlantic high-speed data transmission has resulted in a new top speed of 2.8 gigabits (billion bits) per second.

Researchers Joel Mambretti, director of the International Center for Advanced Internet Research at Northwestern University, and Robert Grossman, director of the Laboratory for Advanced Computing and National Center for Data Mining at the University of Illinois at Chicago, set the speed mark Sept. 24 during a present

Brooktrout Technology, Inc., a leading provider of innovative hardware and software platforms that enable applications for the New Network(TM), today announced that e-horizon Streaming Technologies, a leading provider of Next Generation Streaming Media solutions for Packet Switched data and telecommunication networks, has selected Brooktrout’s TR2020(TM) platform for their VoiPZon Gateway

e-horizon’s VoiPZon system enables network operators and service providers to offer val

University of Delaware researchers have developed a revolutionary computer interface technology that promises to put the bite on the traditional mouse and mechanical keyboard.

“This is not just a little step in improving the mouse, this is the first step in a new way of communicating with the computer through gestures and the movements of your hands. This is, after all, one of the ways humans interact.” John Elias, UD professor of electrical and computer engineering, said.

Elias an

Academy of Finland showed the way at Science Exhibition
The art of walking through walls made real

Walking through walls has just become possible. Senior researcher Ismo Rakkolainen and Professor Karri Palovuori from Tampere University of Technology have pioneered a fog display that is physically penetrable. A prototype of the screen was introduced to the public for the first time at the Academy of Finland stand at the Turku Science Exhibition on 4-6 October 2002. International

A team of UK astronomers, led by postgraduate student Ed Hawkins, has made a decisive step toward resolving an argument that has rumbled on in the astronomical community for decades. The scientists from the University of Nottingham have been investigating the properties of quasars and nearby galaxies. As part of this study, they have overturned previous analyses which suggested that these two classes of object are physically associated, thus confirming the alternative, more widely-held view that quas

The scientists at A.F. Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, decided to restore the production of semi-conductor devices for pulse radiotechniques which was interrupted at the beginning of the 1990s. These devices have recently found wide application in different areas of technology: in ultra broadband apparatuses of communication, geopositioning and following, radars where a signal of high power should be generated for short time intervals. The idea of creating the devices

New views of star birth and the heart of a spiral galaxy have been seen by a state-of-the-art astronomical instrument on its first night. The new UKIRT Imaging Spectrometer (UIST) has a revolutionary ability to ’slice’ any object in the sky into sections, producing a three dimensional view of the conditions throughout entire galaxies in a single observation. UIST has just been installed on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii.

Project scientist Suzanne Ramsay How

Integral is the International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory of the European Space Agency. It is a cooperative mission with Russia and is scheduled for launch on 17 October 2002 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on a Russian Proton rocket, the Russian contribution to the programme.

It is the world`s most advanced gamma-ray telescope and will provide first-hand observations of the celestial objects that release some of the most energetic radiation of the Universe. In particular, sc

Researchers from Oxford University’s Computing Laboratory have developed techniques to spot malicious attacks on computer networks, that include the use of Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) techniques to automatically determine the semantics of novel attack strategies.

Intrusions often take place where there are vulnerabilities within computer systems. For example, one of the most common of these is the buffer overflow, where an attacker sends overly long transactions to a server. The aim i

Pairing a real dancer with an animated dance partner is nothing new – it’s a technique used in any number of movies or television shows. But collaborating artists and engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are putting a new spin on the idea.

Working with engineers in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois, visiting Beckman scholar Yu Hasegawa-Johnson is the visionary behind a real-time, high-tech pas de deux by dancers located thousands of

Penn State engineers have developed an economical way to more efficiently manage radio spectrum use and prevent interference on wireless broadband systems for high-speed Internet access – potentially bringing down costs for consumers. Dr. Mohsen Kavehrad, director of Penn State’s Center for Information and Communications Technology Research (CICTR), says, “With this technique, service providers could offer quality service to more homes using only a limited span of the radio spectrum. And, if pro

Following the research line of other initiatives at European and international level, the basque company VICOMTech and Fraunhofer IGD are working together in the development of a VITAL compliant platform for representation, storage and communication of vital signs. The platform will be flexible enough to be used in multiple platforms (PDA, PC, etc.), following the manager-agent architecture of the standard, with an open representation schema and extension possibilities. As a proof of the validity of