FIREFOX HACK FOR SUPER SPEED BROWSING!

FIREFOX HACK FOR SUPER SPEED BROWSING!

here are many people out there complaining about the Firefox RAM Memory Bug. Lets get it straight. It’s not a bug. It’s part of the cache feature. This ‘feature’ is how the pages are cached in a tabbed environment.

To improve performance when navigating (studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button), Firefox implements a Back-Forward cache that retains the rendered document for the last five session history entries for each tab.

This is a lot of data. If you have a lot of tabs, Firefox’s RAM memory usage can climb dramatically. It’s a trade-off. What you get out of it is faster performance as you navigate the web.

Now a lot of us have found the ’secrets’ on how to manipulate settings in “about:config” to drop the memory usage as long as possible and to increase the speed at which Firefox loads sites. Read on to find out how to do this.

Remember: Firefox (download it here) is the best internet browser available (in my opinion), and these tweaks below will make it even greater and faster. So enjoy!

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for it’s cache feature

Here’s how to do it:
1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed in Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false” 
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10mb when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

These simple tweaks will make your web browsing with Mozilla Firefox 2-3 times faster and easier. And I think they are fairly easy to apply. Enjoy!

credits: Beepthegeek

iTwin

                  iTwin

It is pair of of identical USB drives that share data exclusively between them over any connection. The procedure is insert the USB drive you are carrying in any computer and you can access all your files securely and without the need for any third-party software. It was created by Chennai born Lux Ananthraman who's a 1994 IIT-Madras grad and an Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore postgraduate. “It is a cable-less cable” ,he says.

iTwin is essentially two USB dongles that connect to each other through a dedicated hardware interface. Once paired with each other, these act as keys to enable access to shared files on the computers into which they are plugged in.

Plug the two halves into any two computers with internet access and you have remote access to shared files on both systems. The two devices, once paired, are interchangeable and the communication is bidirectional. It does away with hassles of setting up a network or a home server while providing a token-based, secure approach to transfer files with size limited only by the storage capacity of the hard-disk on your computer.

 

HERE U GO CHOCOLATE LOVERS

FOR ALL THOSE WHO LOVE CHOCOLATES

The news the world has awaited with bated breath is finally here: Cocoa prevents cancer and heart disease. Candy producer Mars Inc. along with Harvard University, released the results of a 10-year study revealing that cocoa – rather, the flavanols in cocoa – can substantially reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

The study compared the death certificates of 1,250 Kuna Indians in Panama and in the San Blas Islands just off Panama's coast. The Panama Kunas did not consume cocoa regularly, while the San Blas Kunas drank four to five cups of cocoa water per day. The study revealed that the San Blas Kunas, who drank the cocoa water, had a 1,280 percent lower risk of death from heart disease than the Panama Kunas, and a 630 percent lower risk of death from cancer.

In the United States, where heart disease and cancer are the top two causes of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this is fantastic news. Cocoa, which chocolate is made from, can significantly help in the prevention of cancer and heart disease.

But don't leap to the wrong conclusions and think that chocolate candy is good medicine. Most chocolate in the United States packs a sizeable dose of sugar and milk fat to make it sweet and delicious, and thereby desired by most consumers. Eating milk chocolate bars, for example, will not help you prevent cancer or heart disease nearly as well as eating darker chocolate, because adding dairy products to chocolate effectively cancels out the healthy antioxidants in the cocoa itself. It may taste good, but it's largely useless as far as preventing cancer and heart disease. In fact, even eating some popular brands of dark chocolate will not help you prevent these diseases, since they, too, are often loaded with sugar and milk fats.

How Chocolate Fights Cancer

The great news is that in addition to being decadent and delicious, moderate amounts of dark chocolate may play a role in cancer prevention.

New studies reveals that dark chocolate’s substances, which behave as antioxidants (flavanols, catechins and epicatechins), have been revealed to play a role in decreasing cancer risks by helping to fight cell damage which could bring about tumor growth. Chocolate fights cancer.

Flavanols in chocolate fights cancer?

These antioxidants occur naturally in the plant-based cacao bean, the base of all chocolate products. Cacao beans are, actually, one of the most concentrated natural sources of antioxidants which exist. The flavanols may be the help as chocolate fights cancer.

“Dark chocolate has a higher percentage of healthy antioxidants, without the increased sugar and saturated fats added to milk chocolate”.

