Friday, January 30, 2004

Uranium deposits found in Kirthar range

KARACHI, August 06 (PNS): Oxidised uranium mineralisation has been found in the Manchar Formation (Kirthar Range) in Sindh for the first time which, along with other favourable indicators, is 'a significant development'' making it a prime target for uranium exploration.

Assay of selected samples showed uranium values up to 4.5 per cent U3O8. This followed detailed geological studies carried out by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) scientists in the area. Manchar Formation attracted little attention due to inhospitable working conditions and failure of earlier aero-radiometric surveys to detect anomalous radioactivity. Approximately 200-kilometre area was foot prospected, which revealed six major uranium showings in lower Manchar Formation in the Wahi Pandi, Karunuk (Sehwan) and Rehman Dhora (Aamri) areas.

Anomalies were recorded in lower Manchar Formation in a strike length of over 25kms. Four anomaly sites at Sori, Kukrani, Gaji Kumb and Haleli in Wahi Pandi were found to be 'very promising.'

Uraniferrous zones in sandstone extend from 200-1000m in length. Radioactivity of up to 15,000c-s is encountered in the freshly cut trenches.

Chemical uranium values range from 200ppm to 4.5 per cent U3O8. Uranium minerals have been recognised as carnotite, curienite, phurcalite and saleite. Five geological sections (four in Wahi Pandi and one in Karanuk- Sehwan area) were measured. Data on sedimentological and lithological characteristics of the uranium, host and country rocks was gathered. A total of 185 rock samples were analysed for chemical values and mineralogical studies. Thus another favourable formation in Sindh has now been added for future uranium exploration.

Meanwhile, preliminary exploratory drilling has indicated a sizeable uranium ore deposit at Shanawah near Karak in the NWFP, where continuity of uranium ore was proved over a strike length of 2kms. A total of 32 boreholes to an accumulative 9,329-meter depth were drilled. Ore deposits as thick as 17 metres had been intercepted.

The average thickness is 10 metres while average ore grade is 0.05 per cent U3O8. Carnotite mineral is found in the oxidised (above the water table) zone whereas Uraninite has been identified (through XRD studies) as the dominant mineral in the below water table zone.


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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
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Pakistani American Wins Physician Of The Year Award

APP


WASHINGTON, USA: Jan 27 (PNS) - Dr. Attique Samdani, the noted physician of Pakistani origin, is to receive the singular honour of 'Physician of the Year Award' at a ceremony to be held here on Jan. 27, says the Physicians Advisory Board of the National Congressional Committee in an announcement Saturday.

The award-giving ceremony is scheduled on the concluding day of the two-day (Jan 26-27) annual meeting of the Physicians Advisory Board.

The selection is based on performance during the preceding year.

Physician of the Award is presented to outstanding medical professionals at a formal ceremony, where Republican Members of the U.S. Congress and Administration officials alongwith physicians are invited, followed by a daylong seminar on medical practice, medicare/medicaid reform.

The other topics before the semin! ar this year include malpractice premiums, limiting frivolous lawsuits, reimbursement reform and tax reform and practice.

The organizers said, to mark the occasion,the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) would bring out full page on the event, including names of the other recipients of the annual awards.

"The Physician of the Year Award will be presented to our physicians who have been instrumental in helping pass the largest tax cut in a generation, keeping the White House and Congress in Republican hands...and providing the leadership and input to improve the healthcare system in America," it added.

The End.


======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

China Offers Pak Desalination Technology

BEIJING (January 26 2004): China has offered Pakistan desalination technology to help sanitise sea water. "This technology can bring a revolution overcoming the problem of water shortage in the country," Ruan Guo, a senior official of Tianjin Institute of Seawater Desalination, told APP.

He claimed that the seawater after its purification through the newly developed technology could be used both for drinking and agriculture purposes.

A package of this offer has been formally sent to Pakistan through its embassy in Beijing.

The Chinese company has already installed a sea water desalination plant at under construction Gwadar seaport as its pilot project to introduce the technology in the country.

This plant has been provided as a gift to Pakistan on the directives of the Chinese government.

Ruan Guo said, China is ready to co-operate in water desalination for which, a team of experts could visit Pakistan to negotiate the package.

Three decades worth of effort has ranked China among the world's few countries capable of seawater desalination.

