Melbourne, October 15 (ANI): The Government agency that controls telecommunication in Australia has proposed allowing air passengers to use mobiles on aeroplanes.

The proposal from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) came after a recent 18-month trial showed that specially designed systems could be used without interfering with an aircraft's own communication's systems.

The agency called for public submissions on its plan to install in-flight mobile phone systems for domestic and international flights.

According to reports, the system would involved a device called a "jammer", which would block passengers' mobile phones from picking up multiple signals from numerous base stations on the ground.

The use of such jammers is presently forbidden on aircraft due to the fear that they may interfere with other on-board communications systems.

The ACMA, however, insists that the results of the recent trial suggest that this is not the case.

The agency also proposed amending legislation to allow them.

"Australia led the world when it trialled in-flight GSM mobile phone services in 2007," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman, as saying.

"There is growing recognition by regulators worldwide that in-flight mobile phone services can be deployed without interference to existing telecommunications services," he added. (ANI)

Washington, Oct 15 (ANI): Scientists at Rice University have created a terahertz version of the single-pixel camera that could revolutionise technologies in security, telecom, signal processing and medicine.

The new method, described by the researchers could replace the expensive, multipixel sensor arrays used in current terahertz imaging systems with a single sensor. The two major constituents of the new system are- the ongoing development of a modulator that would feed a rapid-fire series of randomized images to the sensor, and the compressed sensing algorithm that turns the raw data into an image.

The advances "could make for very inexpensive security and scientific cameras in the near future," said Richard Baraniuk, Rice's Cameron Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering,

Baraniuk helped make a proof-of-concept prototype that used 600 sheets of copper (which blocks terahertz radiation) through which random holes had been punched as the modulator.

"There's very good reason to believe you could build a terahertz modulator that could do that same task electrically, and very fast," said Daniel Mittleman, a Rice professor in electrical and computer engineering.

Mittleman, on the other hand is testing a 4-by-4 array of metamaterials supplied by Los Alamos National Laboratory that become opaque to terahertz radiation when a voltage is applied.

"There are lots of applications for terahertz imaging, if you could make a real-time imager that's sensitive enough. Some of them are pretty science-fictiony, but some are pretty realistic. I think this is really promising," said Mittleman.

Terahertz radiation occupies space in the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave, and also penetrates fabric, wood, plastic and even clouds, but not metal or water.

However, unlike X-rays, T-rays are not harmful, and cheap T-ray cameras could be used for security screening in airports, supplementing traditional X-ray scanners and walk-through portals.

Kevin Kelly, associate professor in electrical and computer engineering said that hyperspectral capabilities present in even basic single-pixel cameras could make them useful for all kinds of things.

"Current cameras break an image down into red, green and blue. But this system breaks down every pixel into all the individual wavelengths that make up a color. If you want to know whether that green object over there is a bunch of trees or a tank painted green, this system will tell you," he said.

Rice introduced its research into the single-pixel camera two years ago.

The technology created a stir when it was introduced, and advances have come quickly, particularly in the compressive sensing algorithms that make it possible to do with one pixel what takes commercial digital cameras millions.

The study was published recently in Applied Physics Letters. (ANI)

London, Oct 15 (ANI): Scientists have found the hottest ever planet that sizzles at 2250 degree Celsius, which is as hot as some stars, a find that could challenge models of how close planets can sidle up to their host stars.

According to a report in New Scientist, the new planet, known as WASP-12b, is 1.5 times as massive as Jupiter.

Incredibly, it takes just over a day to circle its host star, orbiting at 1/40th the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

The tight embrace heats WASP-12b to an estimated 2250 degree Celsius - about half as hot as the surface of the Sun, and as hot as some stars.

That makes the planet the hottest yet discovered, as well as the planet with the fastest orbit, according to Leslie Hebb of the University of St Andrews in the UK.

Hebb and colleagues found the giant in a large survey called the Super Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP). ]

The collaboration uses two sets of telescopes, one in Spain's Canary Islands and the other in South Africa, to search for signs of 'transiting' planets, which pass in front of and dim their host stars as seen from Earth.

Extrasolar planets are too dim compared to their host stars to directly measure the infrared light - or heat - they emit.

But, astronomers know the planets' size and orbital distances from the transit observations. From that, they can work out how much starlight falls on the planets and thus take their temperature.

The competition for the hottest planet is tight. WASP-12b only just beats out the last record-holder, HD 149026b, whose blacker-than-charcoal surface is a searing 2040 degree Celsius.

But WASP-12b's speedy orbit might be a harder record to break.

Astronomers believe Jupiter-sized exoplanets form farther from their stars and then migrate to closer orbits. That's because there could not have been enough gas and dust so close to the stars to amass such giant worlds.

According to Hebb, most observed exoplanets have orbital periods of three days or longer, suggesting that some mechanism may prevent the planets from migrating even closer to their stars.

"When the planets form and migrate inward, something is causing them to stop and preferentially stop with a period of three days," Hebb told New Scientist. "I was surprised that the period could be so much shorter," he added.

WASP-12b's size may also be a challenge to explain. The planet's width is 1.8 times that of Jupiter, larger than gas giants are thought to grow.

"The planet radius is suspiciously large," said Sara Seager of MIT. (ANI)

London, Oct.15 (ANI): A British Sikh kebab shop owner has been asked to close down his business after police caught him cooking kebabs with the corpse of a colleague lying on a sofa nearby. Jaswinder Singh was ordered to stop preparing curries, kebabs and Indian sweets immediately.

According to The Sun, a magistrates' court heard the catalogue of horrors at Pappu Sweet Centre and Catering in Wolverhampton, West Midlands.

It included flies, rats, filth, mouldy food and staff dropping cigarette ends and spitting on the floor. Refrigerators were running at more than 68øF (20øC). Singh, 45, was banned from working with food again after he admitted 12 hygiene and pest control offences.

Singh pleaded: "I am sorry for this but I have spent 2,000 pounds repairing it. I should be given one last chance."

But District Judge Martin Brown said: "The facts in this case are about as grave as one might get."

"This all says to me unequivocally that you are not a fit person to be preparing food for business. I have effectively taken away your business," Brown added.

Singh, who had owned the shop since 1996, was hit with a Hygiene Prohibition Order, plus 3,861 pounds in fines and costs. He was also fined 2,000 pounds for poor hygiene in 2001. (ANI)