Chocolate has been a favorite food for centuries, according to the American Dietetic Association. It has become a symbol for love, indulgence, temptation and now, we can justify it for its health attributes. And if, as studies are showing, chocolate fights cancer it will become an even bigger symbol of health.

Darker Chocolate Packs a Punch: The main reason that eating dark chocolate, versus milk or white chocolate fights cancer risks is because it has a higher percentage of cacao, and thus antioxidants.
As the cacao content goes up, there also is less room for sugar. Flavanols are what are believed to be the active antioxidants in the battle as chocolate fights cancer.

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, people should aim for pure dark chocolate that contains at least 65 percent cacao, as opposed to the kind of chocolate commonly used in cakes and cookies, which contain more calories, sugar and unhealthy fats.
When eating chocolate, looking at portion size and calorie content also is crucial. Recommended servings for regular dark chocolate are seven ounces per week, which is about one ounce per day. And for a high antioxidant diet using  cold pressed healthy chocolate, perhaps three times a day.

Savoring a small amount of dark chocolate is much better than gulping soft drinks or eating doughnuts. Remember, although  dark chocolate fights cancer, it is still a calorie-dense food that may be high in fat. Perhaps it is part of your high antioxidant chocolate diet.

A person can enjoy dark chocolate daily within a balanced diet

• Choose dark chocolate with a high cacao percentage (65 percent or higher).
• Buy chocolate to be eaten in small portions, like individually wrapped chocolate (about 1 oz per serving).
• Keep your portion size in check.

• Check the ingredients. Make sure they don’t contain fats, such as palm and coconut oils
• They are made without the use of ‘hydrogenated’ or ‘partially hydrogenated’ oils.
• Be sure the chocolate has all the flavanols  (it should have flavanol count on package or it’s not right)
• It is cold-pressed dark chocolate

Now there is yet another study showing high antioxidant diets that include healthy dark chocolate fights cancer.

STEM CELLS

     

             STEM CELLS

What  Are  STEM CELLS  ?

After a baby is delivered, the mother's body releases the placenta, the temporary organ that transferred oxygen and nutrients to the baby while in the mother's uterus. Until recently, in most cases the umbilical cord and placenta were discarded after birth without a second thought. But during the 1970s, researchers discovered that umbilical cord blood could supply the same kinds of blood-forming (hematopoietic) stem cells as a bone marrow donor. And so, umbilical cord blood began to be collected and stored.

What are blood-forming stem cells?

These are primitive (early) cells found primarily in the bone marrow that are capable of developing into the three types of mature blood cells present in our blood — red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Cord-blood stem cells may also have the potential to give rise to other cell types in the body.

Some serious illnesses (such as certain childhood cancers, blood diseases, and immune system disorders) require radiation and chemotherapy treatments to kill diseased cells in the body. Unfortunately, these treatments also kill many "good" cells along with the bad, including healthy stem cells that live in the bone marrow.

Depending on the type of disease and treatment needed, some kids need a bone marrow transplant (from a donor whose marrow cells closely match their own). Blood-forming stem cells from the donor are transplanted into the child who is ill, and those cells go on to manufacture new, healthy blood cells and enhance the child's blood-producing and immune system capability.

How important is stem cell banking in today’s world?

Stem cell banking is progressively gaining importance and acceptance. It is the most straightforward way of providing natural pluripotent stem cells either to the same individual, if it was stored for personal use or as a pooled source for allogenic purpose. With the number of lifestyle disorders increasing, stem cell banking may be an important source for needy patients.

APPLICATIONS OF STEM CELLS :

Stem cells can be used to study development

 Stem cells may help us understand how a complex organism develops from a fertilised egg. In the laboratory, scientists can follow stem cells as they divide and become increasingly specialized, making skin, bone, brain, and other cell types. Identifying the signals and mechanisms that determine whether a stem cell chooses to carry on replicating itself or differentiate into a specialized cell type, and into which cell type, will help us understand what controls normal development.

 Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation. A better understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of these processes may yield information about how such diseases arise and suggest new strategies for therapy. This is an important goal of stem cell research - this poster, by EuroStemCell scientist Fiona Watt, gives an overview of what scientists have discovered so far (December 2006).

Stem cells have the ability to replace damaged cells and treat disease

 This property is already used in the treatment of extensive burns, and to restore the blood system in patients with leukaemia and other blood disorders.