He was of the view that the seawater could be used as a more sustainable resource to overcome water shortage on the long-term basis.

About the cost of the project, he said, "it is most cheap and reasonable as compared to other sources of water filtration."

To Pakistan, he assured his company would extend a special low cost package, keeping in view their excellent friendly relations.

To tackle a serious water shortage caused by a six-year dry spell, Tianjin, the largest coastal city in North China, started earlier this month to channel a total of 350-million cubic meters of Yellow River water to Tianjin from the Weishan Sluice Gate, 440 kilometre's away.

Because of improved technology and production efficiency, the production cost of one ton of fresh water produced from sea water has been greatly reduced from 85 US cents to the present 60 cents, which makes it more marketable than ever.

Ruan Guo said the seawater could also be made effective to tackle salinity and water-logging problem particularly in coastal areas of the country.

According to the sources, the technology could be utilised after its proper feasibility study.

To cope with the growing water demand it had become inevitable to explore possible alternate bulk water supply sources for Karachi and other major cities and the Chinese technology may be more suitable for this purpose, they added.

======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
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OPEN Silicon Valley Quarterly Networking Event, 6:00 PM, 2nd February, 2004

Keynote Speaker: Shahid Javed Burki, CEO EMP Financial Advisors
Venue: Westin Hotel, Palo Alto


Mr. Shahid Javed Burki is the Chief Executive Officer of EMP Financial Advisors, LLC. He served at the World Bank as Vice President of the Latin America and Caribbean region. As Director for China in the East Asia and Pacific region, Mr. Burki designed and implemented the World Bank's lending program in China. In August 1993, Mr. Burki advised Moeen Qureshi, Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister, and took an active part in developing the country's reform program. In 1996/1997 he served as Pakistan's Minister of Finance, in the caretaker cabinet. Mr. Burki studied at Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar) and at Harvard University (Masons Fellow).

The event is open to all. Please register at www.opensiliconvalley.com in advance. This event is free of charge for OPEN members.


OPEN Distinguished Speaker Series Event, 6:00 PM, 9th February, 2004
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Richard Newton, Dean of Engineering at UC Berkeley
Topic: Information Architectures for the Developing World
Venue: Crowne Plaza Cabana, Palo Alto

Dr. Richard Newton is the Dean of Engineering at the UC Berkeley and the founder of CITRIS - the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. He is particularly interested in the creation of disruptive business models for the application of new technologies in developing countries, such as coupling open communications networks (distributed wireless sensor grids), ultra low-cost electronics and bio-engineered devices with new business models (e.g. Grameen Phone Project).

This event is open to OPEN Silicon Valley members only. Please register at www.opensiliconvalley.com in advance.

Planning to be in New York on February 11th?
Join OPEN New York Event Featuring Victor Menezes, Senior Vice Chairman, Citigroup

The event will feature prominent executives from the Financial Services sector in a discussion about ?Entrepreneurship and Opportunities in the Financial Services Sector?.
You can register at: http://www.myvillage.us/booking/book.asp?Ref=User&EventID=70.
For more information, please contact us at open_ny@hotmail.com.

Not OPEN Silicon Valley Member Yet?
Please visit www.opensiliconvalley.com to become a member. Member benefits include:
- Free access to quarterly events
- Reduced cost access to focus groups and special events
- Ability to join the OPEN Fellows Program to participate actively in OPEN events and interact with charter members
- Preferential access to present business plan at charter member meetings
- Networking opportunities with charter members, OPEN fellows and general members




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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Friday, January 23, 2004

Pakistani researcher devises mechanism to study objects in space

Pakistani researcher devises mechanism to study objects in space
Dawn, By A Reporter
11/5/2003


ISLAMABAD, Nov 4: Assistant Professor Mohammad Aslam Wasim of the
Department of Maths and Stats, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), on
Tuesday announced the results of his research explaining that how he had
devised a mechanism to study the behaviour of an object in space.

He was speaking at a seminar entitled "Permutation Representation of the
Group" arranged at the Quaid-i-Azam University here. Elaborating on the
results, Mr Wasim said an object in space was associated with a group of
information containing all the necessary data about it. He said a closer
study of the group defined and explained the nature of that object.

