RBI news

RBI Releases Framework on Payments Systems

  Reserve Bank released its framework for 'Payment and Settlement Systems in India', with a view to moving towards "less-cash" society and ensuring access of mobile banking services to even basic phone users.

  The Vision-2018 reiterates commitment of RBI to encourage greater use of electronic payments by all sections of society so as to achieve a "less-cash" society,RBI said.

  "The policy efforts will also focus on ensuring that access to mobile banking services is seamlessly provided to the large number of users of non-smartphone handsets in multiple languages," it said.

  Leveraging on 5Cs - Coverage, Convenience, Confidence, Convergence, Cost - Vision-2018 focuses on responsive regulation, robust infrastructure, effective supervision and customer centricity, it said.

Vegetables Grown on Mars

Vegetables Grown on Mars-Like Soil Found Safe for Humans

  Four vegetables grown on soil similar to that on Mars have been found safe for human consumption, Dutch scientists say.

  In greenhouses at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, scientists have worked on growing crops on Mars and Moon soil simulants since 2013.

  The first experiment demonstrated that crops could grow on the soil simulants. Last year, the researchers mixed inedible parts of the 2013 plants into the simulant and succeeded to grow ten different crops, of which several were harvested.

  One remaining uncertainty was that heavy metals such as cadmium, copper and lead, which are present in the soils, could contaminate the crops.

  If too high levels of heavy metals from the soil are absorbed in the edible parts of the plants, the crops become poisonous.

  The researchers have now tested four of the ten grown crops for heavy metals: radishes, peas, rye, and tomatoes. No dangerous levels of aluminium, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, chrome, nickel and lead were found, meaning the four crops are safe to eat.

  "These remarkable results are very promising," said senior ecologist Wieger Wamelink.

  "We can actually eat the radishes, peas, rye, and tomatoes and I am very curious what they will taste like," Wamelink said.

  For some of the heavy metals the concentrations in the plants were even lower than in the crops grown in potting soil.

  "It's important to test as many crops as possible, to make sure that settlers on Mars have access to a broad variety of different food sources," he said.

  The crops are not only tested for heavy metals, but also for vitamins, flavonoids and alkaloids.

Facebook News

Mark Zuckerberg Reveals Upcoming Features in First Facebook Live Q&A

  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg conducted his first ever live Q&A on the social platform to answer people's queries from across the world. Using Facebook Live for the first time in a Q&A session, he touched upon various topics including online education, specific features for the disabled, Live Video upgrades, virtual reality, and even briefly mentioned Orlando shooting that happened over the weekend.

  Zuckerberg began the session by answering the most popular question. A Facebook user from Sydney requested folders on Facebook to store things like recipes. The question had about 1,000 likes, and Zuckerberg claimed that the company was working on it, without getting into the specifics. In the meanwhile, he asserted that there are hoards of special interest groups on Facebook that users could join to learn and share things of the same interest with each other.

  He also made a special mention to the 49 people that were killed in Orlando over the weekend. He read out a comment from a Florida user asserting that social media technology needs to be used to find solutions to humanities problems, and work together towards peace.

  Touching upon online education, Zuckerberg expressed interest over building tools that would enable users to learn things on the social media platform. He also confirmed that Facebook is working on features to improve experience for the challenged and disabled. The social platform will use artificial intelligence to build tools that would decode an image and read it out loud for the blind users. Moreover, it looks to support video subtitles for users who are hearing impaired.

  Facebook also is working on improving Live Videos, and bring tweaks like chat back for a more immersive experience. This will enable talk back into the video, for a real time chat on Facebook. Zuckerberg just said that it was a work-in-progress, and did not dwell into any timeframe specifics.

  He also spoke about the social giant's push into virtual reality. He said that while virtual reality is a grand tech innovation, it is not the end of it. There is a lot past VR, and research to capture thought is also been conducted. "There is some crazy brain research going on, where you can take an MRI of a person doing different activities, and then can predict what they are thinking. It's a technology that is still many years away," he said.