 Stem cells may also hold the key to replacing cells lost in many other devastating diseases for which there are currently no sustainable cures. Today, donated tissues and organs are often used to replace damaged tissue, but the need for transplantable tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, if they can be directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including Parkinson's, stroke, heart disease and diabetes. This prospect is an exciting one, but significant technical hurdles remain that will only be overcome through years of intensive research.

Stem cells could be used to study disease

 In many cases it is difficult to obtain the cells that are damaged in a disease, and to study them in detail. Stem cells, either carrying the disease gene or engineered to contain disease genes, offer a viable alternative. Scientists could use stem cells to model disease processes in the laboratory, and better understand what goes wrong.

Stem cells could provide a resource for testing new medical treatments

 New medications could be tested for safety on specialized cells generated in large numbers from stem cell lines – reducing the need for animal testing. Other kinds of cell lines are already used in this way. Cancer cell lines, for example, are used to screen potential anti-tumour drugs.

ALLAH RAKHA RAHMAN

ALLAH RAKHA RAHMAN

His Early Life

A.R. Rahman was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India to a musically affluent Mudaliar Tamil family.He was born in 6^th August 1966 nd his birth name is A.S. DEELIP KUMAR…. His father R. K. Shekhar, was a film music composer and conductor for Tamil as well as Malayalam films. Rahman used to assist his father during recordings and play keyboard for the songs. Rahman lost his father at the age of 9 and his family had to rent out his father's musical equipment as their source of income. Rahman was raised by his mother Kareema (born Kashturi). During these formative years, Rahman served as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as "Roots", with childhood friend and percussionist Sivamani, John Anthony, Suresh Peters, JoJo and Raja. Rahman is the founder of the Chennai-based rock group, "Nemesis Avenue". He mastered various music instruments like Keyboard, Piano, Synthesizer, Harmonium and Guitar. His curiosity in Synthesizer in particular, increased because, he says, it was the "ideal combination of music and technology".

At the age of 11, he started playing musical instruments in the orchestra of Malayalam composer and a close friend of Rahman's father, M. K. Arjunan.Soon he started working with other composers such as M. S. Viswanathan, Ilaiyaraaja, Ramesh Naidu, Raj-Koti and also accompanied Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Shankar on world tours and obtained a scholarship with Trinity College, London, board of the Trinity College of Music. Studying in Chennai, he graduated with graded examinations and a diploma in Western classical music via the college. He was introduced to Qadiri Islam when his younger sister fell severely ill in 1984. Subsequently, Rahman along with other members of his family converted to Islam in 1989, when he was 23 years old. He changed his name from A. S. Dileep Kumar to Allah Rakha Rahman i.e. A. R. Rahman.

First Film

Rahman would later say, "I wasn't sure myself why I accepted Roja. I was offered Rs.25,000 for it, a sum that I could make in three days composing ad jingles. I think it was the prospect of working with Mani that enticed me. Mani is no the usual kind of director who uses songs as fillers. He takes great pains over the music of his films. I love his picturisations, he can elevate a routine song by 400 percent; give it a new dimension." All the same, as a newcomer Rahman was terrified over his film debut. Expectations were high. What a fall if he failed! "Mani praised everything I did. Later I realised it was to keep me going. He discarded whatever bore the influence of others and picked out tunes that had my individual stamp. ''This is you!" he'd say.''

Rahman's D-Day arrived when 'Roja' was released on August 15th, 1992. It was awaited with curiosity since it was Mani Ratnam's first film without Illaiyaraja. Sceptics doubted the ability of a 25-year old debutant.

The entire film world and filmgoers were in for a pleasant surprise. Rahman delivered the goods and how. To call the music a superhit would be an understatement. Rahman became a household name in Tamil Nadu overnight and the score of 'Roja' was the first step in his changing the face of Indian film music. 'Roja' not only won the heart of millions with its music it also won every conceivable award in music that year. Rahman also got the Rajat Kamal for best music director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a debutant.  He was flooded with offers to do more films. He gradually cut down on his work in ads and subsequently moved into film music full time. And there was no looking back for A. R. Rahman. With 'Roja', A. R. Rahman had finally arrived.

