Saturday 4 August 2012

Pathan helps India to ODI win over Sri Lanka


Pathan helps India to ODI win over Sri Lanka

India's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (R) celebrates with Irfan Pathan (L) and Manoj Tiwary after they won the final One-Day International (ODI) match and the series against Sri Lanka in Pallekele August 4, 2012. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
KANDY | Sun Aug 5, 2012 10:29am IST
(Reuters) - Fast bowler Irfan Pathan's second five-wicket haul helped India beat Sri Lanka by 20 runs in the fifth and final one-day international at Pallekele on Saturday.
Pathan took two crucial wickets in the 43rd over as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 274 just three overs later in reply to India's total of 294 for seven.
Pathan finished with figures of five for 61 to take the man of the match award.
The win gave India a 4-1 triumph in the five-match series and lifted them to second place in the ICC ODI rankings behind Australia.
India's total after they won the toss and batted first was based largely on two fine partnerships which prevented the home team from breaking through.
Gautam Gambir (88 off 99 balls) and Manoj Tiwary (65 off 68 balls) put on 110 off 121 balls for the fourth wicket after India had lost their first three wickets for 87.
Following that stand Sri Lanka once again broke through, capturing three wickets in two overs to reduce India to 213-6 but Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined by Pathan grabbed back the initiative with a partnership of 77 off 59 balls.
Dhoni slammed eight fours and a six in his 38-ball half century before providing Lasith Malinga with his 200th ODI wicket. Pathan's contribution was an unbeaten 29.
Sri Lanka lost half of their side for 102 in the run chase, but Lahiru Thirimanne and Jeevan Mendis turned the game around with a partnership of 102 off 124 balls.
Thirimanne made 77 off 96 balls before running himself out and Mendis scored 72 off 88 balls before edging a catch behind the wicket off the bowling of Pathan.
Sri Lanka were always ahead of the run rate but lost too many wickets to complete a victory.
The teams will play a one-off twenty20 international at the same venue on Tuesday.

Indian scientist wins biggest science prize


Indian scientist wins biggest science prize

New Delhi: In a world where cricketers and film stars rake in the moolah, a college professor has trumped them all. Dr Ashoke Sen won the biggest jackpot in the world of science, the three million dollar Fundamental Physics Prize, for his work in theoretical physics.
It's been four days and the sweets still haven't stopped.
The proud scientist says, "The prize is for my work in String Theory. It is an attempt to unify quantum theory and gravity."
A former Padma Bhushan and Infosys Prize awardee, Dr Sen won the international award that was started by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner this year.
Dr Sen is also the only Indian in a group of nine winners.
Dr Sen is a theoretical physicist. So the only lab he needs for research, is a simple laptop. Dr Sen uses mathematical equations to explain the fundamental laws of nature. If the God particle found a few weeks back was the crowning glory of the science we've known since Albert Einstein, Dr Sen's work in String Theory, is the future.
"It's mainly to understand the basic constituents of nature. What are the fundamental laws that drive everything around us," says Dr Sen.
Right now the subject doesn't have any practical applications. It is mainly theoretical. But it's hard to say what will happen a hundred years from now.
For now, however, Dr Sen and his wife are having a tough time figuring out what to do with the three million dollar prize money they've just received. But one thing is certain. He isn't retiring just yet.

Life on Mars? Nasa's $2.5 bn dream machine Rover aims to find out


Members of the Mars Science Laboratory test out an engineering model of its next generation Mars rover, dubbed "Curiosity", in the desert near Baker, California. Reuters/Gene Blevins
Nasa plans to follow up a decade-long search for Mars' lost water with a mission to learn whether the Red Planet once harbored other ingredients necessary for life.

