The device, developed by scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab), harnesses harmless viruses to turn mechanical energy into electricity with the movement of your feet.

They tested their approach by creating a ‘live’ generator that produces enough power to operate a small liquid-crystal display. It works by tapping a finger on a stamp-sized electrode which is converted into electric charge by the specially engineered viruses, the journal Nature Nanotechnology reports.

Their ‘living’ generator is the first to produce energy by harnessing the piezoelectric properties of a biological material. Piezoelectricity is the accumulation of a charge in a solid in response to mechanical stress.

The milestone could lead to tiny devices that harvest electrical energy from the vibrations of everyday tasks such as shutting a door or climbing stairs. It also points to a simpler way to make microelectronic devices, according to a Berkeley statement.

That’s because the viruses arrange themselves into an orderly film that enables the generator to work. Self-assembly is a much sought after goal in the finicky world of nano technology.

“More research is needed, but our work is a promising first step toward the development of personal power generators, actuators for use in nano-devices, and other devices based on viral electronics,” says study author Seung-Wuk lee, scientist in Berkeley lab’s Physical Biosciences Division. Zeenews

To address the question of life on Mars in a cost-conscientious way, we called for a mission to Mars with a strong and comprehensive life detection component. At the heart of our proposal, just published in the journal Planetary Space and Science, is a small fleet of penetrators that can punch into the Martian soil and run a range of tests for signs of ancient or existing life. We call this mission BOLD and it is both an acronym for Biological Oxidant and Life Detection and a nod to the proposal’s ambition.

With this mission proposal, we anticipate to address the big questions on Mars in a much more straightforward way. With the money for space exploration drying up, we have to get some exciting results that not only the experts and scientists in the field are interested in but that the public is interested in as well. The BOLD mission would feature six 130-pound probes that could be dropped to various locations. Shaped like inverted cones, they would parachute to the surface and thrust a soil sampler nearly a foot into the ground upon landing. On-board instrumentation would then conduct half a dozen experiments, transmitting data to an orbiter overhead.

The soil analyzer would measure inorganic ions, pH and the concentration of oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide, since microbial organisms could be adapted to the harsh conditions on Mars by using a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide as their internal fluid. Hydrogen peroxide or perchlorates might also account for several of the findings of the Viking Mars landers in the late 1970s.

The probe’s microscopic imager would look for shapes similar to known terrestrial microfossils, while another instrument (Nanopore-ARROW Instrument) would look for single long molecules similar to the long nucleic acids created by life forms on Earth. Other experiments would repeat work done by the Viking landers, but with greater precision that could detect previously overlooked organic material and re-examine the question of the presence of life on Mars (note: the Viking lander’s results from the ’70s were inconclusive). Each probe would have about a 50-50 chance of landing successfully. But with the redundancy of six probes, the chance of at least one succeeding is better than 98 percent, which is a very high likelihood for success given the past track record for Mars landing missions.

The proposal comes at a time when NASA is reevaluating its Mars exploration program. In order to find a way out of the current situation, a workshop has been announced on “Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration” to be held at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in the Houston area, June 12-14, 2012. It is to be hoped that the Mars program within NASA can be reinvigorated. What many of us eventually like to see in their lifetime are humans walking on Mars. However, before this grand goal can be achieved, robotic exploration has to move forward and we have to do this in a way that both prepares for a later anticipated human landing and to answer the bigger questions that are close to our heart: Are we alone and is there life on Mars?

Let there be no mistake. We live in a dangerous universe. If we do not take steps to explore our planetary neighborhood and eventually build outposts on other worlds, we will follow in the footsteps of the dinosaurs. Certainly, there is no replacement for Earth, and Mars will never be a replacement for Earth. But we do need to move forward, and mission proposals, such as BOLD, will be the first step toward a grand vision. We do have the technology, but the question is: do we also have the political will? All we can do is encourage Congress to provide NASA with the necessary funds to achieve its mission, so that NASA can build on its past great accomplishments. Let’s take up a BOLD new chance for Mars exploration! Huffington Post

An examination of data collated by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reveals deposits that, on Earth, are only created by water moving through the rock.