Recalling the massive success of his first film, Rahman says, "I was lucky to set a sound in the first film. And I had the right people like Mani Ratnam guiding me to achieve it also and by the grace of god it set and the people know from the moment the song is heard that this is Rahman's." Mani Ratnam, in response says,  "I was not trying to any favours for Rahman. I was trying to do a film, I wanted good music and I was searching for somebody who would and I heard a demonstration tape of his which he had sent across. I thought that in the first note of the piece that he had sent me was really brilliant, really outstanding piece. So I went across to his studio and he played me some more, lots of things which he had done for jingles and a few other musical pieces he has done for somebody else. They were quite amazing and I had no doubts that he would be right for my film. How much he would grow, I was not looking at. I was looking at predominately my film at that point of time. He was ready to break a lot of conventions that were there in terms of music at that point of time, in terms of recording at that point in time. So I was very lucky to find someone who was willing to break away and do something different. To that extent it was absolutely perfect. He is the perfect bridge between today's technology and Indian music. He has the soul of Indian music inside and there is a lot of engineering and recording talent in him. He is able to blend the two together. He is a very talented person."

Awards

AR Rahman at his residence in Chennai after bagging two Academy Awards for his work in Slumdog Millionaire (2009)

Rahman was the 1995 recipient of the Mauritius National Award and the Malaysian Award for contributions to music. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his first West-End production. A four-time National Film Award winner and recipient of six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, fourteen Filmfare Awards and thirteen Filmfare Awards South for his music and scores.He has been conferred Kalaimamani from the Government of Tamil Nadu for excellence in the field of music, special music achievement awards from the Government of Uttar Pradesh and Government of Madhya Pradesh and the Padma Shri from the Government of India. In 2006, he received an honorary award from Stanford University for contributions to global music. In 2007, Rahman was entered into the Limca Book of Records as "Indian of the Year for Contribution to Popular Music", and the Guinness World Records in 2010 as the original composer of "Maa Tujhe Salaam", from the album Vande Mataram - the song performed in the most number of languages worldwide (265). He is the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the Rotary Club of Madras. In 2009, for his score of Slumdog Millionaire, Rahman won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, and two Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards. Rahman has received honorary doctorates from Middlesex University and Aligarh Muslim University. Later the year Rahman was conferred the honorary doctorate from Anna University in Chennai. He has also won two Grammy Awards, for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and Best Song Written for a Visual Media. Rahman was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor, in 2010. Rahman's work for the film 127 Hours garnered him Golden Globe, BAFTA, and two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song in 2011. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Trinity College of Music, presented to him by Trinity College London…

A.R. RAHMAN’S ACHIEVEMENTS

A two-time Academy Award (Oscar) winner, A. R. Rahman is popularly known as the man who

has redefined contemporary Indian music. Hailed by Time Magazine as the 'Mozart of Madras',

Rahman, according to a BBC estimate, has sold more than 150 million copies of his work

comprising of music from more than 100 film soundtracks and albums across over half a dozen

languages, including landmark scores such as 'Roja', 'Bombay', 'Lagaan', and more recently,

'Jodhaa Akbar', 'Delhi 6' and 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

Rahman pursued music as a career at a very young age and after assisting leading musicians in

India went on to compose jingles and scores for popular Indian television features. He also

obtained a degree in western classical music from the Trinity College of Music, London and set

up his own in-house studio called Panchathan Record-Inn at Chennai.

In 1997, Sony Music signed up Rahman as its first artiste in South Asia. The result was 'Vande

Mataram', an album that instantly made Indians relate to it and succeeded in rekindling the spirit

of patriotism. In 2001, Andrew Lloyd Webber, invited Rahman to compose for his musical,

'Bombay Dreams'. 'Bombay Dreams' had an unprecedented run for 2 years and later premiered

at New York's Broadway. Rahman recently composed the score for the stage production of 'The

Lord of the Rings'.

Rahman has undertaken several sellout concert tours in over 30 international destinations

including one at the prestigious Hollywood Bowl in 2006. Recently, Times Magazine rated the

soundtrack of 'Roja' in the Top 10 of their all time best movie soundtracks of the world; The

Guardian, UK, listed the soundtrack of 'Bombay' in '1000 albums to listen before you die'.

Rahman's music led him to be noticed internationally with several of his tracks featuring in movies

such as 'The Lord of War', 'Inside Man' and 'The Accidental Husband'. His composition, Bombay

Theme holds the distinction of being featured in over 50 international compilations. He also

scored the music for the Hollywood productions, 'Elizabeth - The Golden Age', 'Slumdog

Millionaire', 'Couples Retreat' and the Chinese movie, 'Warriors of Heaven & Earth' produced by

Sony Pictures.

