Tech & Science

Yesterday, NASA announced their spacecraft Juno has reached Jupiter orbit. It was launched almost five years ago to investigate the largest planet of the Solar System, especially its past. Charles Bolden, NASA administrator, said, "Independence Day always is something to celebrate, but today we can add to America's birthday another reason to cheer — Juno is at Jupiter". He also added the spacecraft would help study the evolution of the Solar System and explore Jupiter's radiation belts. NASA spent US$1.1 billion for Juno. The Jet Propulsion

Dozens of tax investigators raided Google's offices in French capital Paris yesterday as part of a probe into the company's alleged tax evasion. The raid was conducted by investigators from the state financial prosecutor's office assisted by 25 information technology (IT) experts, according to officials. "The investigation aims to verify whether Google Ireland Ltd has a permanent base in France" the prosecutor's office said, "and if, by not declaring parts of its activities carried out in France, it failed its fiscal obligations[...]". Google

Yesterday, Göran K. Hansson, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to three scientists for their work on DNA repair. Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar showed how damaged DNA is repaired and genetic information is safeguarded by the cells at the molecular level. Swedish scientist Tomas Lindahl found that DNA molecules decay too quickly for life, or evolution, to be sustainable. This led to the discovery of base excision repair, a cellular mechanism tha

Chief Executive of Volkswagen Martin Winterkorn issued on Sunday a public apology and announced an outside inquiry would be carried out, after the company became engulfed in a scandal about diesel emissions tests. Over the weekend there were damaging revelations that the car manufacturer has been using illegal software to enable diesel cars to cheat on mandatory emissions tests. An investigation into alleged breaches of environmental law was originally initiated on the advice of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a European N

7,810 Jeep SUVs are to be recalled in order to address a software vulnerability in the vehicles' entertainment systems which allows the vehicles to be "hacked" — allows vehicle software security to be compromised — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US (FCA US) said on Friday. This recall affects some 2015 model Jeep Renegades. FCA US said exploiting the vulnerability would take "unique and extensive technical knowledge, prolonged physical access to a subject vehicle and extended periods of time to write code.” They said there are no known instances wh

Yesterday, former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam died at the age of 83 after collapsing at about 6:30 p.m. local time (0000 today UTC) while delivering a speech about Livable Planet Earth at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, in Meghalaya, India. Abdul Kalam was taken to Bethany Hospital's intensive care unit and was declared dead about an hour and a half later. Some army doctors were sent from North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences. According to doctors at Bethany Hospital, Kalam was dead by

__NOTOC__ On Tuesday, NASA's space probe New Horizons reached near Pluto. It was launched about nine-and-a-half years ago on January 19, 2006 to collect data about the dwarf planet, amongst other targets. With its flyby on Tuesday it became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto closely. NASA collected data regarding the geology of the planet. The space probe had seven scientific instruments and massed about 450 kilograms (about 1000 lb). The probe has Pluto and the Kuiper Belt as its highest priorities. Scientists released images from the fly

A fire Friday night and Saturday morning caused major damage to the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences in Moscow, Russia. It is among the nation's largest academic libraries. The fire began at 10p.m. local time on the third floor, damaging much of one wing. Russian Academy of Sciences boss Vladimir Fortov called it "a great loss to science". He said around 15% of the library's 14.2 million books and other documents are likely damaged. Russia Today said 147 personnel battled the blaze with 38 vehicles. The emergency minist

Space transport services company SpaceX launched their fifth Dragon resupply vehicle to the International Space Station yesterday. The spacecraft — containing more than 2,200kg (5,000 pounds) of food, experiments, and spare parts — successfully decoupled from the launch rocket and should reach the station early tomorrow. The launch was postponed from Tuesday because of a technical issue on the second stage of the rocket. The shipment includes replacements for cargo aboard the spaceship Cygnus, destroyed during a failed launch in October. Cygn

NASA has finally accomplished its first spaceflight with the new Orion spacecraft, uncrewed, on Friday morning. The spacecraft has now traveled farther from the Earth than any other spacecraft designed to carry a crew has traveled in over four decades. The Orion crew module was launched off from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida mounted on top of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. Four and a half hours later, the space module landed in the Pacific Ocean. During the mission, the spacecraft

Soyuz TMA-12M, a Russian spacecraft carrying a crew of three, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) at 2353 UTC yesterday, after a technical setback prevented a planned rendezvous and docking on Tuesday. The spacecraft, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2117 UTC on Tuesday (3:17 AM, Wednesday local time), was originally scheduled to dock with the space station at 0304 UTC on Wednesday. It was not in the proper orientation to execute one of the engine burns required as part of the expedited rendezvous proce

On Saturday, Discovery Science Place hosted a mini Maker Faire in Tyler, Texas. Multiple vendors and exhibitors were on hand. An art car, featuring what might be the largest collection of singing robotic lobsters anywhere in the world was on display, curiously titled the "Sashimi Tabernacle Choir." A large modular analog synthesizer was also available for attendees to experiment with, designed by staff at Synthesizers.com. Some exhibits were quite simple, showing how to modify inexpensive radio-controlled cars using epoxy and LEGO bricks. Two