“There are plenty of places on Earth where organisms live in places where water is flowing through fractures in rock,” Discovery News quoted lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University as telling SPACE.com.

“That’s definitely a possibility at this location.”

The water, which has since evaporated, could have offered a home for life billions of years ago.

Opportunity also turned up proof of hot, moving water within the rocks in the past, likely caused by the impact that scooped out the crater, Odyssey.

In August 2011, Opportunity completed a three-year journey to Endeavour, a 14 mile (22 kilometre) crater formed in the early history of the planet. The Rover studied different kinds of rocks.

One of the outcroppings, Homestake, flaunts evidence of once housing watery environments in the cracks within the rocks. A flat ridge only a third of an inch (1 centimetre) tall and 20 inches (50 cm) long, Homestake includes deposits of a sulphate mineral known as gypsum within the rock.

Water, slowly leaking from the ground into the rock, carried sulphate with it. As fractures in the rock opened up, the gypsum was deposited inside.

“Gypsum veins are common in all sorts of settings on Earth,” Squyres said.

“They always form when water flows through the rock and precipitates out gypsum in the fractures.”

Before the water evaporated, life could have thrived within the cracks, Squyres asserted.

“Organisms can live in fractures of rock, as long as there’s water present,” he said.

Squyres went on to warn that there is no evidence of life in Homestake today, but “the watery conditions that would have been necessary – the requirement of water being there – was present.”

The international team also studied rocky outcroppings sent flying when a second impact formed the smaller Odyssey crater. Only 62 by 75 feet (19 by 23 meters), the elliptical crater rests on the rim of Endeavour.

Opportunity analysed an outcropping known as Tisdale, and found that it contained zinc, a chemical element often associated with hydrothermal activity.

“If you go to zinc mines on Earth, they’re generally in places where hydrothermal processes have deposited zinc,” Squyres said.

Such places are most likely near volcanic activity, or other processes in the crust that heat the water around it.

On Mars, the movement of hot water was probably jumpstarted by the blow from the rock that formed Odyssey.

“A crater that size involves a lot of energy,” Squyres said.

When the large body slashed the surface of the Red Planet, it possibly heated water already contained within the crust or at the surface.

However, such water would only been moving for the time being and would be unlikely to create long-term habitats for life.

The impact-driven movement of water is probably unconnected to the gypsum-rich rocks and their habitable environments, Squyres added. Newstrack India

“At all India level only about 0.4 percent of rural households had access to Internet at home as compared to about 6 percent of urban households,” said the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report on expenditure in 2009-10.

Reflecting the digital divided in India, the study said just 3.5 households per 1000 families, had access to Internet services at home in rural areas in the year.

However, in urban areas, Internet connectivity was much better in 2009-10 as 59.5 families out of every 1000 households had the facility at home.

Among the major states, Maharashtra was on top with the 104 out of 1,000 families had Internet in cities, followed by Kerala and Himachal Pradesh at 95 each and Haryana at 81.5.

The penetration of digital services was highest in rural areas in Goa with 50 out of 1,000 households having Internet connection. Kerala came next with 34 families having such a facility at home.

Among the hilly states, Arunachal Pradesh had the best reach of the Internet service in rural areas with 19 out of 1,000 households have such facility at home, followed by Himachal Pradesh at 16.

The study further states that among the major states, Kerala had by far the highest proportion of households with Internet access in the rural areas at 3 per cent followed by Himachal Pradesh at 2 per cent.

In cities, Maharashtra reported the highest percentage of household having access to Internet connection (10 per cent) followed closely by Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. Zeenews

The M14x features optional dual drive configurations, up to 16GB of memory for multi-tasking, a Blu-ray combo optical drive, Microsoft Windows 7 and an NVidia GeForce GT 650M graphics engine with GDDR5 graphics memory among other features.

The M17 x is 3D-capable and comes with high-definition, surround-sound sensory experience.

Both the M14x and M17x comes with NVidia GeForce graphics cards and Creative’s sound blaster audio chipset with THX 7.1 digital surround sound and Klipsch speakers.

The Alienware M14x and M17x laptops deliver in-depth gaming experience.