In 2008, Rahman's work gained global prominence with the extraordinary success of his score for

'Slumdog Millionaire' that won 8 Academy Awards including two for Rahman, for Best Score and

Best Song. Rahman won over 15 awards for his score including two Grammys, the Golden Globe

and the BAFTA.

Rahman has been bestowed with two of India's highest national civilian honours, recognising his

contribution to music, in addition to several other awards including 4 Indian National Film Awards

and 25 Filmfare Awards, India's leading recognition for films. He was also named as one of the

100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, in 2009.

Rahman has expanded his focus to newer horizons like setting up the A.R Rahman Foundation to

help poor and underprivileged children. He released his first English single, 'Pray For Me Brother'

in 2007, with proceeds from the sales going to the foundation. He also serves as the UN

Ambassador for the 2015 Millenium Development Goals.

                     

                         “ BE PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN”

Aakash Tablet

Aakash Tablet

                        

What is Aakash Tablet ?

The Aakash is an Android tablet computer jointly developed by the London-based company DataWind with the Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan and manufactured by the India-based company Quad, at a new production centre in Hyderabad ,under a trial run of 100,000 units. The tablet was officially launched as the Aakash in New Delhi on Oct 5, 2011. A substantially revised second generation model is projected for manufacture beginning in early 2012.

Features:

·      High quality web anytime any where via GPRS or WiFi

·      GPRS embedded modem eliminates the need of external modem

·      Fast access to Youtube videos via WiFi hotspots

·      Plug any ordinary pen drive

·      It can also be used as a phone to make and receive calls

Technical Specifications:

·      Powered by Android OS 2.2 (Froyo)

·      Connexant with Graphics accelerator and HD video processor

·      Memory RAM : 256MB and Storage Internal : 2 GB Flash Hard Disk

·      Display and Resolution: 7 inch display with 800*480 pixel resolution

·      Input Devices: Resistive touch screen

·      Supported Document formats: DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP, PDF viewer and Text editor

·      Image viewer supported formats: PNG, JPG, BMP and GIF

·      Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA

·      Supported video formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, FLV

·      Games, full Office suite, educational software and over 1,50,000 apps!

·      Web browser Standards Compliance: xHTML 1.1 compliant, JavaScript 1.8 compliant

·      Connectivity with GPRS and WiFi with 802.11 a/b/g c

·      Battery: Upto 180 minutes on battery . AC adapter 200-240 V range

Place Your Order Now

Visit-http://www.ubislate.com/prebook.html

BREAKING THE LAWS OF MODERN PHYSICS

BREAKING THE LAWS OF MODERN PHYSICS

Neutrinos travelling faster than light.

What is a neutrino?

Neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles which make up the universe. They are also one of the least understood.

Neutrinos are similar to the more familiar electron, with one crucial difference: neutrinos do not carry electric charge. Because neutrinos are electrically neutral, they are not affected by the electromagnetic forces which act on electrons. Neutrinos are affected only by a "weak" sub-atomic force of much shorter range than electromagnetism, and are therefore able to pass through great distances in matter without being affected by it. If neutrinos have mass, they also interact gravitationally with other massive particles, but gravity is by far the weakest of the four known forces.

Three types of neutrinos are known; there is strong evidence that no additional neutrinos exist, unless their properties are unexpectedly very different from the known types. Each type or "flavor" of neutrino is related to a charged particle (which gives the corresponding neutrino its name).  Hence, the "electron neutrino" is associated with the electron, and two other neutrinos are associated with heavier versions of the electron called the muon and the tau (elementary particles are frequently labelled with Greek letters, to confuse the layman).