The astrobiological hunt begins once the $2.5 billion Mars Science Lab Rover Curiosity lands itself beside a towering mountain that rises from the floor of a vast, ancient impact basin called Gale Crater. Touchdown, monitored from mission control at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is scheduled for 10.31pm on Sunday Pacific time (1.31am EDT on Monday/0531 GMT on Monday).
"It's a big science goal. We're not just looking for water anymore," said California Institute of Technology geologist John Grotzinger, the lead mission scientist.
"The expectations go up. The scientific challenge is much greater. It's just going to be harder to address this question of habitability," he told Reuters.
In this 2011 file artist's rendering, a "sky crane" lowers the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover onto the surface of Mars. (AP/Nasa/JPL-Caltech)

Scientists considered hundreds of landing sites before choosing Gale Crater, which probably formed when an asteroid or comet crashed into the planet some 3.5 billion to 4 billion years ago.
From high-resolution images taken by orbiting satellites, Gale Crater's central mound, known as Mount Sharp, appears to consist of layers of sediment rising like a stack of cards 3 miles (5 km) into the sky, taller than the crater's rim.
The most likely origin of the mountain is that it formed from the remains of whatever material filled up the basin long ago. How it was left standing in the middle of Gale Crater, a 96-mile-(154-km)wide bowl located near the planet's equator, is a mystery, one of many scientists hope to answer during Curiosity's two-year science mission.
Regardless of how it formed, scientists consider Mount Sharp a gift of time.
Nothing like it exists on Earth, where plate tectonics, erosion and other natural phenomena constantly reshape the planet's surface.
"We have the opportunity to start in the past, rove up the surface of Mount Sharp and come through time to see how the environments have changed," said Michael Meyer, Nasa's Mars exploration program scientist.

Warmer, wetter Martian past

A succession of previous rovers, landers and orbiting spacecraft have gathered compelling evidence that Mars, which is about half the size of Earth and 50% farther away from the sun, was not always the dry, acidic, cold desert that appears today.
Nasa's strategy since resuming Mars exploration following the 1970s-era Viking missions there has been to look for the chemical and physical fingerprints of water, which is necessary for life - at least as it has evolved on Earth.
The second ingredient in the recipe for life is carbon, which provides organic structure. Carbon will be far more difficult to detect on Mars, if it exists, because the same processes that produce rock tend to destroy organics.
The planet's harsh radiation environment doesn't help either.
"We have a radiation-rich environment on Mars that can destroy organics, so even if it was there, it may be hard to find a place where it's been preserved," Meyer said.
This Aug 26, 2003 image shows Mars photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope on the planet's closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years. (AP Photo/Nasa)

On Earth, the oldest evidence for life dates back about 3.5 billion years. Fossilized remains of single-celled microorganisms were found in 1958 inside a type of rock known as chert. This glass-like rock may exist on Mars as well, and it is not the only material that can preserve organics like a time capsule.
"The challenge for Mars exploration is to first try to identify environments that might have been habitable and then ask, 'Is this the kind of place where organic carbon could have been preserved?'" Grotzinger said.
"With Curiosity, we don't have the ability to look for life, or even fossil life, but we do have the ability to look for organic carbon, so we try to find those environments conducive for preservation. That's the hard part," he said.
The oldest sections of Mount Sharp may overlap the window when life emerged on Earth, a time when Mars is believed to have been warm and wet.
Curiosity's landing site inside Gale Crater is one of the lowest regions on Mars, stacking the odds that water, if it existed there, flowed down to the basin's floor. Mount Sharp may be the remains of this ancient lake bed and perhaps a place that life once called home.