Further, with each offering the latest NVIDIA GeForce HD graphics cards and the Creative Sound Blaster audio chipset with THX 7.1 digital surround sound and Klipsch-branded speakers. “Our customers want the most immersive gaming experience possible, and we’ve taken the all-powerful M14x and M17x laptops better with the latest technologies,” said Mr Shishir Singh, Director – Product Marketing, Dell India. The Hindu

Samsung appears to have become the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, passing Finland’s Nokia, top since 1998, as Samsung Electronics reported record first-quarter results.

Though the company did not reveal precise numbers, some analysts reckon that it sold more smartphones – 44.5m – in the first three months of the year than Apple’s 35.1m for its iPhone. Overall, they calculated that it shipped 93.5m mobile phones, compared with 82.7m for Nokia.

Samsung’s estimated total gave it a 30.6% share of the smartphone market. Apple’s sales gave it a 24.1% share.

“Samsung and Apple are out-competing most major rivals, and the smartphone market is at risk of becoming a two-horse race,” said Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Net profit nearly doubled from a year earlier to a record 5.05tn won (£2.75bn) for the quarter to 31 March. Operating profit also hit a record high, at 5.85tn won, which was in line with expectations.

Sales rose 22% from a year earlier to 45.3tn won. Shares in the company jumped by 3%. More than 70% of its operating profit came from the mobile business, which saw a surge in sales of its Galaxy smartphones.

But Nokia, which has slipped from top place in both mobile phones and smartphones after being passed by both Apple and Samsung, saw its debt marked down a notch by ratings agency Fitch, to BB+ from BBB-. The agency warned that further downgrades could follow.

Last week Nokia announced one of its worst quarterly results ever, blaming tough competition for a €929m net loss as sales plunged, especially in the smartphone market. It said it expects no improvement in the second quarter.

Analysts could not agree on how many smartphones Samsung shipped because the company only gave relative numbers for revenue and profit compared to the year-ago quarter. Research company IHS Suppli catalogues the Samsung Galaxy Note, with a 5in screen, as a tablet rather than a phone, lowering the total smartphone numbers below Apple’s.

Samsung’s mobile communications division, which makes smartphones and a range of tablets, generated 4.27tn won of operating profit in the quarter after seeing significant sales growth of high-end smartphones in developing markets including China, a key battlefield for mobile phone makers.

However Apple’s iPhone and iPad business remains more lucrative. The Cupertino, California-based company earned $11.6bn (£7.2bn) in the January-March quarter, more than twice as much as Samsung, even though its revenue was about 10% less. By Charles Arthur, The Guardian

The South Korean company Wednesday reported net profit of 243 billion won ($215 million) for the January-March period. It had a loss of 15.8 billion won a year earlier.

Overall sales fell 7 percent from a year earlier to 12.2 trillion won but increased smartphone sales and strong demand for premium TVs in its home market shored up LG’s earnings.

The company’s quarterly operating profit more than tripled from a year earlier to 448 billion won, beating a market consensus of 395 billion won.

LG Electronics, whose handset business lost 286 billion won in 2011, is slowly regaining competitiveness with the introduction of its Optimus series of smartphones and by allocating more resources to lucrative high-end phones.

Its mobile communication business, which includes handsets, lost money for six straight quarters between April 2010 and September 2011, while its hometown rival Samsung Electronics Co. quickly played catch up with Apple Inc.

In the first three months of this year, LG’s handset business posted a 35.2 billion won operating profit, a big improvement from a loss of 101 billion won a year earlier.

Despite tepid TV demand in Europe and other developed countries, LG’s TV-making unit posted an operating profit that nearly doubled from a year earlier. The improvement was largely driven by strong sales of its premium 3-D TVs in South Korea, the company said. The New York Times

At daybreak Tuesday, the oldest of NASA’s retired shuttle fleet will leave its home at Kennedy Space Center for the final time, riding on top a modified jumbo jet.

Its destination: the Smithsonian Institution’s hangar outside Washington, D.C.

The plane and jet will make a farewell flight over Cape Canaveral before heading north. The pair also will swoop over the nation’s capital, including the National Mall, before landing in Virginia.

