Los Angeles: Scientists have developed an app that crowdsources ground-shaking information from smartphones to detect earthquakes and eventually warns users of impending jolts from nearby quakes. MyShake, developed by researchers at University of California, Berkeley, runs in the background and draws little power. For now, the app only collects information from the accelerometers, analyses and relays the info and the phone’s Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates to the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory in California for analysis. PTI,
New form of light discovered: London: Scientists have discovered a new form of light, which will impact the understanding of the fundamental nature of light. One of the measurable characteristics of a beam of light is known as angular momentum. Until now, it was thought in all forms of light the angular momentum would be a multiple of Planck’s constant — the physical constant that sets the scale of quantum effects. Now, researchers from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Physics and CRANN Institute have demonstrated a new form of light where the angular momentum of each photon (a particle of visible light) takes only half of this value. PTI.
Microchip helps reunite UK dog with owners: London: A 13-year old dog in the UK was reunited with its owners five years after it went missing, thanks to a microchip fitted to the canine that disclosed its identity. Eddie, the Yorkshire Terrier, vanished from a garden while staying with its owners’ relatives in North Manchester, while they were on holiday. The dog was recently found in the care of Jeanette Johnson who lives in Stockport, 1 km from dog owner Sandra Wright’s home. During a medical check up, it was discovered that the canine was fitted with a microchip which disclosed its true identity. PTI,
Elvis Presley’s guitar goes for $3,34,000: New York: A guitar given to Elvis Presley by his father in 1969 went under the hammer for $3,34,000 in New York during an auction that also saw a Michael Jackson vest fetch $2,56,000. Vernon Presley is said to have changed the finish of the Gibson Dove acoustic guitar to ebony after his son earned his black belt in karate. It beat auction house Julien’s estimate of $2,00,000 to $3,00,000 for Saturday sale. AFP.
New way to get power from seawater: Tokyo: Scientists have used sunlight to efficiently turn seawater into hydrogen peroxide, which can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity. It is the first photocatalytic method of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production that achieves a high enough efficiency so that the H2O2 can be used in a fuel cell, researchers said. “The most earth-abundant resource, seawater, is utilised to produce a solar fuel that is H2O2,” said Shunichi Fukuzumi from Osaka University in Japan, who led the research. PTI.
Man fined for swallowing goldfish at fair: London: A 21-year-old engineer has been fined and banned from keeping fish for five years after a British court heard he swallowed a goldfish in a “horrible act of cruelty” at a funfair. Alexander Mackey from Plymouth admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a goldfish by swallowing it. Mackey was ordered to pay a fine and costs totalling £752 for the crime. He was also banned from keeping fish for five years. PTI
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