Speeding toward a landing on Mars

After an 8 1/2-month voyage through space, Nasa's souped-up Mars spacecraft zoomed toward the red planet for what the agency hopes will be an epic touchdown.
The fiery punch through the tenuous Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph on Sunday night marks the beginning of "seven minutes of terror" as the Curiosity rover aims for a bull's-eye landing inside a massive crater near the equator.
The latest landing attempt is more nerve-racking than in the past because Nasa is testing out a new routine. Curiosity will steer itself part of the way and end on a dramatic note: Dangling by cables until its six wheels touch the ground.
That's the plan at least.
"Can we do this? Yeah, I think we can do this. I'm confident," Doug McCuistion, head of the Mars exploration program at Nasa headquarters, said Saturday. "We have the A-plus team on this. They've done everything possible to ensure success, but that risk still exists."
Despite humanity's fascination with Mars, the track record for landing on it is less than stellar. Out of the 14 attempts by space agencies around the world to touch down on Earth's neighbor, only six have succeeded. Nasa has fared better — with only one failure out of seven tries.
In keeping with a decades-old tradition, peanuts will be passed around the mission control room at the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory for good luck.
Nasa will need it. The $2.5 billion mission comes as the space agency faces a financial crunch. It abandoned a partnership with the European Space Agency to send missions in 2016 and 2018 and, instead, is charting a new future for Mars exploration.
For now, Nasa is counting on Curiosity to nail the landing.
"We're now right on target to fly through the eye of the needle" at the top of the Martian atmosphere, said mission manager Arthur Amador.
Earlier in the week, a dust storm swirling to the south of the landing site gave the team some pause. Ashwin Vasavada, the mission's deputy project scientist and Mars weather forecaster, said the storm basically went "poof" and posed no threat.
"Mars appears to be cooperating very nicely with us. We expect good weather for landing Sunday night," he said.
As Curiosity plummets to the surface, it will rely on the precisely choreographed use of a heat shield and supersonic parachute to slow its descent. Less than a mile from the ground, the hovering spacecraft will unspool cables to lower the rover.
Due to the signal time lag between Mars and Earth (it takes about 14 minutes for a signal on Mars to zip to Earth), Curiosity will execute the landing autonomously, following the half a million lines of computer code designed by Earthlings.
Touchdown was set for 10.31pm. PDT. Nasa warned that spotty communication during landing could delay confirmation for several hours or even days.
On the eve of landing day, mission control was quiet with only a handful of flight controllers on duty. Two jars of peanuts were on display on the front console. As the countdown to landing nears, the place will be humming.
"I get butterflies every now and then," said flight director Keith Comeaux.
If successful, Curiosity will join another roving spacecraft, Opportunity, which has been exploring Mars since 2004.
The most high-tech Mars spacecraft ever built, the nuclear-powered Curiosity is equipped with more than a dozen cameras, a weather station and tools to drill, taste and sniff the environment in search of the chemical building blocks of life.
Its target is Gale Crater near the equator, which scientists think is a place where water once flowed — a good starting point to learn whether microbes could exist there. Rising from the floor of Gale is an impressive mountain where mineral signatures of water have been spied at the base.
Life as we know it requires three ingredients: Water, energy and carbon. The missing piece so far is finding carbon. One of Curiosity's main tasks is to drive to the mountain, chisel rocks and dig into soil in search of the elusive element.
During its cruise to Mars, Curiosity turned on its radiation sensor and sent back data, which should help scientists better understand the risks that astronauts would face on a manned mission.
Before Curiosity can further explore, it must first stick the landing.
Weighing nearly 2,000 pounds, it is much heavier than Opportunity and can't bounce to a stop swaddled in air bags; it would break apart if it did. So engineers devised a new trick. Sunday will be the first time that the novel landing routine will make its debut.
Engineer Steve Sell said his eyes will be glued to his computer screen on landing day.
"I just have to keep reminding myself to keep breathing," Sell said.

