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Featured articles Hydrogen car. Deaths in December • None reported so far Other recent deaths Ongoing events Upcoming events IATC Exhibition, March, 2005 http://www.iatc.net , in Chicago. Robonexus 2005 in Silicon Valley. Consumer Electronics Show from 6 to January 9, 2005 in Las Vegas. Related pages • 2004 in science • 2003 in science • 2002 in science • 2001 in science • 2000 in science Other Years in Sci Tech

December 27 2004

• Newly discovered observations from March 2004 rule out the possibility that asteroid 2004 MN₄ will hit Earth in 2029. (Space.com) http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroid_update_B_041227.html

December 25 2004

• ESA's Huygens probe separates from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Deployment occurred at approximately 02:00 UTC and was confirmed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The probe will reach Saturn's moon Titan in 22 days, where it will make an atmospheric descent to the surface and relay scientific information. (Spaceflightnow) http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/041224huygens.html .

December 21, 2004

• A new European directive could put software writers at risk of legal action. (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4104841.stm .
• Boeing launches a demonstration satellite using its new Delta IV Heavy rocket. Due to lower than expected performance, the payload falls short of its intended orbit. (Spaceflightnow) http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d310/ (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4116119.stm

December 20, 2004

• Twenty States must cut air pollution by 2008-EPA. (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=7128976 .

December 16, 2004

• ASIMO the humanoid robot created by Honda is reprogrammed to be able to run. (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4098201.stm
• Symantec and Veritas Software announce plans for a merger. The $13.5 billion purchase of Veritas will be the largest acquisition in the software industry to date. (Press release) http://www.symantec.com/press/2004/n041216.html (NY Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/technology/16cnd-compute.html

December 15, 2004

• New York: Sprint Corp. announces a $35 billion deal to acquire Nextel Communications. With about $40 billion in combined yearly revenue the resulting company (called Sprint Nextel) will be the the third largest wireless telephone service provider in the US. (MSNBC) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6716519/

December 13, 2004

• Oracle Corp. announces a merger deal to acquire PeopleSoft for approximately US$10.3 billion. (Oracle Press Release) http://www.oracle.com/peoplesoft/index.html
• The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft completes its third flyby of Saturn's moon Titan successfully. The newly acquired data will be used to fine-tune the trajectory of the Huygens lander, scheduled for release on December 24.
• The BESS-Polar balloon experiment is launched from McMurdo Station to investigate cosmic radiation. (SpaceRef) http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=15742

December 10, 2004

• Jambo Openoffice opensource software in Swahili: An extimated 100 million Swahili speakers in Africa have access to the first stage towards a full operating system in Swahili. The international initiative called The Open Swahili Localization Project - or Kilinux - is based in Tanzania and runs on Linux. (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4078753.stm (Linux Insider) http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Open-Source-Swahili-Software-Released-38864.ht
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December 8, 2004

• Researchers at the University of New South Wales announce their discovery that compounds known as Furanone s can prevent the bacteria that cause cholera from switching on their disease-causing mechanisms. Furanone s can be extracted from the seaweed Delisea pulchra. (University press release) http://www.science.unsw.edu.au/news/2004/deliseapulchra.html
• IBM sells its PC Hardware division to Lenovo, China's largest computer company. The $1.75bn deal will make Lenovo the world's third-largest PC vendor. "This acquisition will allow Chinese industry to make significant inroads on its path to globalisation," says Liu Chuanzhi, Lenovo's chairman. (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4077579.stm (Xinhua) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-12/08/content_2310317.htm (USA Today) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-12-07-china-ibm-8pm_x.htm

December 7, 2004

• The Astrophysical Journal reports that the Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a galaxy that may be just 500 million years old: the youngest galaxy yet seen in the Universe. (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4073791.stm .
• Researchers from the New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany demonstrate a device which allows people to interface with a computer through thought alone. "The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions," say Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4074869.stm (National Geographic) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1207_041207_brain_interface.html
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December 2, 2004

• Semantic Web Development: Tim Berners-Lee accepts a chair in computer science at the University of Southampton. (University press release) http://www.soton.ac.uk/Press/PressReleases/Name,4905,en.php (Computer Weekly) http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=135538&liArticleT
  ypeID=1&liCategoryID=2&liChannelID=174&liFlavourID=1&sSearch=&nPage=1 (PC Pro) http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/66677/tim-bernerslee-pursues-semantic-web-at-southam
  pton-university.html (Eweek) http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1734926,00.asp

December 1, 2004

• Netcraft states that Lycos Europe's anti-spam screensaver has taken two spammer websites offline. The company's "vigilante" denial-of-service attack is seen as a controversial approach to the spam problem. (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4061375.stm (Netcraft) http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/12/01/spam_sites_crippled_by_lycos_screen
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