Transparent aluminium of science fiction is reality now

October 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new type of green rocket propellant, comprising frozen mixture of water and "nanoscale aluminium" powder, is being developed that could be manufactured on the moon, Mars and other water-bearing bodies, says a new study. The aluminium-ice, or ALICE, propellant might be used to launch rockets into orbit and for long-distance space missions and also to generate hydrogen for fuel cells, said Steven Son, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.

September 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Charusita Chakravarti of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Santosh G. Honavar of L.V.

September 22nd, 2009 KAPURTHALA - Playing with butterflies, sand, molecular bubbles, shadows and magical flowers will now be child's play, literally, with a virtual reality gallery being opened at the Pushpa Gujral science city near here Tuesday. The latest addition to the science city, located on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala highway, 170 km from Chandigarh, will also help children and other visitors learn how things like e-mails and automated teller machines (ATMs) work.

September 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's novel about a secret love affair between a Princess from Cardiff and a dashing French president has caused speculation to arise as to whether the book is based on fiction or reality. Questions have risen as to whether the former president was just a confidant, if not a lover, of Diana, Princess of Wales, as extracts from the book speak about familiar situations.

August 23rd, 2009 ABU DHABI - Emirates Aluminium (Emal) and Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco) opened the natural gas pipeline at the world's largest single site aluminium smelter here, WAM news agency reported Sunday. The pipeline, connected to the Emal power plant, will provide it with reliable and uninterrupted supply of natural gas.

July 27th, 2009 LONDON - In an experiment, a team of scientists has created a transparent material, which could provide some insight into the cores of Jupiter and the other giant planets. According to a report in New Scientist, to create this exotic state of matter, researchers at the FLASH facility in Hamburg, Germany, took a thin piece of aluminum foil and blasted it with an X-ray laser that can generate about 10 million gigawatts of power per square centimeter.

July 17th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Scientists in Hong Kong are developing a cloak of illusion, or a material that disguises one object as another. "The metamaterial can turn the appearance of one object into that of another," says Professor Che Ting Chan, a scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and coauthor of a paper that recently appeared in the journal Physical Review Letters.

June 9th, 2009 LONDON - The bad taste in stored wine, known as the "ladybug taint", would soon be a thing of the past, all thanks to a newly developed way of packaging the spirit-cartons sealed with a thin layer of aluminium. "Ladybug taint" is caused by chemicals called alkyl-methoxypyrazines that accumulate in wine both from grapes themselves and from remains of ladybug beetles crushed when grapes are processed.

June 4th, 2009 LONDON - Pulitzer-winner American author Marilynne Robinson has received the Orange Prize for Fiction, beating two British novelists to it. Robinson, 66, was awarded 30,000 pounds along with the Prize for her novel 'Home', and accepted it on June 3 at a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank in London.

April 21st, 2009 LONDON - 'The Doctor Who' music has topped a poll of the 'Best Science Fiction Theme Tunes of All Time'. 'Red Dwarf' theme landed the second spot while the third place went to the 'X-Files' music.

April 18th, 2009 LONDON - Lady Gaga left little to the imagination after baring it nearly all in a see-through catsuit. The pop vixen gave onlookers an eyeful in a transparent black catsuit at London's Bungalow 8 club.

March 28th, 2009 LONDON - Hollywood actress Uma Thurman feels that her life is like a reality TV show. The 38-year-old star admits that she cannot recall a time when she wasn't a celebrity.

March 19th, 2009 LONDON - Jade Goody's final months have found their way in a new book titled 'Forever in My Heart'. Publishers HarperCollins dubbed the diary as a "modern day parable", and said that the Brit reality TV star had led the book to be a "love letter" to her sons, Bobby, 5, and Freddy, 4.

March 16th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have come across evidence for the existence of giant sand worms that lived 260 million years ago, in Torbay, UK. The worms, which grew up to 3ft long and 6in wide, are thought to have lived underground before dinosaurs roamed the earth.

March 4th, 2009 LONDON - British actress Keira Knightley will play a clone in her next movie, which is a science fiction thriller. Directed by Mark Romanek, the film is titled 'Never Let Me Go' and will pit Knightley opposite actors Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan, reports contactmusic.com.