Indian origin scientist finds tropical storms endure over wet land, fizzle over dry

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 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, researchers have concluded that the number of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic Basin is increasing, but there is no evidence that their individual strengths are any greater than storms of the past or that the chances of a US strike are up. Robert Lund, professor of mathematical sciences at Clemson University, along with colleagues Michael Robbins and Colin Gallagher of Clemson and QiQi Lu of Mississippi State University, studied changes in the tropical cycle record in the North Atlantic between 1851 and 2008.

August 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A NASA scientist has made what is believed to be the first full assessment of the African continent's mangrove forests. Environmental scientist Lola Fatoyinbo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) developed and employed a method that can be used across the continent, overcoming expensive, ad hoc, and inconsistent modes of ground-based measurement.

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.

August 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Three small tropical storms were moving across the Caribbean Sunday including one threatening Florida, the first storms of the Atlantic season after two months of total quiet. The storms claimed the first letters of the alphabet - Ana, Bill and Claudette - and one of them, Ana, was found to be so "poorly organised" that it was "barely a tropical storm," the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, reported.

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 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, NASA is funding the development of a prototype system to provide aircraft with updates about severe storms and turbulence as they fly across remote ocean regions. The system is being developed by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, in partnership with colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, US.

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 16th, 2009 Washington, June 16 (ANI): A scientist of Indian origin has designed a tool that takes into consideration all feasible solutions for decreasing non-point source pollution for the amount of money available. The scientist in question is Indrajeet Chaubey, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, Purdue University.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A paleontologist has unearthed a set of fossil teeth of a browsing horse in Panama Canal earthworks, which roamed the area between 15 and 18 million years ago. The fossil was found by Aldo Rincon, a paleontology intern at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, US.

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.

April 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at Harvard University, US, have found that tropical cyclones readily inject ice far into the stratosphere, possibly feeding global warming. The finding provides more evidence of the intertwining of severe weather and global warming by demonstrating a mechanism by which storms could drive climate change.

March 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that the recent warming trend in the Atlantic Ocean is largely due to reductions in airborne dust and volcanic emissions during the past 30 years. Since 1980, the tropical North Atlantic has been warming by an average of a quarter-degree Celsius (a half-degree Fahrenheit) per decade.

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.