He said there were several such groups but accessing the right one
without wasting time was the real catch. He said the Rubiks cube
puzzle/game was a good example to understand what he was trying to
explain. "Just as six to seven special moves are required to match the
colours of the Rubiks cube, similarly this mechanism devised is very
easy and systematic to obtain a class of useful groups. Once the right
group is located, analysing and studying that group would eventually
lead to the understanding of the object, its looks, its behaviour and
other important characteristics without wastage of time."

He said the implementation of this mechanism was useful in various
mathematical and scientific studies. The mechanism he added, would make
the job easier for the students trying to detect the right answers in a
systematic way.

For the last three decades such seminars have been part of important
research activities of the mathematics department of the QAU. These
seminars are a weekly activity and are attended by the faculty, PhD and
M.Phil scholars.

Scholars and intellectuals from outside the university are also invited
to speak on topics of general mathematical interest based on their
researches. About 570 such seminars have been arranged on various
topics. Most lectures have been on specialised topics from pure to
applied mathematics.

Dawn has learnt that there are about 80 to 90 PhDs in Pakistan out of
which very few are involved in research and advanced studies. These
handful of researchers have made important contributions and their
research work has been printed in international journals.


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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Muslim countries still deficient in space science technology

‘Muslim countries still deficient in space science technology’

"By our correspondent

KARACHI: Expertise available in Muslim countries in the field of environmental management, remote sensing, space sciences and technology has yet to be fully explored and utilised, Pakistan’s space agency’s chief said.

Chairman of Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Maj Gen (Retd) Raza Hussain was speaking to the participants of a training course on ‘Environmental Studies Using Satellites, Balloons and Ground Based Data’ at IBS auditorium on Monday.

In order to share the knowledge in one of the vital areas of space technology applications, the Inter-Islamic Network on Space Science and Technology (ISNET) in collaboration with SUPARCO is organising the short training courses from 12-23 January 2004.

Extending a warm welcome to the trainees from the OIC member countries, Raza Hussain, who is also the ISNET president, informed that the SUPARCO has been making valuable contributions to all these vital fields including the studies of environment and its impact assessment.

He said that the ISNET was endeavouring to bridge the technological disparity among the Muslim nations through exchange of information, sharing experiences, maintaining and developing databanks, collaborating in the areas of common interest to build national capabilities.

Raza Hussain said that the OIC countries would have to go a long way to achieve their desired objectives in the technological era. He hoped the course would enhance the capacity building in Islamic countries in applications of space sciences and technology.

Speaking earlier on the occasion, Nasim Shah, secretary SUPARCO and executive director ISNET, said that the ISNET would share the research and development work undertaken by SUPARCO scientists and engineers in environment besides promoting the environmental and pollution monitoring studies in OIC member countries.

"Space technology and its applications are playing a very significant role in a wide spectrum of our daily life," Shah said. "By applying space technology for sustainable development, a developing nation will be contributing to its economic growth."

Dignitaries and senior management officers from different departments including from SUPARCO attended the inaugural ceremony. Trainees from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Sudan and Syria are participating in the course.



======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Microsoft to invest $7m in IT sector

