AstroRobonaut@Space

Humans in International Space Station has a new companion: A Robonaut (R2B). R2 is the first humanoid robot in space. It will go thru extensive tests after which it will serve side by side with human missions in ISS and beyond.
From: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

There are currently four Robonauts, with others currently in development. This allows us to study various types of mobility, control methods, and task applications. The value of a humanoid over other designs is the ability to use the same workspace and tools - not only does this improve efficiency in the types of tools, but also removes the need for specialized robotic connectors. Robonauts are essential to NASA's future as we go beyond low earth orbit and continue to explore the vast wonder that is space. 

See the preparation on time lapse:


Twitter Follow:
http://twitter.com/AstroRobonaut
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/NASArobonaut

Just imagine a humanoid-robotic hand picking the martian dust!

Google Global Science Fair 2011

In association with CERN, National geographic, Scientific American and LEGO; Google brings the first global science fair. http://www.google.com/events/sciencefair/
The competition is aimed to the students enrolled in home, public or private school from around the world. The age group is 13 - 18 years. Students may enter as individuals or in teams of up to 3.
The winner will take away $50,000 scholarship award and other exciting prizes (http://www.google.com/events/sciencefair/prizes.html).

How to enter:

Here is one of the sample project about use of AI and health care system.

http://sites.google.com/site/tescasgsfsample/home

Arduino The Documentary

Arduino is one of the success stories of hard work and the power of collaboration in open source projects.
For curious minds who have wanted to try something  Arduino makes the way. The best part being the accessible budget in the involved projects.

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Quoted from: http://www.arduino.cc/

 

Arduino The Documentary 2010

Promote Nepal Tourism year 2011 the simplest way!

Nepal decided that 2011 should be deemed as "Nepal Tourism Year 2011". The word has not been out as much as it should have been (Well the stats will tell). So, if you are in foreign country (and are willing to promote it), you can contribute to it by a simple method:
name the wifi with promoting words to nepal tourism year 2011;
such as
NEPALtourismYEAR2011
nepal2011
or some other variations.

This is simplest way to get involved as it only involves changing your wifi name set for home network and will make few of your neighbors aware of it or might make them curious about it.
http://nepaltourismyear2011.com/

Drilling the VostoK ice core: search for life in isolated places.

Update: The Russians (may [1, 2]) have reached at the depth of 3768 meters, the surface of the sub-glacial lake. [Sourcehttp://news.discovery.com/earth/they-did-it-curent-status-on-russian-lake-vostok-120206.html]
More: here,
The origin of life is an interesting topic because addressing it affects so many philosophical aspects of present day science. As a computational scientists, we do believe in the Markov Chain Monte Carlo-like trial and error method of evolution[!], whereby the living organism is subjected to several forces of evolution and the chances of evolution depends upon the probability of survival of the evolved beings.

Other views on origin of life are open and are welcome!

The vostok ice core has been compared with other environments such as that of the deep sea of Europa or the ice volcanoes of Enceladus; the moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively. This lake has been isolated for 14 million years. Exploration of such isolated system (without infecting them) could open up possibilities of testing various hypotheses on the origin/possibilities of life on outer/other planets.
A nice article: http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2012/02/05/vostok-lake-time-forgot 

Lake VostoK src

Quoting BBC:

The Russians have friendly competition from US and British teams. Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) are hoping to begin their project to drill into Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica later this year. An American crew is targeting Lake Whillans.

From:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/antarctic-lake-drilling