SCIENCE

Microsoft and Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC) have finalized an agreement to infuse digital capabilities into the Japanese auto maker's cars hosted in the Internet "cloud."

Hardly had the operator of Japan’s damaged nuclear plant announced that they have stopped a leak of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean early Wednesday morning from reactor 2, they are now preparing to inject nitrogen to the containment vessel of reactor 1 to prevent a possible hydrogen explosion.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have confirmed that graphene – sheets of carbon that are one atom thick which can be made into computer chips, have inherent self-cooling capabilities. Scientists have known for a while that graphene can be used just like silicon to manufacture semiconductors however, the thermodynamic advantage of using it has not been completely understood until now.

A nanomedicine breakthrough using polymers to detect and destroy antibiotic resistant bacteria has been jointly announced by IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore. With this discovery, medicine now has a potent weapon against bacteria such as MRSA or methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus.

The Japanese government on Wednesday raised "maximum alert" after radioactive water has been found and plutonium was detected in the soil around areas near a crippled nuclear power plant.

A nuclear expert on Wednesday said that the world, especially Japan needs nuclear power despite the ongoing crisis. Professor George Dracoulis said that Japan relies on nuclear power for about 30% of its electricity.

Australia's Houses of Parliament on Wednesday approved two bills setting out the regulatory framework for the National Broadband Network. The move was quickly welcomed by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.

Australia's Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET) was formally launched in Melbourne on Tuesday as part one of the world's largest research effort into green telecommunications.

Ratings agency, Fitch Ratings says it does does not expect eBay Inc.'s (eBay) proposed acquisition of GSI Commerce, Inc. (GSI) to have an impact on eBay's ratings.

An internet security expert has warned that an alarming 20% of passwords used by the different government agencies in Australia, including those used by four federal government agencies, can be easily hacked using "brute force" hacking tools.

NASA plans to reach an asteroid orbit nearest to Earth by 2025 and one possible location in Australia is strongly considered by scientists as one of the landing sites for the mission, according to a news report.

In the last few years, videoconferencing has been adopted increasingly due to globalization, productivity benefits, mobility and the need to save travel costs. During 2010, the videoconferencing market in Latin America generated revenues of US$78.0 million. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2010 to 2017 of 20.9%, this number is likely to achieve US$294 million.

The City University of New York (CUNY) and IBM have partnered to develop a new analytics technology that will help K-12 public schools in New York City reduce their energy consumption. The project has been underway for the past 10 months and involves collecting data about weather, energy and building characteristics and performing extensive data analysis, modeling and optimization about the portfolio of schools.

Deakin University and Chinese steel giant, Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corporation (WISCO), have entered into a partnership to set up a research center to map the future of the global car manufacturing industry.

Considered by astronomers as the fifth brightest object in the sky, the world is poised to get a closer glimpse of the planet nearest to sun as the Messenger spacecraft launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) six years ago is set to orbit near Mercury beginning on Thursday and explore it from a distance.

Scientists are expecting a larger than usual full moon on March 19, also termed by many as Super Moon, and talks are ripe that the astronomical phenomenon may have influenced the massive quake and giant tsunami that swept through Japan’s eastern coastlines on Friday last week.

Earth shifted its axis by almost four inches when the great magnitude 8.9 earthquake rocked the northeast coast off Japan on Friday and spawned inundating tsunami that killed hundreds and destroyed millions worth of properties.

The Mars Astrobiology Explorer Cacher (MAX-C), a mission to Mars that could help determine whether the planet ever supported life and could also help answer questions about its geologic and climatic history, should be NASA's highest priority large mission, a science report said Monday.

A formal agreement was signed today for greater understanding and sharing of ideas between scientists in Australia and Mongolia. The deal to foster scientific exchange was inked in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The face of the Earth would be undistinguishable in the year 2050 as the population boom of no less than 10 billion will leave people battling for scarce resources all over the world, researchers at a US science conference have warned.

Scientists from around the world are expecting the arrival of three coronal mass ejections from the sun on either late Thursday or early Friday, which they said are part of the waves of charged solar particles that were flared directly towards Earth last week.

A team of physicist based on Yale University has announced the creation of a device that would be able to dissipate the energy carried by a laser beam.

An East African jumping spider could pitch in considerable help on Australia’s efforts in decimating the numbers of malaria-causing mosquito Anopheles Gambiae, according to a recent study conducted by a combined team of UK and Kenyan scientists.

Scientists from the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) maintain that there is a ‘miniscule’ possibility of any impact between a gigantic asteroid and the Earth, even at a later date, recently predicted by Russian scientists.

Australian scientists believe that microalgal bloom in the Carama Creek caused the massive fish kill that off the New South Wales South Coast early this month. The scientists made the revelation after initial tests point to microalgal bloom as the likely cause of death for the thousands of fish.

Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were named the 2010 Nobel Prize winners for physics on Tuesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden.

A footage of Neil Armstrong descending the ladder of the Apollo 11 could be put into scrutiny in order to curb worldwide skepticism about the 1969 moon landing.

cornea research reveal a promising new treatment

Norweigan company pushing the limits to solar panel technology. A prototype of the spray has been patented and plans for a thicker coat of solar panel are being discussed by the company to make the product more progressive and helpful to both people and the environment.