Microsoft to invest $7b in IT sector
From RAUF ARIF
ISLAMABAD – The global IT giant Microsoft on Tuesday announced to invest around seven billion dollars in Pakistan’s information technology sector to build a strong IT economy that will compete at global level.
“Microsoft is committed to work closely with the government of Pakistan and its leadership to develop a roadmap that will best serve the needs of its people and help them to build a strong IT economy,” said Emre Berkin, vice president of Microsoft, Europe, Middle East and Africa, here in an exclusive interview with The Nation on Tuesday.
During his two-day visit to Pakistan, Emre signed two MoUs with National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and the Ministry of Education.
Talking to The Nation, he said, “Initially, we have selected few areas for initial investment. First of all, we are investing to establish our own presence in this region.” “For the last four years we have been working in Karachi and now we are heading towards Islamabad, Peshawar and so on,” he added.
He said that they were localising the IT products and in this regard most of the IT related things were being converted into Urdu with the cooperation of National Language Authority.
The Microsoft vice president said that they have also joined hands with the Ministry of Education in ‘Partners in Learning’ programme that would offer critical resources for student access, teachers’ training and skill development in the field of IT.
Talking about the IT related programme to be launched in Pakistan, Emre said that it was a global programme as 90 plus per cent population of the world did not have adequate access to the IT.
“In Pakistan, we are establishing IT centres in 16 different districts of the country that would primarily focus on the women development,” he added.
These 16 districts were not random selection but they had collected data from the NCHD and were investing in these most deserving areas, he said and added, work has already been started in these areas.
To a question, he said that they were optimistic about their future in Pakistan as it was a strategic country to invest.
Emre Berkin said Gates had talked to President General Musharraf on phone two months back and discussed with him a number of issues related to development of IT industry in Pakistan.
“I myself had meetings with President Musharraf, Investment Minister Hafeez Sheikh, Chairman Senate Mohammadmian Soomro and IT Minister Awais Leghari, on these lines and I am very much looking into turning plans into actions,” Emre said.
To another question about the security concerns, he said, “On the side of investment security, we are satisfied due to the forward looking and impressive leadership that has encouraged us to invest and go forward.”
To a query about physical security, he said that unfortunately, after 9/11, this issue has become same for the whole world and when it was an international problem then you could not blame anyone and so they were hopeful that they would be able to work safely in Pakistan.
He lauded Pakistan for showing great understanding on how IT could benefit its economy and citizens. He observed that there was still a lot to be done in the region for making the ‘Digital Age’ a reality and reducing the e-divide in countries with a higher population and lack of resources.
Emre said that they should strive collectively to ensure that every child of this region has access to basic education and technology.


======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Pakistan, China Agree To Set Up A High-Tech Park

Pakistan, China Agree To Set Up A High-Tech Park
Updated on 2004-01-17 11:08:58

BEIJING, China: Jan 17 (PNS) - China Torch Center, a department of Ministry of Science and Technology here has agreed to help set up a High-Tech Park in Pakistan for economic development and industrialization.

Initial negotiations were held between the two sides here, on the proposal putforth by Dr. Atta ur Rehman, Minister for Science and Technology during his recent visit to China. An official of Pakistan Embassy told APP the two sides would need to formally sign bilateral cooperation agreement to undertake the project. As a step forward, an expert-level team of China Torch Centre would visit Pakistan to hold a feasibility study.

He said such a park would be set up keeping in view the environment and market conditions of the country. The Chinese side, he said has agreed to help provide guidance and technical assistance for development of High-tech Park that will consist of multiple heavy industrial networks.

The expert-level team will also suggest design and the required infrastructure of the park. According to the sources, the embassy will hold further negotiation with the Chinese side, after receiving necessary mandate from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Islamabad.

It may be mentioned that the Capital Development Authority, Islamabad has already earmarked a site in I-12 sector for the establishment of a high-tech industrial park. Pakistan and China have recently signed joint declaration under which it was decided that they would guide and encourage their departments, scientific research institutes, universities and high-tech enterprises to conduct broad technological cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as telecommunication, water conservancy, electric power, aviation and space technology, computer, automation, metallurgy, IT, medicine and health, petrochemistry, biotechnology and peaceful utilization of nuclear power.

It was also agreed that the two parties will endeavor to promote transfer of know-how and exchange of information. In this context, the two parties will give full play to the guiding and coordinative role of the intergovernmental Joint Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation. Strengthen cooperation in nonproliferation and export control.

According to the declaration, signed in Beijing by President Pervez Musharraf and the Chinese President Hu Jintao in November last year, they will also consider launching the negotiation and conclusion of a bilateral agreement on mutually issuing of ultimate consumer and end use certificate. China is currently engaged in development of the high-tech parks in the country. A specific leading group composed by officials from various central government departments has been set up for making decisions on construction, policy formulation and system optimization of the national-level high-tech industrial park.

It has set up high-tech parks in Britain and the United States. They have played an active role in giving Chinese enterprises experience of developed countries to promote their high-tech products in world markets.

According to the Chinese official, more than 24,000 high-tech programmes have been carried out over the past 15 years. Some of these programmes have resulted in patents for products such as high performance computers, large-scale digital switches, mobile container inspection systems and high definition televisions.

Some 53 major high-tech development zones have been set up under the Torch Plan since 1991. Business income from the 53 zones grew to more than dollar 184 billion last year.