  Zuckerberg chose to keep it light, and even ended all rumours that he is not a lizard. He even said that if he were to start Facebook in today's times, it would be via a mobile app. He rubbished rumours of ever making Facebook a paid platform, and said that the main aim of the platform was to connect people. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld also joined him at the end of the Q&A for a brief period.

Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Announces Dynamics CRM App For Outlook

  The CRM app for Outlook has been introduced in the CEM 2015 Update 1 as a preview feature and it is completely supported with CRM Online 2016. The CRM On Preview Support will be made available with CRM 2016

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM App for Outlook is a lightweight app, which you will easily be able to use in order to view Microsoft Dynamics CRM information and also track email from within Outlook. The CRM data will appear right in your Outlook Inbox.

  The CRM App for Outlook is now available in Outlook Web Access (OWA) too, the Desktop Outlook (Laptop or PC) and also as a Mobile App (for Tablets and Smartphones).

  According to the official blog, the Dynamics CRM App for Outlook allows you conduct the following features without the need to configure or install.

• Work in the familiar Outlook environment,
• Easily track/ untrack emails wherever you are
• Convert an email message into a new CRM Record.
• Create CRM contact records for people on the from list that aren’t already included in the CRM database.
• Preview information about contacts and leads stored in CRM.
• Open CRM records directly to find or enter more detailed information.
• Create new CRM records for any entity, as long as the entity has been enabled for mobile (*) and for multi-entity search.

  Only entities enabled for mobile are visible in the CRM App for Outlook. To enable an entity for mobile you need to access the specific entity under Settings -> Customization -> Customize the System and mark “enable for mobile. 

Steve Jobs biography

Steve Jobs 

  Steven Jobs was born February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. He grew up with one sister, Patty. Paul Jobs was a machinist and fixed cars as a hobby. Jobs remembers his father as being very skilled at working with his hands.

  In 1961 the family moved to Mountain View, California. This area, just south of Palo Alto, California, was becoming a center for electronics. Electronics form the basic elements of devices such as radios, televisions, stereos, and computers. At that time people started to refer to the area as "Silicon Valley." This is because a substance called silicon is used in the manufacturing of electronic parts.

  As a child, Jobs preferred doing things by himself. He swam competitively, but was not interested in team sports or other group activities. He showed an early interest in electronics and gadgetry. He spent a lot of time working in the garage workshop of a neighbor who worked at Hewlett-Packard, an electronics manufacturer.

  Jobs also enrolled in the Hewlett-Packard Explorer Club. There he saw engineers demonstrate new products, and he saw his first computer at the age of twelve. He was very impressed, and knew right away that he wanted to work with computers.

  While in high school Jobs attended lectures at the Hewlett-Packard plant. On one occasion he boldly asked William Hewlett (1931–2001), the president, for some parts he needed to complete a class project. Hewlett was so impressed he gave Jobs the parts, and offered him a summer internship at Hewlett-Packard.

College and travel

  After graduating from high school in 1972, Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, for two years. He dropped out after one semester to visit India and study eastern religions in the summer of 1974. In 1975 Jobs joined a group known as the Homebrew Computer Club. One member, a technical whiz named Steve Wozniak (1950–), was trying to build a small computer. Jobs became fascinated with the marketing potential of such a computer. In 1976 he and Wozniak formed their own company. They called it Apple Computer Company, in memory of a happy summer Jobs had spent picking apples. They raised $1,300 in startup money by selling Jobs'smicrobus and Wozniak's calculator. At first they sold circuit boards (the boards that hold the internal components of a computer) while they worked on the computer prototype (sample).

Apple and the personal computer era

  Jobs had realized there was a huge gap in the computer market. At that time almost all computers were mainframes. They were so large that one could fill a room, and so costly that individuals could not afford to buy them. Advances in electronics, however, meant that computer components were getting smaller and the power of the computer was increasing.