Space center workers arrived by the busloads Monday at the old shuttle landing strip, where the jet was parked with Discovery bolted on top. Security officers, firefighters, former shuttle workers and even astronauts all posed for pictures in front of Discovery.

The six astronauts who flew Discovery’s final space trip a year ago were on hand to bid Discovery goodbye.

Discovery first launched in 1984 and flew 39 times in space, more than any other shuttle. It is the oldest of NASA’s three surviving space shuttles and the first to head to a museum.

It will go on display at the Smithsonian’s hangar at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, replacing Enterprise, the shuttle prototype that never made it to space but was used in landing tests in the late 1970s. Enterprise is bound for New York City’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

“It’s good to see her one more time, and it’s great that Discovery is going to a good home. Hopefully, millions of people for many, many years to come will go see Discovery,” said Steven Lindsey, the last astronaut to command Discovery. “It’s also sad … it’s sad to see that the program is over.”

NASA ended the shuttle program last summer after 30 years to focus on destinations beyond low-Earth orbit. Lindsey, no longer with NASA, now works in the commercial space industry, helping to develop a successor for launching American astronauts to the International Space Station.

Stephanie Stilson, a NASA manager who is heading up the transition and retirement of the three remaining shuttles, said Discovery looked as though it had just arrived from a ferry trip from the backup landing site in California, as it did so many times in years past.

“To see her like this is quite an amazing sight,” Stilson said. “We’re finally here” almost an exact year since Discovery launched and landed for good, she noted.

Discovery’s list of achievements include delivering the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit, carrying the first Russian cosmonaut to launch on a U.S. spaceship, performing the first rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir with the first female shuttle pilot in the cockpit, returning Mercury astronaut John Glenn to orbit, and bringing shuttle flights back to life after the Challenger and Columbia accidents.

A white tail cone covers the three replica main engines at the back end of Discovery, to keep them safe during the ferry flight and provide for better aerodynamics. (Only the nozzles are there, no massive power assemblies.)

The original air lock is on board that spacewalking astronauts used to step out into the vacuum; Discovery is the only shuttle keeping one because it’s considered the spacecraft of historic record. The robot arm is already in Virginia and will be placed on side-by-side display.

NASA spent the past year draining all toxic fuels from Discovery and removing unnecessary plumbing.

Stilson said she’s managed to keep her emotions in check by staying busy. She’s one of the luckier ones; thousands of shuttle workers have lost their jobs.

Astronaut Nicole Stott had “mixed feelings” as she gazed up at Discovery. “There’s no denying the sadness associated with it,” said Stott, who was on Discovery’s last crew.

The newer shuttle Endeavour is promised to the California Science Center in Los Angeles; it ships out in September. Shuttle Atlantis will remain at Kennedy; a huge display area is in works at the visitor complex.

With the shuttles retired, U.S. astronauts are hitching big-bucks rides on Russian Soyuz rockets to get to the space station. A variety of private American companies are vying for astronaut transportation rights. Officials expect it to be another five years or so before the new spacecraft will be ready to carry passengers.

One of the main competitors, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX, is due to launch its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral on April 30, on an unprecedented trip to the space station. It will be the first time a private company makes such a cargo run.

After reviewing the status of the flight, NASA officials said Monday there is a good chance that SpaceX can make the April 30 launch date. More software testing is needed, however, over the next two weeks. By Marcia Dunn, Austin American Stateman

“This is the kickoff,” said Nasa sciences chief John Grunsfeld.

The race to redraw a new, cheaper road map comes two months after Nasa pulled out of a partnership with the European Space Agency on two missions targeted for 2016 and 2018, a move that angered scientists. The 2018 mission represented the first step toward hauling Martian soil and rocks back to Earth for detailed study — something many researchers say is essential in determining whether microbial life once existed there.

Agency officials said returning samples is still a priority, but a reboot was necessary given the financial reality.

In the past decade, Nasa has spent $6.1 billion (Dh22.4 billion) exploring Earth’s closest planetary neighbour. President Barack Obama’s latest proposed budget slashed spending for solar system exploration by 21 per cent, making the collaboration with the Europeans unaffordable.