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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Friday, January 16, 2004

N-scientist's release: hearing put off till 26th

ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench adjourned on Thursday the hearing of a habeas corpus petition, seeking release of nuclear scientist Dr Mohammad Farooq from the ISI custody, till Jan 26.

Khush Niaz, wife of Dr Mohammad Farooq, in her writ petition filed through her counsel Advocate Chaudhry Ikram, stated her husband was picked up from his house in E-Block, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi on Nov 23.

When the petition came up for hearing, counsel for the federation, Qazi Naeem, sought more time for the provision of information sought by the court.

The counsel for the petitioner stated the government was employing delaying tactics and the court should not adjourn the case. The court, however, fixed Jan 23 as the next date of hearing.

The petitioner has made the federal government respondent through the interior secretary and the ISI director-general. The petitioner stated that her husband, who is a director in Grade 21 at the KRL, Kahuta, was arrested without warrants by a team headed by an army officer who identified himself as Col Nisar Ahmad.

The petitioner apprehended that her husband was being victimized and his life was in danger. Action against him was taken at the behest of the US FBI, the petitioner said.

The petitioner further stated that she had strong apprehensions that her husband might be shifted to some other country under the pressure of the US government.


======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Sun Microsystems Keen To Invest In Pak's IT Sector

Sun Microsystems Keen To Invest In Pak's IT Sector
Updated on 2004-01-15 16:18:09

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Jan 15 (PNS) - World's second largest IT firm, Sun Microsystems Wednesday showed keen interest to invest in IT sector, especially the e-government programme, in the backdrop of a booming economy and easily-available skilled workforce in Pakistan.

The interest was showed by a delegation led by Philip Roy, Regional Sales Manager of the Company in Gulf, Pakistan and Afghanistan which called on Minister for Information Technology, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari here to explore ways to launch joint ventures in IT sector in Pakistan.

"We see Pakistan as a potential market and are open to enter into any partnership with the private and public sector organizations to bring about the fruits of IT to the common people," Philip Roy told.

He said his company had been able to develop a broad range of services and open source solutions that could ideally fit in the Pakistani environment.

Mr. Roy said his company was also willing to support the research and development programme in Pakistani universities as part of its R&D fund that was given $ 2 billion annually out of the Company's $ 12 billion turnover every year. He said his company believed in dedication and commitment to excellence and these virtues could also be learnt by Pakistani professionals as they would team up with the 35,000 strong workforce of the Sun Microsystems in any prospective mutual partnerships.

The Sales Manager of the Company said his company would offer its Pakistani counterparts a platform to exhibit their talent and skills and then penetrate the international market along with their products produced locally in Pakistan.

Appreciating the Company's interest to invest in Pakistan, Awais Leghari highlighted the government efforts to promote the IT and telecom sectors, with particular focus on the launching of e-government programme in the public sector. He said the government was actively encouraging private-public partnerships and there were plenty of opportunities for the Sun Microsystems to benefit from the incentives and opportunities Pakistan offered.

Awais said his ministry was also ready to provide any help or resources to companies and individuals seeking to use IT as an enabler to improve efficiency in public services. "We are willing to finance any such project " however we want that the end product should involve applications produced mostly by the local software industry and it should be open-source software accessible to any other company or individual in the country," he added.


======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

9th Biennial Conference of the Association of Pakistani Scientists and Engineers of North America (APSENA)