  Jobs and Wozniak redesigned their computer, with the idea of selling it to individual users. The Apple II went to market in 1977, with impressive first year sales of $2.7 million. The company's sales grew to $200 million within three years. This was one of the most phenomenal cases of corporate growth in U.S. history. Jobs and Wozniak had opened an entirely new market—personal computers. Personal computers began an entirely new way of processing information.

  By 1980 the personal computer era was well underway. Apple was continually forced to improve its products to remain ahead, as more competitors entered the marketplace. Apple introduced the Apple III, but the new model suffered technical and marketing problems. It was withdrawn from the market, and was later reworked and reintroduced.

  Jobs continued to be the marketing force behind Apple. Early in 1983 he unveiled the Lisa. It was designed for people possessing minimal computer experience. It did not sell well, however, because it was more expensive than personal computers sold by competitors. Apple's biggest competitor was International BusinessMachines (IBM). By 1983 it was estimated that Apple had lost half of its market share (part of an industry's sales that a specific company has) to IBM.

The Macintosh

  In 1984 Apple introduced a revolutionary new model, the Macintosh. The on-screen display had small pictures called icons. To use the computer, the user pointed at an icon and clicked a button using a new device called a mouse. This process made the Macintosh very easy to use. The Macintosh did not sell well to businesses, however. It lacked features other personal computers had, such as a corresponding high quality printer. The failure of the Macintosh signaled the beginning of Jobs's downfall at Apple. Jobs resigned in 1985 from the company he had helped found, though he retained his title as chairman of its board of directors.

NeXT

  Jobs soon hired some of his former employees to begin a new computer company called NeXT. Late in 1988 the NeXT computer was introduced at a large gala event in San Francisco, aimed at the educational market. Initial reactions were generally good. The product was very user-friendly, and had a fast processing speed, excellent graphics displays, and an outstanding sound system. Despite the warm reception, however, the NeXT machine never caught on. It was too costly, had a black-and-white screen, and could not be linked to other computers or run common software.

Toy Story

  NeXT was not, however, the end of Steve Jobs. In 1986 Jobs purchased a small company called Pixar from filmmaker George Lucas (1944–). Pixar specialized in computer animation. Nine years later Pixar released Toy Story, a huge box office hit. Pixar later went on to make Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life, which Disney distributed, and Monsters, Inc. All these films have been extremely successful. Monsters, Inc. had the largest opening weekend ticket sales of any animated film in history.

NeXT and Apple

  In December of 1996 Apple purchased NeXT Software for over $400 million. Jobs returned to Apple as a part-time consultant to the chief executive officer (CEO). The following year, in a surprising event, Apple entered into a partnership with its competitor Microsoft. The two companies, according to the New York Times, "agreed to cooperate on several sales and technology fronts." Over the next six years Apple introduced several new products and marketing strategies.

  In November 1997 Jobs announced Apple would sell computers directly to users over the Internet and by telephone. The Apple Store became a runaway success. Within a week it was the third-largest e-commerce site on the Internet. In September of 1997 Jobs was named interim CEO of Apple.

  In 1998 Jobs announced the release of the iMac, which featured powerful computing at an affordable price. The iBook was unveiled in July 1999. This is a clam-shaped laptop that is available in bright colors. It includes Apple's AirPort, a computer version of the cordless phone that would allow the user to surf the Internet wirelessly. In January 2000 Jobs unveiled Apple's new Internet strategy. It included a group of Macintosh-only Internet-based applications. Jobs also announced that he was becoming the permanent CEO of Apple.

  In a February 1996 Time magazine article, Jobs said, "The thing that drives me and my colleagues … is that you see something very compelling to you, and you don't quite know how to get it, but you know, sometimes intuitively, it's within your grasp. And it's worth putting in years of your life to make it come into existence." Jobs has worked hard to translate his ideas into exciting and innovative products for businesses and consumers. He was instrumental in launching the age of the personal computer. Steve Jobs is truly a computer industry visionary.