A newly formed team will cull through the ideas and come up with options by summer around the time when Nasa’s latest mission, a $2.5 billion car-sized rover Curiosity, will land near the equator on Mars. Nasa headquarters is the ultimate decider of which future projects to fund.

Budget cap

Whatever mission flies in 2018, it will be vastly cheaper than Curiosity and will be capped at $700 million.

Nasa is mainly seeking suggestions from scientists and engineers around the world, but you don’t have to have a PhD. Anyone can submit a proposal online and go through a lengthy process.

“Check all the boxes and you may be considered,” said Nasa spokesman Dwayne Brown.

Scientists welcomed the chance to offer input but worried about the budget uncertainty. Gulf News

Yet Instagram, a popular smartphone application that allows users to tweak photos and share them with their friends, was paid that by Facebook Inc in a deal announced on Monday.

The purchase of the San Francisco-based private company helps Facebook both strengthen its core photo-sharing services and take out a possible competitor all at once, analysts said. Venture capitalists that invested in Instagram before the Facebook deal reportedly doubled their money in the span of a few days.

Few retail investors can take part in these early funding rounds that become hugely profitable once a company goes public or is taken over by a competitor. But there are ways to profit from the growing social media and mobile computing sectors that don’t involve giving money to a VC firm in Silicon Valley.

Tech M&A Heating Up

The high price that Facebook paid for Instagram may be a sign that mergers and acquisitions will pick up across the cash-rich technology sector, potentially making large companies more attractive.

“Facebook is very acquisitive and has a pretty robust M&A strategy which is only going to get more robust once they go public,” said Ed Zimmerman, the head of the technology group at Lowenstein Sandler, a law firm that works with venture capital and private equity firms to negotiate and close deals.

Michael O’Bryan, the co-head of the M&A practice at Morrison & Foerster, said large-tech companies such as Google Inc, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp will likely step up their acquisitions this year to keep up with the rapidly expanding social media and mobile markets.

These deals are focused more on finding products or apps that have buzz and momentum than on those that are profitable, he said. Purchases are typically meant to help them expand their platform of products and services in ways they may be lacking.

Google may be especially prone to signing new deals to better position itself for growth as its core business of web search and advertising faces new challenges.

“We see the growth of semi-closed and prominent networks including Facebook, Twitter and Siri/Apps in general as an increasing threat to Google – not only as competition for ad dollars, but also to search quality and therefore monetization,” Daniel Ernst, an analyst at Hudson Square Research, said in March 29 note to clients.

Google shares have been stagnant lately, despite the market’s 2012 rally. The stock price is down 2.9 percent since the start of the year, compared with an 8 percent jump in the S&P 500 index, based on afternoon trading on Tuesday. At around $633 per share, the company’s shares are well below the average analyst target price of $721, according to Thomson Reuters data. The company reports its earnings on April 12 after the bell.

A jump in M&A activity would also mean more fees for the financial firms that structure deals. The value of global M&A deals dropped to $416 billion in the first quarter of 2012 from $737 billion over the same period in 2011, according to preliminary Thomson Reuters data. Mergers in the United States totaled $127 billion, a 60 percent drop from 2011. JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc were the most active firms in the industry.

JPMorgan may be one of the strongest firms of the group because of a diversified base that includes a strong credit card arm, according to analysts at Trefis, an online stock analytics service. The company recently announced it would raise its dividend by 20 percent, paying out 30 cents per quarter instead of 25 cents.

JPMorgan trades at a price to earnings ratio of 9.6, well below the nearly 14 multiple of the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 index, and pays a dividend yield of 2.8 percent. It is down 8 percent over the last 12 months, a figure that includes its 29 percent jump since the start of 2012.

Buy the Toll-takers

A less risky way to play the social media and mobile market could be to look at the telecommunications sector.

AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, for instance, are the largest U.S. wireless data carriers and should be attractive to income investors, said John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Funds.

“These are classic yield plays. They are bond substitutes, with the kicker that they are in a pretty good growth business,” he said. Khaleej Times