In my introductory remarks as Chairman of the 9th Biennial Conference of the Association of Pakistani Scientists and Engineers of North America (APSENA), Marriott Hotel, Islamabad, December 22, 2003, I had emphasized the significance of communication between scientists and engineers for the economic progress of Pakistan. I had cited an example of the discovery of the Conducting Polymers first by a Japanese scientist, H. Shirakawa in 1970's, who shared his discovery with a visiting American Chemist, A. G. MacDiarmid (Univ. of Pennsylvania) in a meeting in Japan. MacDiarmid upon return from Japan put his graduate students to work, to investigate if his lab could also reproduce the results, and was successful. But they could not understand the mechanism which was causing these materials to behave like conductor quite contrary to the already known physical properties of ploymers to act as insulators. Finally MacDiarmid went to his colleague, A. J. Heeger, in the Physics Department at the same university, and Heeger was able to explain the mechanism using the already known Quantum mechanical theories applied to Semiconductors. Lo, and behold their collaborative efforts brought the three of them Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the year 2000. When I noticed the immense applications of these conducting polymers I published an article "Conducting Polymers and the Evolving Electronics Technology," EEE LINKS, NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program, Vol. 7, No. 2, July, 2001.
Working at General Electric Company, and later at NASA, ( and with two Nobel Laureates) I learnt that scienctific pursuit had no well defined boundaries, and one had to work in an interdisciplinary world sharing with and learning from others to bring about innovative technologies for the benefit of mankind. Pakistani scientists and engineers are urged to come out of their "BOXES" and work in an interdisciplinary environment, which can give impetus to industry and bring forth an economic boom for our peoples. The following article in Scientific American Magazine is about only a small domain of Conducting Polymers related to DISPLAY DEVICES, but sky is the limit about the applications of these polymers. We have a lot of talented people (physicists, chemists, material scientists, mathematicians, and computer experts) who can collaborate and take this technology to higher levels and create jobs for the people. Unless the scientists and industrialist collaborate (which is the success recipe of Western countries, and the East) we can no longer afford to live in our separate "boxes" (physics, chemistry, etc), and if we continue to do so it spells the decline of our economic progress.
Another very important concept is that we don't have to build too many universities (like the independent mosques of various sects) but make the existing institutions (that have produced many a brilliant and talented scientist) stronger and support them through Alumnii support programs, which are the back-bone of Western universities. Let us not keep our eggs in "one basket" but diversify in scientific pursuits.

Bashir A. Syed
Member: APS, IEEE, ASES, UCS, New York Acad.. of Sciences, and APSENA
Fulbright, NSF/US-AEC, & NASA Scholar

======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

20th Annual IT Exhibition

20th Annual IT Exhibition
MEGA IT EVENT OF PAKISTAN

Hotel Regent Plaza, Karachi
January 29, 30, 31, 2004

Ultimate Exposition of Software, Hardware, Internet, Telecom
Technologies and Solutions

Technology Seminars
by leading IT professionals

Organized by Computer Society of Pakistan
Karachi Chapter

For details visit http://csp.org.pk/karachi




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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Thursday, January 08, 2004

Tehran aims for satellite launch

Tehran aims for satellite launch


Iran has already developed a long-range missile of its own
Iran's defence minister has vowed that the country will launch a satellite of its own within 18 months.
"Iran will be the first Islamic country to enter the stratosphere with its own satellite and its own indigenous launch system," minister Ali Shamkhani said.

His comments - at a Tehran aerospace conference - are thought to be the first official indication of the time frame for Iran's space programme.

Iran has developed its own submarine and long-range ballistic missile.

Mr Shamkhani described Iran's aerospace programme as being part of the country's "deterrence force", the official Irna news agency reported.

He said universities and the defence industry were co-operating on the satellite - but gave no details as to what type of satellite was planned.

Communications

Iran has been seeking a communications satellite since the 1980s and has taken bids from a number of countries for the project, Irna reported.


Shamkhani said the satellite would be launched soon
Tehran suspended discussions with Russia over the project due to contractual disputes, the Russian news agency Interfax reported in August.

Among Islamic countries, Pakistan has used Russian facilities to launch satellites, but does not have its own launch technology.

Iran has worked to develop its own military technology since relations with the United States - formerly its major arms supplier - were cut in the wake of the 1979 revolution.

It unveiled the al-Sabehat-15 mini-submarine in August 2000, and brought the Shahab-3 ballistic missile into service three years later.

The missile is believed to be based on technology bought from North Korea and Pakistan.

Iran has also developed its own nuclear programme, which it says is for civilian use.

The United States suspects it of seeking to build nuclear weapons.

In December, Iran officially agreed to let the UN nuclear watchdog inspect its nuclear facilities.



======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Chinese experts arrive to implement Thar projects

Chinese experts arrive to implement Thar projects


KARACHI: The Sindh government has directed the authorities to take steps to complete the infrastructure and development in Thar area for coal mining and power generation projects.