A Brief History of the Neutrino

		1931 - A hypothetical particle is predicted by the theorist Wolfgang Pauli. Pauli based his prediction on the fact that energy and momentum did not appear to be conserved in certain radioactive decays. Pauli suggested that this missing energy might be carried off, unseen, by a neutral particle which was escaping detection.
		1934 - Enrico Fermi develops a comprehensive theory of radioactive decays, including Pauli's hypothetical particle, which Fermi coins the neutrino (Italian: "little neutral one"). With inclusion of the neutrino, Fermi's theory accurately explains many experimentally observed results.
		1959 - Discovery of a particle fitting the expected characteristics of the neutrino is announced by Clyde Cowan and Fred Reines (a founding member of Super-Kamiokande; UCI professor emeritus and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics for his contribution to the discovery). This neutrino is later determined to be the partner of the electron.
		1962 - Experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN, the European Laboratory for Nuclear Physics make a surprising discovery: neutrinos produced in association with muons do not behave the same as those produced in association with electrons. They have, in fact, discovered a second type of neutrino (the muon neutrino).
		1968 - The first experiment to detect (electron) neutrinos produced by the Sun's burning (using a liquid Chlorine target deep underground) reports that less than half the expected neutrinos are observed. This is the origin of the long-standing "solar neutrino problem."  The possibility that the missing electron neutrinos may have transformed into another type (undetectable to this experiment) is soon suggested, but unreliability of the solar model on which the expected neutrino rates are based is initially considered a more likely explanation.
		1978 - The tau particle is discovered at SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. It is soon recognized to be a heavier version of the electron and muon, and its decay exhibits the same apparent imbalance of energy and momentum that led Pauli to predict the existence of the neutrino in 1931. The existence of a third neutrino associated with the tau is hence inferred, although this neutrino has yet to be directly observed.
		1985 - The IMB experiment, a large water detector searching for proton decay but which also detects neutrinos, notices that fewer muon-neutrino interactions than expected are observed. The anomaly is at first believed to be an artifact of detector inefficiencies.
		1985 - A Russian team reports measurement, for the first time, of a non-zero neutrino mass. The mass is extremely small (10,000 times less than the mass of the electron), but subsequent attempts to independently reproduce the measurement do not succeed.
		1987 - Kamiokande, another large water detector looking for proton decay, and IMB detect a simultaneous burst of neutrinos from Supernova 1987A.
		1988 - Kamiokande, another water detector looking for proton decay but better able to distinguish muon neutrino interactions from those of electron neutrino, reports that they observe only about 60% of the expected number of muon-neutrino interactions.
		1989 - The Frejus and NUSEX experiments, much smaller than either Kamiokande or IMB, and using iron rather than water as the neutrino target, report no deficit of muon-neutrino interactions.
		1989 - Experiments at CERN's Large Electron-Positron (LEP) accelerator determine that no additional neutrinos beyond the three already known can exist.
		1989 - Kamiokande becomes the second experiment to detect neutrinos from the Sun, and confirms the long-standing anomaly by finding only about 1/3 the expected rate.
		1990 - After an upgrade which improves the ability to identify muon-neutrino interactions, IMB confirms the deficit of muon neutrino interactions reported by Kamiokande.
		1994 - Kamiokande finds a deficit of high-energy muon-neutrino interactions. Muon-neutrinos travelling the greatest distances from the point of production to the detector exhibit the greatest depletion.
		1994 - The Kamiokande and IMB groups collaborate to test the ability of water detectors to distinguish muon- and electron-neutrino interactions, using a test beam at the KEK accelerator laboratory. The results confirm the validity of earlier measurements. The two groups will go on to form the nucleus of the Super-Kamiokande project.
		1996 - The Super-Kamiokande detector begins operation.
		1997 - The Soudan-II experiment becomes the first iron detector to observe the disappearance of muon neutrinos. The rate of disappearance agrees with that observed by Kamiokande and IMB.
		1997 - Super-Kamiokande reports a deficit of cosmic-ray muon neutrinos and solar electron neutrinos, at rates agreeing with measurements by earlier experiments.
		1998 - The Super-Kamiokande collaboration announces evidence of non-zero neutrino mass at the Neutrino '98 conference.

Neutrino experiment replicates faster-than-light finding

The odds have shrunk that Einstein was wrong about a fundamental law of the Universe.

Scientists at the world's biggest physics lab said on Friday they have ruled out one possible error that could have distorted startling measurements appearing to show particles travelling faster than light.

Many physicists reacted with scepticism in September when measurements by French and Italian researchers seemed to show subatomic neutrino particles breaking what Einstein considered the ultimate speed barrier.

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research said more precise testing has confirmed the accuracy of one part of the experiment. "One key test was to repeat the measurement with very short beam pulses," said the Geneva-based organisation, known by its French acronym CERN.

