Россия предполагает купить у Индии сверхмощный компьютер

PUNE:This truly smacks of Nehru's 'Hindi Rusi bhai-bhai' philosophy. In six to eight months from now, Russian scientists in Moscow would have access to the computing power of India's latest supercomputer - Param Padma. Russia is in talks with India for a sub-scale version of Param Padma, India's most powerful supercomputer, which was unveiled in December 2002. The computer is located at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Bangalore. With a speed of one tera floating point operations per second (Flops), it is the fastest supercomputer developed by C-DAC. It has a memory of 100 terabytes.
"The negotiations have just begun between the two countries and its pricing will depend on the end-use the supercomputer would be put to."
"We cannot offer it at a nominal price and then find that they are exploiting it commercially. However, this is not just a commercial transaction in the strict sense as it is linked with the projects the two countries will collaborate on,"said Sharad Purohit, director of C-DAC.
At around $ 7 million, Param Padma is priced at almost half the cost of other similar computers and, perhaps, perhaps, is the world's cheapest supercomputer. C-DAC, along with the department of science and technology and the department of information technology, are talking the nitty-gritty of the transaction with Moscow-based institutions Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Computer-Aided Design (ICAD) and the Russian Indian Centre for Advanced Computing Research (RICCR). A final decision will be taken in six to eight months, according to Purohit. Russia wants a scaled-down version, say around 20 clusters out of the 54 in Param Padma. Each cluster has 16 chips (the PC we use has one chip) networked/connected together, which helps enhance the speed and amount of communication. The part of Padma's capability that Russia wants ultimately will be decided on the basis of the applications they want to run. "We will configure it according to their requirement," said Purohit.
The scaled-down Padma is likely to be placed at Moscow-based RICCR and may have a speed of 25 to 60 giga flops. RICCR already has the earlier versions of Param, which are connected to the Params in C-DAC. Russia has the largest installation of the Param series outside India.

Российские и китайские ученые объединяют свои усилия в поисках вакцины против атипичной пневмонии

ST. PETERSBURG,January 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian and Chinese specialists will team up in a bid to create a vaccine against SARS, or the severe acute respiratory syndrome.
A Russian-Chinese joint venture will be based in St. Petersburg where the Russian Research Institute of Flu and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology have signed an agreement on the creation of the JV.
The Research Institute of Flu will be reorganised into a research and production association. It and a relevant Chinese company will create a joint venture on a parity basis to make vaccines against SARS in 2004.
The head of the National Flue Centre of the World Health Organisation, Oleg Kiselyov, told Itar-Tass on Monday that Russia would contribute intellectual property worth more than 20 million U.S. dollars. The Chinese side will finance joint experiments, clinical testing of vaccines and their commercial production.
At the same time, the WHO does not think that a vaccine can be a panacea against the deadly virus. "It won't be possible to vaccinate everyone. The only reasonable alternative means to avoid an epidemic would be prevention and strict control on the border,"Kiselyov said.

12 января в Санкт-Петербурге на 82-м году ушла из жизни одна из выдающихся ученых-математиков современности академик Ольга Александровна Ладыженская, главный научный сотрудник Санкт-Петербургского отделения математического института имени В.А. Стеклова РАН и профессор старейшего классического российского госуниверситета в городе на Неве.