The directive was issued on Tuesday at a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary, Dr Mutawakil Kazi, at his office. The Sindh Minister for Mines and Mineral Usman Malkani, Secretary Israr Shaikh, Director-General, Sindh Coal Authority, Abbas Ali Shah and others also attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed the progress on development projects in Thar, especially the construction of roads, water supply, and other schemes. The chief secretary directed the department to ensure completion all the development schemes in time as the Chinese experts, who have already completed sampling of Thar coal, arrived in Pakistan for installation of power generating plants

According to officials, 150 Chinese experts arrived in Karachi for installation of power generating plants and are awaiting the green signal from the authorities to import the requisite machinery and equipment for coal mining and power generation.

The high-level meeting also reviewed the customs and excise duty problems and directed the authorities concerned to take the matter up with the customs and excise department for waving the duty on Chinese equipment and machinery to be import for coal mining and power generation in Thar.


======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Saturday, January 03, 2004

Tahir Ghani at Intel. Pakistani participates in straining semiconductors

Special thanks to Irfan Zia for the input.

Speed of Chips Accelerates With Unwitting Discovery
An Intel team seeking to boost microprocessor
performance stumbles across the 'strained silicon'
technique.
By Terril Yue Jones
Times Staff Writer

January 3, 2004

At first, it looked like a mistake.

Mark Bohr and his team of computer-chip engineers at
Intel Corp.'s Hillsboro, Ore., campus were trying to
enhance the performance of transistors, the building
blocks of a microprocessor. They were focusing on
reducing the electrical resistance, which in turn
would speed the flow of electrons and allow the chip
to process data faster.

One experiment back in the summer of 2000 produced
results that were far better than expected. In fact,
the performance boost was so off the charts that there
had to be another explanation.

There was.

It turned out that the Intel team had stumbled onto a
technique known as "strained silicon," in which stress
is applied to silicon atoms so that electrons can flow
between them faster. Intel will bring the technology
to market early in 2004 in the generation of chips
that succeeds the popular Pentium 4.

Several industry heavyweights had long been trying to
incorporate strained silicon into their chips to
improve efficiency. IBM Corp. had been publishing
research papers on the topic for more than a decade.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Texas Instruments Inc.
and other chip makers were all eagerly researching the
subject as well.

At Intel, strained silicon was not a priority. But the
company, whose chips power more than 80% of the
world's PCs, was the first to figure out how to apply
the technology to massive volumes of chips at low
cost. It just didn't know it at the time.

"We kind of backed into it," said Bohr, 50, who is
director of microprocessor technology for Intel's
Technology and Manufacturing Group.

Semiconductor makers are constantly searching for ways
to shrink transistors and microprocessors to pack more
computing power onto their chips. The state of the art
for chip components currently is 90 nanometers, which
makes them about 1,500 times more narrow than a human
hair. But as they approach the physical limits of how
small such components can be, engineers must look for
other ways to enhance chip performance.

Enter strained silicon. The technique relies on
silicon compounds to stretch silicon atoms in some
directions and compress them in others, like a
molecular version of Silly Putty.

When a chemical compound called silicon germanium is
next to pure silicon, for instance, the bigger silicon
germanium molecules stretch the lattice structure of
neighboring silicon atoms, increasing the distance
between some of them by about 1%. It may not sound
like much, but it's enough to speed the flow of
electricity by up to 30% in certain transistors. That
means data can be processed faster too.

"It's like widening the lanes for traffic," said Rob
Willoner, a manufacturing technology analyst at
Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.

Tahir Ghani and Kaizad Mistry, electrical engineers
who work for Bohr, spent a good deal of 1999 and 2000
experimenting with silicon germanium to boost
electricity flow through transistors. Initially, they
expected to see about a 10% improvement.

Instead, they recorded speeds up to 30% faster.

"When we saw the higher performance improvements, we
thought we had something big," recalled Ghani, who
grew up in Pakistan. Added Mistry, whose childhood was
divided between India and the U.S.: "The first
excitement was that that number was as large as it
was, because that's really our job: to make that
number as large as possible."

Bohr responded by adding extra engineers to the
project, and hundreds of sophisticated experiments
were drawn up. In all, roughly 40 people were
dedicated to unraveling the mystery.

The challenge, Mistry said, was conducting a
painstaking analysis of the electrical measurements to
"try to figure out what is going on inside that
microscopic piece of silicon that you can't really
see."