Space Exploration

China Starts Human Survival Experiment for Space Exploration

   At least four volunteers on Friday started a 180-day living experiment in a sealed space capsule, which will test technologies that will support China's deep-space exploration projects.

  The volunteers will live in a sealed capsule in Shenzhen city. Scientists hope the experiment will cast light on how oxygen, water and food can be used and recycled under controlled conditions, Xinhua news agency reported.

  The 1,340-cubic-metre sealed capsule, which has a floor space of 370 square metres, is divided into eight compartments, including the passenger compartment, resource compartment and greenhouse compartments.

  Scientists have cultivated 25 kinds of plants in the capsule, including wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybeans, peanuts, lettuce, edible amaranth and pak choi. Fruits like strawberry, cherry, tomato and horse radish are also on the list.

  The plants are part of a larger ecological treatment system that will help regenerate oxygen and water, reducing dependency on outside supplies.

  Scientists will also monitor and observe how a hermetic environment affects physiological changes, biological rhythms, sleep patterns and emotional wellbeing.

  More than a dozen Chinese and overseas institutions are involved in the experiment, including the Shenzhen-based Space Institute of Southern China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the German Aerospace Centre.

Nasa Aircraft Information

Nasa Announces Development of 'Maxwell' Electric Aircraft

  In a move to achieve more efficient, quieter and environmentally friendly aircraft compared to a conventional one, the US space agency has unveiled plans for an electric-powered airplane designated as X-57.

  With 14 electric motors turning propellers and all of them integrated into a uniquely-designed wing,Nasa will test the new propulsion technology using X-57 which has been nicknamed "Maxwell".

  "With the return of piloted X-planes to Nasa's research capabilities - which is a key part of our 10-year-long New Aviation Horizons initiative - the general aviation-sized X-57 will take the first step in opening a new era of aviation," A Nasa administrator Charles Bolden said while addressing at the annual 'Aviation 2016' event in Washington, DC, on Friday.

   The name "Maxwell" is given to honour James Clerk Maxwell, the 19th century Scottish physicist who did groundbreaking work in electromagnetism.

  As part of a four-year flight demonstrator plan, Nasa's"Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Operations Research" project will build the X-57 by modifying a recently procured, Italian-designed "Tecnam P2006T" twin-engine light aircraft.

  Its original wing and two gas-fueled piston engines will be replaced with a long, skinny wing embedded with 14 electric motors - 12 on the leading edge for take offs and landings, and one larger motor on each wing tip for use while at cruise altitude.

  Nasa hopes to validate the idea that distributing electric power across a number of motors integrated with an aircraft in this way will result in a five-time reduction in the energy required for a private plane to cruise at 175 mph.

 "Maxwell" will be powered only by batteries, eliminating carbon emissions and demonstrating how demand would shrink for lead-based aviation fuel still in use by general aviation.

  Energy efficiency at cruise altitude using X-57 technology could benefit travelers by reducing flight times, fuel usage, as well as reducing overall operational costs for small aircraft by as much as 40 percent.

  Typically, to get the best fuel efficiency an airplane has to fly slower than it is able. Electric propulsion essentially eliminates the penalty for cruising at higher speeds.

  The X-57 number designation was assigned by the US Air Force, which manages the history-making process, following a request from Nasa.

  The first X-plane was the X-1 which in 1947 became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound.

  "Dozens of X-planes of all shapes, sizes and purposes have since followed - all of them contributing to our stature as the world's leader in aviation and space technology," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for Nasa's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

  "Planes like the X-57, and the others to come, will help us maintain that role," he added.

  The X-57's electric propulsion technology is expected to significantly decrease aircraft noise, making it less annoying to the public.

Hackers

Teen Hacks Pentagon Websites, Gets Thanked for Finding 'Bugs'

 High school student David Dworken spent 10 to 15 hours between classes on his laptop, hacking US Defense Department websites.