Dr. Olga Ladyzhenskaya, a mathematician whose work with differential equations contributed to advances in the study of fluid dynamics in areas like weather forecasting, oceanography, aerodynamics and cardiovascular science, died on Jan. 12 in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was 81.
The cause of death had not been determined, according to a spokeswoman for the Association for Women in Mathematics, in College Park, Md. Dr. Ladyzhenskaya was a member of the organization.
Her primary work was on calculations that were developed in the 19th century to explain the behavior of fluids and known as Navier-Stokes equations. As a researcher first at St. Petersburg University and later at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, also in St. Petersburg, she worked through the solutions for the equations, which show how a number of variables relate in time and space.
Among other practical uses, the equations enable meteorologists to predict the movement of storm clouds. In the 1960's, Dr. Ladyzhenskaya published her observations in a text that is still cited in the field. "Ladyzhenskaya did not describe the basic equations, but she contributed significantly to their solutions," said Dr. Peter D. Lax of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. "She was also always a rebel and treated as one by the Soviet government."
Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya graduated from Moscow State University and received a doctorate from Leningrad State University before earning another doctorate from Moscow State in 1953. After teaching in the physics department at St. Petersburg University, she joined the Steklov Institute, which is affiliated with the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Marshall Slemrod, a mathematician with the University of Wisconsin, said Dr. Ladyzhenskaya had an American counterpart in John Nash, the Princeton mathematician and Nobel laureate whose life is depicted in the film "A Beautiful Mind," and who also studied partial differential equations.
"She was perhaps the premier worker on the Russian side," Dr. Slemrod said. "If you believe your weather forecast, you have to solve the exact equations that she studied."
Her later work involved the study of elliptical and parabolic equations that are used in probability theory. Dr. Ladyzhenskaya's reputation as an independent spirit was furthered by her friendship with Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, the author and dissident, and by reports that her father had been killed by Soviet officials, Dr. Lax said. She was head of the Steklov Institute's laboratory of mathematical physics and was made a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1981, before becoming a full member in 1990.
Earlier in her life, Dr. Ladyzhenskaya was briefly married. She has no immediate survivors.

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THE WASHINGTON TIMES / January 22, 2004 Scientist dissects parting of Red Sea, finds perfect storm By Jennifer Harper

Российский ученый, проанализировав разделение вод Красного моря в библейские времена, пришел к выводу, что причина этого – сильные восточные ветры

A Russian scientist has announced that one of the Old Testament's most monumental events — Moses' parting of the Red Sea — was due to stormy weather and a shallow reef rather than divine intervention.
"I am convinced that God rules the Earth through the laws of physics," Naum Volzinger told the Moscow Times on Wednesday.
The senior researcher at St. Petersburg's Institute of Oceanology spent six months studying the tides, winds and reefs common to the Red Sea, then developed a series of differential equations to chart out the parting of the waters, as detailed in Exodus 14.
"And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided," the King James Version of the Bible states.
Mr. Volzinger determined that if a strong wind blew at 30 meters per second over a shallow reef, then yes, it could have blown that reef dry. He also calculated it would have taken the fleeing Jews about four hours to make their crossing.
Of course, explaining away the miracles and mysteries of the Bible is a perennial favorite among scientific researchers, who find a ready audience for such things.
Among the biblical mysteries that have come under scientific scrutiny in recent years are the star of Bethlehem, the true location of Mount Sinai, the burning bush, the plagues of Egypt, the strength of Samson, and the facial characteristics of Jesus Christ.
A Rutgers University astronomer, for example, explained that the Christmas star was actually a double eclipse of Jupiter 2,000 years ago, based on his calculations gleaned from symbols found on an old Roman coin.
And Jesus was really a stocky, swarthy, clean-shaven man, at least according to Britain's University of Manchester, where researchers generated an image of Christ on a computer based on a first-century skull found in Israel.
Meanwhile, Cambridge University theorized that the burning bush was caused by flaming natural gas seeping from the earth.
Now it's Moses' turn.
Oceanographer Mr. Volzinger studied the conditions on a reef in the northern part of the Gulf of Suez, which some scholars believe is the site where Moses miraculously parted the Red Sea.
Some 3,500 years ago, the reef was much closer to the surface, Mr. Volzinger said.
He set about calculating how much wind speed would have been needed to blow the water from the formation at low tide, how long the area would stay dry and how quickly the seas would come crashing back.
"It would take the Jews — there were 600,000 of them — four hours to cross the 7-kilometer reef that runs from one coast to another. Then, in a half-hour, the waters would come back."
But the scientist, who specializes in oceanic phenomena, admitted that his approach was "strictly from Isaac Newton's point of view,"adding that he had yet to inform any religious organizations about his findings.

