Scientist seeks origin of creativity

October 7th, 2009 LONDON - Indian origin senior scientist at the MRC Laborartory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 along with two others. The Nobel Committee announced on Wednesday that the Tamil Nadu born Ramakrishnan shares the Nobel Prize with Thomas E Steitz (US) and Ada E Yonath (Israel) for their "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".

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 29th, 2009 LONDON - History is teeming with examples of great artists and men who acted in peculiar ways, signifying either madness or sheer brilliance. In an attempt to understand whether psychosis and creativity are two sides of the same coin, a Hungarian psychiatrist has examined the link between the two.

September 27th, 2009 LONDON - A ship's fuel consumption can be reduced by about 20 per cent by designing it in such a manner that it exude slime from its hull, says an Indian-origin researcher. Rahul Ganguli of Teledyne Scientific in Thousand Oaks, California, says that the slime would form a gelatinous skin that continually sloughs off, taking with it the barnacles and other marine life forms that cause energy-sapping drag by accumulating on the ships' underside.

September 12th, 2009 LONDON - An Asian origin Royal Air Force medic, who was racially abused and assaulted by senior colleagues, has claimed that British military investigators tried to cover up his complaints. The British-born medic told an employment tribunal in central London that he was called a "Paki" and "terrorist", was grabbed around the throat and threatened with a beating while he was serving in Afghanistan in 2007.

September 12th, 2009 LONDON - Mehdi Ghezali, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee of Swedish origin has been arrested in Pakistan. Before being arrested at a checkpoint in the southern town of Dera Ghazi Khan, Ghezali was travelling with a group of foreigners to the South Waziristan tribal region, an al-Qaeda stronghold region, Times Online reports.

July 16th, 2009 LONDON - Friends and family of Anjool Malde, a young Indian-origin banker who leapt to his death, have paid their respects to him at a memorial in London. Malde, tipped to become the next biggest Asian entrepreneur in Britain, jumped off the roof of a plush London restaurant July 5, days before his 25th birthday, shocking the city.

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.

May 24th, 2009 LONDON - A leading US scientist, who shared a Nobel Prize in 1998 for his contribution in the development of Viagra, has passed away. He was 92. Robert Furchgott's family announced he had died in Seattle on Tuesday, reports the BBC.

May 17th, 2009 LONDON - The idea of using technology on field may not go down well with many referees but recent studies have shown that expert tools can not only help in making the right judgment calls but could even completely take over the task. According to Jason William Harding, a snowboarder and sport scientist at the Australian Institute of Sport, and his colleagues, it was possible for technology to carry out most of the job of a human judge.

May 12th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have discovered 850 million year old fossil traces in Canadian rocks, which resembled blobs of gelatinous goo, that has potentially solved a major problem for the origin of animal life. The previous oldest animal fossils date from "only" 650 million years ago, although "molecular clocks" based on rates of genetic divergence indicate that animals should have originated about 850 million years ago.

April 30th, 2009 1st edition of Darwin's landmark book soldLONDON — A first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" book sold for about 40,000 pounds ($60,000) Thursday, an auctioneer said. The work, still in its original embossed green binding, was bought by local book dealer Hamish Riley-Smith, said Keys auctioneer Andrew Bullock.

April 30th, 2009 1st edition of Darwin's landmark book up for saleLONDON — A British auction house says it is offering Darwin fans a chance to buy a first edition of the famed naturalist's groundbreaking book. Auctioneer Keys says the copy of "On the Origin of Species" is expected to sell on Thursday for up to 30,000 pounds ($44,600).

April 27th, 2009 LONDON - British police have rescued an Asian-origin man who was found trapped in a car Sunday, gagged and with gas canisters strapped to him. The man, a reported kidnap victim, was found in a terrified state inside a tiny two-door car in the city of Birmingham.

April 9th, 2009 LONDON - Leonard Nimoy is reportedly all set to return to small screen to star as a millionaire scientist. The 78-year-old, best known for playing the character of Spock on Star Trek, will allegedly team up with director J.J.