 Instead of getting into trouble, the 18-year-old who graduated this week was one of two people praised by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter at the Pentagon on Friday for finding vulnerabilities before US adversaries did.

 "We know that state-sponsored actors and black-hat hackers want to challenge and exploit our networks ... what we didn't fully appreciate before this pilot was how many white hat hackers there are who want to make a difference," Carter said at a ceremony where he also thanked Craig Arendt, a security consultant at Stratum Security.

 More than 1,400 participants took part in a pilot project launched this year, and found 138 valid reports of vulnerabilities, the Pentagon said. The project invited hackers to test the cyber-security of some public Defense Department websites.

 The pilot project was limited to public websites and the hackers did not have access to highly sensitive areas.

 The US government has pointed the finger at China and Russia, saying they have tried to access government systems in the past.

 The Pentagon said it paid a total of about $75,000 to the successful hackers, in amounts ranging from $100 to $15,000.

 Dworken, who graduated on Monday from Maret high school in Washington, D.C., said he reported six vulnerabilities, but received no reward because they had already been reported.

 However, Dworken said he had already been approached by recruiters about potential internships.

 He said some of the bugs he found would have allowed others to display whatever they wanted on the websites and steal account information.

 Dworken, who will study computer science at Northeastern University, said his first experience with finding vulnerabilities was in 10th grade when he found bugs on his school website.

 "Hack the Pentagon" is modelled after similar competitions known as "bug bounties" conducted by US companies to discover network security gaps.

 The Pentagon said the pilot project cost $150,000, including the reward money, and several follow up initiatives were planned. This included creating a process so others could report vulnerabilities without fear of prosecution.

 "It's not a small sum, but if we had gone through the normal process of hiring an outside firm to do a security audit and vulnerability assessment, which is what we usually do, it would have cost us more than $1 million," Carter said.

Microsoft-LinkedIn Tie-up

Microsoft-LinkedIn Tie-up 

  Any probe into Microsoft's acquisition of professional social network LinkedIn Corp. is likely to focus on the tie-up's potential to leverage vast amounts of user data, the European Union's antitrust chief said Friday.

  The European Commission would look at whether "the data purchased in the deal has a very long durability and might constitute a barrier for others, or if they can be replicated so that others stand a chance to enter the market," Margrethe Vestager said.

  "We've done that kind of analysis in the past and it's something we're generally paying a lot of attention to," she said in an interview in Copenhagen Friday.

  The Dane, who took office at the end of 2014, has signaled a willingness to delve more into how merging companies leverage the treasure trove of data at their disposal. Data was one of the key considerations in the review of Facebook's takeover of messagingservice WhatsApp, even though her predecessor in the end concluded there were no data-usage concerns.

  Vestager warned earlier this year that even though the regulator hasn't found a data competition problem yet, "this doesn't mean we never will."

  James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., said that from a data standpoint, the WhatsApp purchase "warranted greater scrutiny" than the LinkedIn deal.

  "LinkedIn has roughly 100 million members in Europe, compared to about 350 million Facebook users in Europe," he said. "The trajectory of growth of WhatsApp was significantly different to that of LinkedIn."

  Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for about $26.2 billion, one of the largest technology-industry deals on record, as the maker of Windows and Office software attempts to put itself at the center of people's business lives. The deal is a way for Microsoft, which largely missed out on the consumer web boom dominated by the likes of Google and Facebook, to sprint ahead in social tools in this case, for professionals.

  When it announced the deal, Microsoft outlined a vision in which a person's LinkedIn profile resides at the middle of other pieces of their work life, connecting with Windows, Outlook, Skype, Office productivity tools like Excel and PowerPoint, and other Microsoft products.

  Microsoft said on June 13 its bid for LinkedIn will require regulatory approval in the EU, US, Canada and Brazil and that it's confident of closing the transaction before the end of the year. The company's press office had no further comment Friday.