இறுதி போட்டியிலும் இந்தியா வெற்றி

இறுதி போட்டியிலும் இந்தியா வெற்றி



பல்லெகெலே: இலங்கை உடனான ஐந்தாவது மற்றும் இறுதி ஒரு நாள் கிரிக்கெட் போட்டியிலும் 20 ரன் வித்தியாசத்தில் இந்தியா வெற்றி பெற்றது. இந்த வெற்றி மூலம் சர்வதேச தர வரிசையில் இந்தியா 2ம் இடம் பிடித்துள்ளது.இந்தியா , இலங்கை அணிகளிடையே மொத்தம் 5 போட்டிகள் கொண்ட ஒருநாள் போட்டித் தொடர் நடந்தது. நான்கு போட்டிகளின் முடிவில் இந்தியா 3,1 என முன்னிலை பெற்றதுடன், தொடரையும் கைப்பற்றியது. இந்த நிலையில், சம்பிரதாயமான கடைசி போட்டி பல்லெகெலே சர்வதேச ஸ்டேடியத்தில் நேற்று நடந்தது. டாசில் வென்ற இந்தியா முதலில் பேட் செய்தது. சேவக்குக்கு ஓய்வளிக்கப்பட்டு, அவருக்கு பதிலாக ரஹானே தொடக்க வீரராக களமிறங்கினார். அவர் 9 ரன் மட்டுமே எடுத்து பெரேரா பந்துவீச்சில் ஆட்டமிழந்தார். கோஹ்லி 23, ரோகித் ஷர்மா 4 ரன்னில் வெளியேறினர்.


கம்பீர் , திவாரி ஜோடி பொறுப்புடன் விளையாடி 4வது விக்கெட்டுக்கு 110 ரன் சேர்த்தது. இருவரும் அரைசதம் அடித்து அசத்தினர். கம்பீர் ஒருநாள் போட்டிகளில் 5000 ரன் சாதனை மைல் கல்லை கடந்தார்.  திவாரி 65 ரன் (68 பந்து, 6 பவுண்டரி) எடுத்து ஆட்டமிழந்தார். அடுத்து வந்த ரெய்னா டக் அவுட்டாகி ஏமாற்றத்துடன் பெவிலியன் திரும்பினார். கம்பீர் 88 ரன்னில் (99 பந்து, 7 பவுண்டரி) ஆட்டமிழந்து சதம் அடிக்கும் வாய்ப்பை நழுவவிட்டார். கேப்டன் டோனி , பதான் ஜோடி 7வது விக்கெட்டுக்கு 77 ரன் சேர்த்தது. அதிரடியாக விளையாடிய டோனி 58 ரன் எடுத்து (38 பந்து, 8 பவுண்டரி, 1 சிக்சர்) அவுட் ஆனார்.

இந்தியா 50 ஓவரில் 7 விக்கெட் இழப்புக்கு 294 ரன் குவித்தது. இர்பான் பதான் 29, அஷ்வின் 2 ரன்னுடன் ஆட்டமிழக்காமல் இருந்தனர். இலங்கை பந்துவீச்சில் மலிங்கா 3, பிரதீப் 2, பெரேரா, சேனநாயகே தலா ஒரு விக்கெட் வீழ்த்தினர். அடுத்து 295 ரன் எடுத்தால் வெற்றி என்ற கடினமான இலக்குடன் இலங்கை அணி களமிறங்கியது. அந்த அணி 15.1 ஓவரில் 102 ரன்னுக்கு 5 விக்கெட் இழந்து திணறியது. தில்ஷன் 0, தரங்கா 31, சண்டிமால் 8, மேத்யூஸ் 13, கபுகேதரா 9 ரன்னில் ஆட்டமிழந்தனர். ஒரு முனையில் விக்கெட் சரிந்தாலும், உறுதியுடன் விளையாடிய திரிமன்னே அணியை சரிவிலிருந்து மீட்க போராடினார். எனினும், இலங்கை அணி 45.4 ஓவரில் அனைத்து விக்கெட்டுகளையும் இழந்து 274 ரன் எடுத்து தோல்வி அடைந்தது. பதான் 5 விக்கெட் வீழ்த்தினார்.

