Indian origin scientist develops tool that can search best solutions for pollution control

October 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Thursday congratulated Indian-origin scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan on winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Lauding his pioneering work in the field of molecular biology, the speaker said: "The nation and the people of India are proud." She said his research would break "new grounds and lead to new dimensions in the field of biology".

October 7th, 2009 LONDON - Indian-origin scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E.

September 24th, 2009 LONDON - Data from Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar mission, has revealed the presence of large quantities of water on the surface of the Moon, a discovery that is a significant boost for India in its space race against China. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) lost control of Chandrayaan-1 last month, and aborted the mission ahead of schedule, but not before M3 and the other instruments had beamed data back to Earth.

September 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - With the help of equipment recently delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) by the Space Shuttle Discovery, a scientist of Indian origin would be able to conduct crystal growth experiments in space, despite being Earth bound. The scientist in question is Rohit Trivedi, a senior metallurgist at the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory.

August 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A scientist of Indian origin from Purdue University, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, has determined in a new research that tropical storms endure over wet land, and fizzle when conditions are dry. More than 30 years of monsoon data from India showed that ground moisture where the storms make landfall is a major indicator of what the storm will do from there.

August 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A scientist of Indian origin has determined that a highly efficient system for generating and distributing energy is lean, mean and green - and could be as close as the nearest farm. "This solution is truly homegrown, and its successful application can be critical for the U.S.

July 22nd, 2009 CHENNAI - Distinguished scientist and Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) director Baldev Raj has been elected the vice-president of the International Institute of Welding (IIW) for 2009-12. He is the first Indian to be elected to the post in the 62-year-old institute, an authority on standards and practices that has 53 countries as its members.

July 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that rising levels of smokestack emissions from oceangoing ships will cause an estimated 87,000 deaths worldwide each year by 2012, which is almost one-third higher than previously believed data. The study said that government action to reduce sulfur emissions from shipping fuel (the source of air pollution linked to an increased risk of illness and death) could reduce that toll.

July 1st, 2009 EPA proposes regulations to cut ship pollutionWASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing tougher rules to reduce air pollution from large oceangoing ships, including oil tankers and cargo vessels. The agency announced Wednesdays it is beginning work on a regulation that would cut harmful chemicals releases from smokestacks of ships within 200 miles of the U.S.

June 27th, 2009 LONDON - A team of researchers led by a scientist of Indian origin has created new 'superatoms' with magnetic properties for the first time, a breakthrough that could be used to make "spintronic devices", faster computer processors and denser memory storage. According to a report in New Scientist, the research was led by Shiv Khanna from Virginia Commonwealth University.

June 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research by scientists has determined that the Pacific Ocean, occupying a third of the planet's area, faces threats that will render some coastal areas uninhabitable. According to a report in ENN (Environmental News Network), pollution such as sewage, runoff from land and toxic waste; habitat destruction; over-fishing; and climate change leading to sea level rise, ocean acidification and warming will all interact to damage the ocean's ecology and coastal economies.

May 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Kansas-based, Indian-origin girl Kavya Shivashankar, 13, has become America's spelling champion by winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The budding neurosurgeon from Olathe took home more than 40,000 dollars in cash and prizes and the huge champion's trophy.

March 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A scientist of Indian origin is part of an international research team, which has revealed new applications for carbon nanomaterials in hydrogen storage. The scientist in question is Rajeev Ahuja from Uppsala University, US, who set out to understand the mechanism behind the catalytic effects of carbon nanomaterials.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A scientist of Indian origin has played a key role in discovering particle collisions that produce a single top quark, one of the fundamental constituents of matter. The scientist in question is Meenakshi Narain, professor of physics at Brown University, who has been involved with the CDF and DZero collaborations at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

January 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A powerful new tool can image single molecules in a cell, with much greater clarity and speed, compared to existing methods. The new tool, dubbed liquid scanning transmission electron microscope or liquid STEM, uses a micro-fluidic device with electron transparent windows to enable the imaging of cells in liquid.