  LinkedIn's analytics will help power data tools for Microsoft's Dynamics, which competes with Salesforce.com in helping companies manage relationships with their customers.

  Salesforce.com was a rival potential bidder for LinkedIn in the process leading up to the acquisition by Microsoft, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chrome os device

Android App and Google Play Support Comes to the First Chrome OS Device

  Google announced at I/O 2016 that Android apps were coming to Chromebooks, alongside support for Google Play. Now, Google employee Francois Beaufort has announced that the support for Android apps and Google Play has started rolling out on the Dev channel for the Asus Chromebook Flip.

  This means if you've got an Asus Chromebook Flip, you can just download an early alpha version of Chrome OS 53, and the Google Play store icon should most likely appear on your desktop. Beaufort even uploaded a picture of his Chromebook just finishing installation of the popular Android game - Clash Royale.

   Alongside the Asus Chromebook Flip, the Acer Chromebook R11 and Google's 2015 Chromebook Pixel are also expected to get the support. Beaufort only hinted that more devices will get support soon, without really giving any specific timeline details.

  Around 50 Chromebooks are expected to get the Android app support over the rest of the year. Several Chromebooks from Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, Toshiba, and HP have been listed on the Google support page. The search giant has also announced that the support should hit the stable channel by September or October.

  With the access of Android apps on Chromebook, users will be able to download apps from Google Play and experience them on their large devices. This will result in the introduction of Skype, Games, Photo Editing apps, Microsoft Office, and much more on compatible laptops. In a demo, Director of Product Management Kan Liu showed off the new integration and explained how the Google Play will work on Chromebooks. Music, movies, and photo editing apps work completely offline on Chromebooks as well, just like on smartphones. 

Groundwater Level Calculation Using Satelite

Scientists Use Satellite Data to Calculate Groundwater Levels

    

A new computer algorithm developed at Stanford University is enabling scientists to use satellite data to determine groundwater levels across larger areas than ever before,a study says.

    The technique could lead to better models of groundwater flow.

   "It could be especially useful in agricultural regions, where groundwater pumping is common and aquifer depletion is a concern," said study co-author Rosemary Knight, professor of geophysics in the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

   The new method was detailed in the journal Water Resources Research.

   The researchers recently applied the algorithm to determine groundwater levels across the entire agricultural basin of Colorado's San Luis Valley.

   As a starting point, the algorithm uses data acquired using a satellite technology called Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, or InSAR, to calculate changing groundwater levels in the San Luis Valley between 1992 and 2000.

   InSAR satellites use electromagnetic waves to monitor tiny, centimeter-scale changes in the elevation of the Earth's surface.

  "What we've demonstrated in this new study is a methodology that allows us to find high-quality InSAR pixels in many more locations throughout the San Luis Valley," first author Jingyi "Ann" Chen, a Stanford postdoctoral researcher who developed the new algorithm, said.

  With the new method, the team was able to calculate surface deformations - and, by extension, groundwater levels - for the entire agricultural basin of the San Luis Valley, an area covering about 4,000 square kilometers.

  What is more, the team members were able to show how groundwater levels in the basin changed over time from 2007 to 2011 - the years when InSAR data that could be analysed by the algorithm were available.

Image of a galaxy

Great Canary Telescope Captures Deepest Image of a Galaxy 

    The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the world's largest single-aperture optical telescope on the island of La Palma in Spain, has captured an image of a galaxy which is 10 times deeper than any other obtained from the ground.

    GTC researchers managed the rare feat while observing a faint halo of stars around the galaxy UGC0180, which is 500 million light years away from the Earth.

    The galaxy UGC00180 was chosen because it is quite similar to our neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, and to other galaxies to which the researchers have references.

   They used the OSIRIS camera on the GTC, also known as the Great Canary Telescope, which has a field big enough to cover a decent area of sky around the galaxy, in order to explore its possible halo.

   After 8.1 hours of exposure they could show that it does have a weak halo composed of four thousand million stars, about the same number as those in the Magellanic Clouds, which are satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.