© 2004 News World Communications, Inc

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ITAR-TASS News Agency / January 25 Biblical miracles have scientific backing - Russian scientist By Dmitry Zlodoryov, Darya Tokareva

По словам российского ученого А. Городницкого, библейские чудеса имеют научную основу

MOSCOW, The Deluge, the ruin of Sodom and Gomorrah and other miracles from the Bible can have scientific roots, oceanographer Prof. Alexander Gorodnitsky from the Russian Academy of Sciences believes.
"The events described in the Bible did happen, and they require a serious scientific analysis, "he told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
"The tale about the people of Israel crossing the sea on dry ground and the waters coming back over the Egyptians is a classical description of tidal wave,"he said. "Judging by the historical chronicles, the Exodus from Egypt took place 15 centuries before our era. Scientists say that the eruption of the Santorini Volcano in the Aegean Sea happened approximately at the same time. The blast wave from the eruption went round the Earth several times, and ashes covered the entire planet. The Bible describes the event as the plagues of Egypt."
Gorodnitsky and several other scientists of Russia and Israel believe the Sodom and Gomorrah were ruined in a series of volcanic eruptions. There is a giant crack in the earth crust under the Dead Sea. Hydrogen sulfide and methane sporadically come out from the crack. The Dead Sea formed in one of such eruptions, Gorodnitsky said. While giving a scientific backing to the Biblical events, the scientist does not deny their heavenly origin.

Copyright 2004 ITAR-TASS News Agency

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BBC Monitoring International Reports / January 24, 2004 Russian Scientists Develop Tiny Radiation Source for Treating Arteries

Российские ученые создали миниатюрный радиоактивный источник для лечения коронарных сосудов

Russian scientists have been stunning the world with their new inventions. The world's smallest nuclear device has been developed in Dimitrovgrad, a town in Ulyanovsk Region. It can only be seen under a microscope. This instrument, which without exaggeration can be described as unique, can save the lives of people who have a serious heart condition. Here is a report from Vyacheslav Burnov.
(Burnov) The new instrument for treating heart conditions is a metal tube in the form of a twisted spiral which is five times finer than a human hair. The capillary cavity is filled with cerium-144 radionuclide. The whole structure can only be seen under an electron microscope.
(Valeriy Tarasov, captioned as laboratory chief at the Atomic Reactor Research Institute Russian Federation state scientific centre) I think it's like shoeing a flea. That's the sort of size it is!
(Burnov) Usually when there is a narrowing of the coronary arteries the vessel is widened with a special microballoon, but after a time the vessel narrows again and the expensive operation has to be repeated. Swiss doctors proposed that the arteries be subjected to beta-particle radiation. The radioactive super-miniature source has been made in Russia.
(Yuriy Toporov, departmental director at the Atomic Reactor Research Institute Russian Federation State scientific centre) When we embarked on this we did not believe it could be done at all. There are no parallels in the world. Our partners in Geneva joke that the source can be entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest closed source in the world.
(Burnov) The world's smallest nuclear device is assembled in protective cabinets. The tube, as thin as a spider's web, is filled with a radioactive solution. Doctors asked for the Dimitrovgrad microsources to be tested. They were heated, chilled, kept under pressure and even hit with a hammer. The Atomic Energy Ministry product passed its test.
(Toporov) Technologically, as you can see, we are ready to do a lot. Not just we, but the military-industrial complex and other Atomic Energy Ministry enterprises, are ready to shoe a flea, and so on. Whatever you want. But the call for it in Russia is zero, or near zero.
(Burnov) Heart conditions are treated using cerium-144 in just one Swiss clinic. The new method is not available to Russian patients for the time being.

Copyright 2004 BBC Monitoring/BBC  

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news.scotsman.com Russians offer a lift to the final frontier By Tom Pareitt

Российские амбиции в плане освоения Марса или лунного пространства простираются далеко.