The test allowed scientists to check if the starting time for the neutrinos was being measured correctly before they were fired 730 km from Geneva to a lab in Italy. The results matched those from the previous test, "ruling out one potential source of systematic error," said CERN.

Still, scientists stressed only independent measurements by labs elsewhere would allow them to declare the results a genuine finding. "A measurement so delicate and carrying a profound implication on physics requires an extraordinary level of scrutiny," said Fernando Ferroni, president of Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics. "The positive outcome of the test makes us more confident in the result, although a final word can only be said by analogous measurements performed elsewhere in the world."

According to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity, nothing is meant to be able to go faster than the speed of light — 299,792 km per second.

But the researchers said in September that their neutrinos travelled 60 nanoseconds faster, when the margin of error in their experiment allowed for just 10 nanoseconds.

Cross-checked

As the OPERA team involved in measuring the speed of neutrinos has already shown, the early arrival was cross-checked for six months and by measuring the speed of more than 15,000 neutrinos before the results were announced.

When a possible source of error concerning the longer duration (10.5 microseconds) of the proton pulses was raised, the OPERA team repeated the experiment by producing shorter-duration pulses. And the results were identical — neutrinos travelled 60 nanoseconds faster than light.

The latest confirmation brings them one step closer to shaking the very foundation of modern physics — Albert Einstein's 1905 Special theory of Relativity that states nothing can travel faster than light.

If the results announced two months ago shocked and stunned scientists all over the world, a sense of disbelief has set in after the team of scientists reconfirmed the results last Friday.

The experiment involved generating proton pulses and measuring the time taken for the neutrinos to travel 730 km from CERN, Europe's particle physics lab near Geneva to Gran Sasso National laboratory near L'Aquila, Italy. The 730 km distance between the two points has been measured with an error margin of just 20 cm.

A beam of light would take just 2.4 milliseconds to cover this distance. But in March 2011 scientists were shocked to discover that neutrinos travelled 60 nanoseconds (or 60 billionths of a second) faster than light.

This means that neutrinos were travelling at a speed of 299,798,454 metres per second, while the speed of light in a vacuum is slower at 299,792,458 metres per second.

It was not an isolated observation. In fact, scientists found more than 15,000 neutrinos arriving earlier than expected at the Gran Sasso Laboratory. They checked the accuracy of the data for six months before going public. Since the error margin was only 10 nanoseconds, neutrinos were indeed travelling faster than light.

But there was one factor that the team had overlooked. The proton pulses used for generating the neutrinos were of 10.5 microseconds duration and hence relatively longer. There was a possible room for error as it was difficult to tell whether the speed of individual neutrinos was compared with protons arriving at the beginning or end of the 10.5 microsecond-long pulse.

Hence the OPERA team repeated the experiment by reducing the duration of the pulse from 10.5 microseconds to just 3 nanoseconds — a 3,000-times reduction in pulse duration.

The Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics, located nearly a mile below the surface of the Gran Sasso mountain about 60 miles outside of Rome, detects tiny particles called neutrinos.

Results from 20 events produced from 3 nanosecond pulses showed that the neutrinos still arrived 60 nanoseconds earlier than light. This was the result that was announced a few days ago.



Other possible errors

There is one more possible error factor that has been raised — synchronising to within nanosecond accuracy the two clocks at both locations (in Geneva and L'Aquila, Italy) to time the neutrino's speed. The OPERA team had synchronised the clocks using GPS signals from a single satellite. The use of GPS in high-energy particle physics to synchronise the clocks at either end of the beam path may be one controversial issue as it has never been tried before.

According to an article in Nature, Carlo Contaldi of the Imperial College London has challenged the OPERA results as it has not taken into account one important aspect of the general theory of relativity — the difference in the force of gravity at the two locations affecting the rate at which the clocks tick.

Effect of gravity

Compared with Gran Sasso, the CERN site is further away from the centre of the earth and hence would experience slightly stronger gravitational pull. This would result in the clock at CERN running slightly slower than the one at Gran Sasso.

Dario Autiero of the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Lyons, France and physics co-ordinator for OPERA was quoted as saying in Nature that "Contaldi's challenge is a result of misunderstanding of how clocks were synchronised." The team is expected to soon explain the way the clocks were synchronised.

According to Nature, one more element that is generating more scrutiny is the "profile of the proton beam" that generates neutrinos as a "by-product of collision with a target."