PSLV making India proud, says Chandrayaan director

PSLV making India proud, says Chandrayaan director


Mylswamy Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-I and II-Moon Mission, distributing degree certificate to a student at an engineering college near Madurai on Saturday. M.K.S.Sreenivasan, college chairman, is seen. Photo: G. Moorthy
Mylswamy Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-I and II-Moon Mission, distributing degree certificate to a student at an engineering college near Madurai on Saturday. M.K.S.Sreenivasan, college chairman, is seen. Photo: G. Moorthy
Students urged to have right target, right direction and right time
As India gears up for Mission to Mars, the Chandrayaan-Moon Mission Project Director Mylswamy Annadurai said that the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which has become the backbone for the country’s space missions, had attained an iconic status and was making India proud among comity of nations.
“This PSLV launch vehicle which has been putting our satellites around the Earth’s orbit has stupendously moved towards the Moon target through ‘Chandrayaan’ mission. It is the same PSLV that will make India and the Indian Space Research Organisation embark on journey to Mars,” he said. Dr. Annadurai, team leader of ISRO’s Chandrayaan I and II lunar missions, was speaking at the seventh Graduation Day of Vickram College of Engineering at Enathi near here on Saturday. His admiration for the PSLV was expressed in the context of Mars Mission which was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday.
India is set to put a spacecraft in the orbit of Mars to study its atmosphere and the launch will be done in November next year from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the help of PSLV.
About the duration it takes for the spacecraft to reach Mars, he indicated that it would take about 11 months to land because of distance, time and the long journey. “Suppose we launch it in October 2013, then it will reach Mars sometime in September 2014. Despite the initial hiccups and a few failures, India can leap with a saga of success in space missions only because of PSLV and due to the perseverance of our space scientists,” he said.
Relating the PSLV system with fresh engineering graduates, he urged them not to get dejected, depressed and demoralised at any stage in their life because of disappointments or failures. “Here, in India, our launch vehicle for satellites is the same PSLV. The targets have changed from Earth to Moon to Mars. What is important is the right direction, right time, and right target. Not many youngsters in our country are getting an opportunity to go for higher education. You think like our Mars Mission on whatever you want to become or achieve. Failing once is not a sin. Proceed in life with determination and vigour,” Dr. Annadurai said.
E.K.T. Sivakumar from Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Anna University, urged the students to develop self-confidence and learn out of real-life experiences.
College Chairman M. K. S. Sreenivasan said that engineering students must have an in-depth knowledge in their field and never get depressed. “Always take care of your parents because they poured in hard earned money for your education and you also make learning a lifetime affair.”
Vijay Sreenivas, Director, M. S. Raj Santhosh, secretary, and M. S. Vikram, joint secretary, were among those who attended the ceremony in which over 250 candidates received their degrees.

Badminton fraternity hails Saina's bronze medal feat


Badminton fraternity hails Saina's bronze medal feat

Congratulatory messages poured in for ace shuttler Saina Nehwal after she earned India its third medal in the London Olympics, clinching a bronze in the women's singles event under fortuitous circumstances.
Saina emerged victorious after her opponent and world number two Xin Wang of China conceded the third-place play-off match due to a knee injury after winning the first game.
Former Asian badminton champion Dinesh Khanna feels this medal will give a big boost to Indian badminton.
"I am very happy to see Saina winning the bronze for India. It is a proud moment for India and it will give big boost to Indian badminton," Khanna said.
"It was unfortunate the way the match turned out and Saina herself would have wanted to win it by playing the match. But its okay, this doesn't take away anything and the medal shows that Indian badminton is at what level," he said.
Saina's achievements in the last few years has motivated many youngsters and it will provide a further boost for Indian shuttlers. Performance of male shuttler P Kashyap has also been extremely well in the London Games.
"Even against Lee Chong Wei, he played well in the first game and their performance shows we are up there and we can beat the Chinese and there is considerable depth in Indian badminton," Khanna added.
Saina's father, Harvir Nehwal was overwhelmed with emotions to see his daughter win the bronze medal. He thanked the Almight and the Indian fans and said it is a very proud moment for him.