   With this measurement, recently published in Astrophysical Journal, the existence of the stellar halos predicted by theoretical models is confirmed, and it has become possible to study low surface brightness phenomena.

   As well as beating the previous surface brightness limit by a factor of 10, the observation shows that it will be possible to explore the universe not only to the same depth to which we can go using the conventional technique of star counts, but also out to distances where this cannot be achieved.

    "The object of future research is to extend the study to other types of galaxies, to see whether this way of understanding their formation, predicted by the standard model, is correct or not," said study lead author Ignacio Trujillo of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).

3D Pen

Mercury Sails

Earthlings Watch as Tiny Mercury Sails Past the Sun

 Tiny Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet, sailed across the face of the sun on Monday, a celestial dance that occurs about once every decade as Earth and its smaller neighboring planet align in space.

 The journey, which astronomers refer to as a "transit," began with what looked to be a small, black dot on the edge of the images relayed live on Nasa TV showed.

 Over the next seven and a half hours, Mercury, which travels at a speed of 30 miles (48 km) a second, crossed the face of the sun, a spectacle last seen in 2006.

 "It's all about perspective," Nasa planetary sciences chief Jim Green said during a panel discussion aired on Nasa TV.

 Mercury's orbit around the sun is more tilted than Earth's so it only rarely appears to cross the sun relative to Earth's line of sight, Green said.

 About 13 times a century, Mercury and Earth line up, giving armchair stargazers and professional astronomers a chance to view Mercury as it passes between Earth and the sun.

 Monday's transit was the first since Nasa's Messenger mission to Mercury, which orbited the planet from 2011 to 2015. The spacecraft relayed startling details of Mercury's heavily cratered and unexpectedly diverse landscape.

 Though temperatures on Mercury's surface reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius) - hot enough to melt lead - the planet also has deep craters where the sun never shines. These pits, where temperatures rival the coldest places in the solar system, contain frozen water and organic materials.

 During Monday's transit, astronomers hope to build on Messenger's findings by learning more about gases vaporizing from the planet's surface. The "out-gassing" may be a factor in why Mercury is shrinking, Green said.

 Astronomers also used the transit to calibrate sensors on a trio of space-based solar telescopes and refine techniques to look for planets beyond the solar system.

 "When a planet crosses in front of the sun, it causes the sun's brightness to dim. Scientists can measure similar brightness dips from other stars to find planets orbiting them," Nasa said.

 Mercury will pass between the sun and Earth again in 2019. After that, the next opportunity to witness the event will not come until 2032.

Quantum Communication Network

China Sets Up Global Quantum Communications Network

   China has begun establishing quantum communications networks in several cities, and is currently building a 1,000-km quantum communications line connecting Beijing and Shanghai.

   Based on the principles of quantum physics, quantum communication provides a new way to process information, including encoding, storage, transmission and logic operations, as well as the precise manipulation of photons, atoms and other microscopic particles, the People's Daily reported on Tuesday.

   "Traditionally, secure encryption and transmission of information is dependent on complex algorithms," said Pan Jianwei, a Chinese quantum scientist and professor at the University of Science and Technology of China.

   "But with the increase in computing power, the complex algorithms are bound to be cracked."

  Quantum communication boasts of ultra-high security, as a quantum photon can neither be separated nor duplicated. It is, therefore, impossible to wiretap, intercept or crack information transmitted through quantum communication, said Pan.

  Pan led his team to achieve secure quantum distribution using an optical fibre over a distance of 100 km in 2007. In 2008, his team built the world's first all-access quantum communications network, and in 2012 they created the first large-scale quantum communications network.

  China will launch its first experimental quantum communications satellite in July. It will be the first of its kind in the world.

   Pan also predicted that within a decade or so, it will be possible to create a  special  quantum computer or quantum simulator, in which the computing power is 10 billion times faster than that of a conventional computer.