For a full year, the members of Bohr's team carefully
retraced their steps. They wanted to be able to
control the degree of strain on the silicon and
reproduce their results consistently.

Ghani, 43, and Mistry, 42, conducted their
investigation in cubicles, conference rooms and the
sterile "clean room" where chips are manufactured.
They communicated incessantly, frequently messaging
each other and Bohr from their wireless laptop
computers.

At home, Ghani would put his three young children to
bed, then log on to his computer. Mistry would tuck in
his two kids and join Ghani online. Then they would
stay up until midnight poring over reports and
discussing them via e-mail or on the phone.

Ghani would be awakened by phone calls at all hours of
the night from Intel technicians: A result wasn't what
was anticipated. The instructions weren't clear. What
should we do?

By the end of 2000, Bohr and his lieutenants had
determined that the silicon germanium was causing
strain. Then they had to ensure they understood the
process and could repeat it reliably enough to
manufacture chips in large quantities.

Progress was very methodical, the scientists said.
There were no occasions of running breathlessly to a
colleague with a ream of computer printouts or
high-fives in the clean room, as one might imagine if
Hollywood were to turn the story into a film.

"Most learning happened in meetings," Ghani said.

Long stretches of intense lab work were only
occasionally broken up by social activities, such as
an excursion to see "Star Wars: Episode II Attack of
the Clones" in the spring of 2002.

Intel said little about its suspicions as it continued
its top-secret research. Then it astounded the
industry in August 2002 when it said its new
generation of 90-nanometer chips would include
strained silicon.

Intel "stunned analysts and sent competitors into
catch-up mode," the trade publication Electronic
Engineering Times wrote at the time.

"It's a phenomenal step," said Gene Fitzgerald, a
professor of materials science and engineering at MIT
and an expert on strained silicon.

Intel found it could implement strained silicon fairly
inexpensively and improve electricity flow by 25% to
30%. That meant computers that could process data
faster, though Intel won't say how much.

"We're getting good improvement in chip performance
with almost no increase in cost," Willoner said.

Experts knew it wasn't idle talk coming from the
world's largest producer of computer microprocessors.

"Intel clearly was the first one to start talking
about using strained silicon, and when they talk, they
typically are pretty far along with their
implementation, " said Risto Puhakka, vice president
of VLSI Research, a San Jose firm that monitors the
industry.

IBM executives say too much is being been made of
Intel's introduction of the first mass-market chip
with strained silicon. The Armonk, N.Y., company began
shipping some chips that include layers of strained
silicon during the fourth quarter of 2003--the same
time period as Intel.

Intel "is trying to introduce confusion because it's
embarrassing to admit that this has been out there for
a decade," said IBM Chief Technologist Bernie
Meyerson, who is credited with developing ways to grow
large amounts of silicon germanium. However, he
declined to identify which IBM chips contain strained
silicon or which customers were buying them.

No. 2 chip maker AMD, which is researching strained
silicon and other technologies with IBM, isn't
planning to sell microprocessors with a significant
degree of strained silicon until 2005 or 2006, said
Craig Sander, a vice president at the Sunnyvale,
Calif., company.

"AMD is selling chips with a low level of strain, but
not on the order of magnitude of Intel," Sander said.
"Strain is not new; getting high levels of strain is
more new."

Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with the Saratoga,
Calif.-based market research firm Insight 64,
acknowledged that IBM had been the first to show that
strained silicon would improve chip performance.

"But as far as I know," he said, engineers at Intel
"are the first folks to commercialize the process, so
that gives them some bragging rights."
======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Action for Nature 2003 Awards. Pakistani Student shares in International award category

Input by Irfan Zia.
ACTION FOR NATURE YOUNG ECO-HERO AWARDS WINNERS

Category: INTERNATIONAL (shared award)

Rafia Saleem (Pakistan)
Rafia spoke out and wrote about problems of
environmental degradation, in particular the dangers
that youth are facing in urban and rural areas due to
the contamination of drinking water. Striving to be
heard even though she was young, she became the
youngest person to present a paper at an international
conference attended by government officials, policy
makers and water experts. Rafia plans to continue
promoting her environmental concerns through the media
and by holding programs encouraging youth to express
their concerns and to initiate action.

======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================