TOILING in cash-strapped laboratories they never believed their long-cherished designs for the most advanced rockets, buggies and interplanetary spacecraft would become reality.
But now a group of expert scientists in Russia are dusting off their dreams, spurred on by their old foe's dramatic announcement that man is to return to the Moon and conquer Mars. And with some of the finest minds and best experience behind them, the Russians are once again about to enter the space race, but this time they will share their know-how with the US.
President George Bush's call earlier this month to go "back to the Moon, back to the future" sent a ripple of excitement through workshops and design bureaus in Russia.
"We not only can, but we must participate in these projects, "said Vyacheslav Filin, a senior designer for the Energiya rocket manufacturer. "A new step is necessary in space, a new unifying project."
Nasa has confirmed to Scotland on Sunday that it is seeking specific Russian expertise for Bush's idea of "new ships to carry men forward into the universe". The US president wants to put an astronaut back on the Moon by 2015, using that as a stepping stone for travel to Mars and worlds beyond.
And Moscow has tried and tested technology that could be vital to the design of new spacecraft. Its own space programme was left in a shambles after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the single interplanetary robotic mission it has mounted since then failed miserably eight years ago. Yet, the intellectual muscle of Russia's space scientists remains formidable, if underused.
Last week, government officials doused speculation that Russia would attempt to compete with Bush's new vision, saying it was "not expedient". But deputy prime minister Boris Aleshin said cooperation with Nasa was "completely realistic" if an approach was made by the US agency.
Russians are fiercely proud of their legacy in cosmic exploration. Yuri Gagarin, who became the first man in space when he orbited the earth for 108 minutes in 1961, is immortalised in a giant monument that soars over Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow. Russia put the first satellite in space and holds the record for the longest manned space mission. In recent years, Rosiaviakosmos, the Russian space agency, has suffered the ignominy of sending wealthy tourists such as Dennis Tito to the International Space Station (ISS) in exchange for millions of dollars.
But fortunes changed last year when the burden Russia shouldered in supplying the ISS after the Columbia shuttle disaster won it fresh admiration. The Russian Soyuz is now the only ship capable of carrying crew to and from the space outpost.
Nasa spokesman Robert Mirelson said the US was bound to tap into the expertise of its former Cold War foe. "There's a lot of speculation that the "crew exploration vehicle"envisaged by President Bush for lunar missions will be a Russian-style "capsule" craft with a heat shield, rather than a winged shuttle like the [US] Columbia,"he said. "If it turns out that way, there's a heck of lot of Russian knowledge that we could use."
One option could be the 77-ton spacecraft designed by a team of engineers at the sprawling Energiya manufacturing complex in a northern suburb of Moscow.
Leonid Gorshkov, head of the team, said the reusable craft - based on a Russian Zvezda module - could take a crew of four to six people to Mars and back for a cost of $15bn, about a 10th of Nasa's projected cost. "Technically speaking, the first manned flight to Mars could be possible by 2014," he said. The factory has nursed its plans for a craft capable of reaching the red planet since 1959.
Other engineers speculated about using a Proton booster rocket produced by the Khrunichev rocket manufacturer to launch components of a Mars spacecraft for assembly in orbit.
At the Lavochkin research institute in Kaluga, the talk was of reviving its legendary 'Lunokhod' Soviet Moon Rover. Looking like a mechanised go-kart festooned with probes and antennae, the Lunokhod was the first roving, remote-controlled robot to trundle across the Moon's surface when it was landed there in 1970.
Fresh prospects for space exploration have prompted debate over the potential of distant planets.
"Mars should be used as a spare planet for the relocation of the human race in case of a huge celestial body colliding with the earth," said Vassiliy Moroz of the Russian Academy of Science's institute for space studies.
Another academic, Eric Galimov, said that rare elements on other planets might save humanity from a global energy crisis. And the Moon could be used as "a deep space research outpost, a base for monitoring asteroid threats".
Mirelson at Nasa also stressed that Moscow's knowledge of long flights in space could be invaluable to Bush's new programme. The Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the world record for the longest space mission - 438 days in 1994-1995 - about the length of time needed for a round trip to Mars.
"They know more than anybody else about how astronauts' minds and bodies are affected on long missions," said Mirelson.

© 2004 Scotsman.com

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