NASA discovers 715 new planets

LONDON: Nasa's Kepler mission has found 715 new planets in what is the largest number of planets discovered in a single go. 

Nearly 95% of them are smaller than Neptune which is almost four times the size of Earth. 

These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. 

This discovery marks a significant increase in the number of known small-sized planets akin to Earth than previously identified exoplanets which are planets outside our solar system. It also brings the confirmed count of planets outside our solar system to nearly 1,700. 

Four of these new planets are nearly 2.5 times the size of Earth and orbit in their sun's habitable zone defined as the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of a planet may be suitable for life. 

Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to find potentially habitable Earth-size planets. Discoveries include more than 3,600 planet candidates of which 961 have been verified as bona-fide worlds. 

"The Kepler team continues to amaze and excite us with their planet hunting results," said John Grunsfeld from Nasa's Science Mission Directorate. 

"That these new planets and solar systems look somewhat like our own portends a great future when we have the James Webb Space Telescope in space to characterize the new worlds," he added. 

To verify this bounty of planets a research team co-led by Jack Lissauer, planetary scientist at Nasa analyzed stars with more than one potential planet all of which were detected in the first two years of Kepler's observations - May 2009 to March 2011. 

The research team used a technique called verification by multiplicity which relies in part on the logic of probability.

Nokia X series of Android smartphones unveiled

Nokia has unveiled its first three Android smartphones after several turbulent years that saw the Finnish manufacturer lose its top spot in the mobile market as Google's free OS became the biggest mobile software in the world.

All three Android phones by Nokia - X, X+ and XL - run on a 'customized' version of Android operating system and will not have access to Play Store.

This means that those looking for a number of popular Android apps will still not have access to those. The company has also not innovated much by way of design for the new range and carried over the monobody design of its Lumia series in the new Android smartphones.

Nokia XL, the biggest of the three new smartphones, has a 5-inch screen, 5MP auto-focus camera with LED flash on the back, 2MP front camera and 1,500mAh battery.

On the other hand, Nokia X and X+ have 4-inch screens and 3MP fixed-focus cameras, said former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop while unveiling the devices.

All three devices will run on a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor with just 512MB RAM, have access to 3G networks and have display resolution of 800x480p. Nokia will offer a 4GB microSD card free with X+ and XL smartphones, but not with the entry-level Nokia X.

As expected, Nokia has preloaded the X, X+ and XL smartphones with Microsoft's cloud services like SkyDrive and One Drive, instead of Google's software, which may prove a dampener for some. The company is offering 10GB of One Drive storage for free.

Some of the apps pre-installed on the devices are Here Maps, Nokia Mix Radio, Facebook, Skype, BBM etc. Users can download apps from the Nokia store, or choose to sideload apps directly from the web.

Interestingly, the home screen of Nokia's three Android smartphones is heavily influence by that of Windows Phone operating system and features Live Tiles. The company has also included FastLane multitasking solution, which it debuted with the revamped Asha series, and Glance Screen in the new smartphones.

Nokia announced that Nokia X will be available immediately in Europe for 89 euros, whereas X+ and XL will hit the stores in early Q2 2014 for 99 and 109 euros respectively. However, it added that the three models will hit markets like India, Africa, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe first, without indicating the price range for these markets.

Elop said that Nokia, set to be acquired by Microsoft soon, will encourage app ecosystem for the Nokia X platform.

World's largest oyster discovered

WASHIGNTON: A 14-inch long giant Pacific oyster found off the coast of Denmark has been confirmed as the world's largest by the Guinness Book of World Records. 

The giant mollusc was found in October last year and is still alive and growing, according to Christine Ditlefsen, biologist at the Wadden Sea Centre. 

The Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) measures 35.5 cm (13.97 in) in length and 10.7 cm (4.21 in) in width, Guinness said on its website. 

Roughly the length of a size 11 shoe, this large mollusc has another five oysters attached to it. 

In total, this cluster of oysters weighs 1.62 kg, 'National Public Radio' reported. 

The oyster was found in October last year in Wadden Sea National Park, on Denmark's southwestern coast. 

Its size and shape could be said to resemble a huge plaintain. But when it was found, the Wadden staff compared the oyster to a large and sturdy shoe, the report said. 

"It is 15-20 years old, and probably one of the first Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) that came to our part of the Wadden Sea," said Ditlefsen. 

Love Things you didn’t know: Science

Valentine's Day fever is in the air, and love is all around. But there are certain things about love that even the most seasoned couples are unaware of

Latest research offers new lenses through which to see love.

1. Love is not a private emotion
Change the notion that love is confined to a single person's mind. Research shows that when you connect with someone else, there is a moment of synchrony between the two of you. Gestures, biochemistries, even neural firings of the two people mirror each other. So, love is a biologically mutual wave that can flow through two or more bodies and brains at the same time.

2. Love secures the connection between the brain and heart
It is often said that people who are social and have a strong sense of community live longer. But why this is the case was considered a mystery until now. New research shows that when a random group of people are asked to learn ways to create small moments of love in their daily lives, it improves the function of the vagus nerve in the longer run. The vagus nerve is a key channel that connects the brain to the heart.

3. Love doesn't require suppressing negativity
Think about love as little moments of shared positivity, and you realise that you can experience love even if you — or the person with whom you are connected — is suffering. Love doesn't mean ignorance of negativity. In fact, it is similar to compassion in essence; some level of empathy and kindness are part of the melting pot called love.

4. Love is not exclusive
Love is not restricted to your inner circle of friends and family members. If they are the only entities that come to mind when you think of love, you are constraining opportunities for growth and well-being. Science says that you can experience real moments of connectedness with anyone, a soulmate or even a stranger, as long as you feel safe and secure while establishing it.

5. Changing your views on love changes your capacity for it
You can use minute moments of connection to make incredible turnarounds in your personal and professional life. When you take just a minute or two every day to think about whether you felt attuned to another person (or people), you start the process for a slew of benefits and the release of happy hormones. Now that you know more about how love works, why not start this practice today?