TECHNOLOGY WORLD

The US shuttle Discovery has rolled out for what should be its final mission. The orbiter completed its slow journey to the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A overnight, Monday into Tuesday. Every step of the 5.4km (3.4-mile) crawl was bathed in bright xenon light. Discovery's flight to the space station is scheduled to begin on 24 February. With its crew of six astronauts, the ship will deliver a storeroom to be attached to the 350km-high platform, along with further supplies and spares. Stacked with its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, Discovery took seven hours to complete the roll from Kennedy's vast Vehicle Assembly Building to complex 39A. Many Kennedy employees, along with their families, came to witness the event. Nasa last tried to launch the vehicle in November but technical hitches, including cracks on its giant external fuel tank, kept the ship on the ground. The agency said engineers had now fixed those defects and carried out further work to st

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Facebook is temporarily disabling a feature that gave app developers access to some of the most sensitive personal data it possesses: Members' addresses and phone numbers. The company had slipped the feature in quietly, announcing it at the end of last week in a post on its developer blog. But late Monday, Facebook said it is suspending the feature until it can fine-tune how it works. * 572 * * * Email * Print "Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data," Facebook wrote on its developer blog. "We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so." Those changes will roll out "in the next few weeks," Facebook said. In the meantime, it has suspended the phone number and address gathering option. In its blog post last week describing the new feature, Facebook said me

The Indian state of Gujurat is planning to host Asia's first commercial-scale tidal power station. The company Atlantis Resources is to install a 50MW tidal farm in the Gulf of Kutch on India's west coast, with construction starting early in 2012. The facility could be expanded to deliver more than 200MW. The biggest operating tidal station in the world, La Rance in France, generates 240MW, while South Korea is planning several large facilities. To claim the title of "Asia's first", the Indian project will have to outrun developments at Sihwa Lake, a South Korean tidal barrage under construction on the country's west coast. Atlantis's recent feasibility study in Gujurat concluded that the state had good potential for tidal exploitation. "About two and a half years ago we ran a global study of tidal power resources and came up with some hotspots where resource seemed pretty well matched to load," said Atlantis CEO Tim Cornelius. "One of them

A telescope in the back of a modified 747 jet has snapped images of the Orion Nebula at a colour of light no other observatory in the world can see. They are the first results from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia), designed to capture colours blocked by Earth's atmosphere. The images show the star-forming region in unprecedented clarity. Further study could yield insight into stars that are just lighting up, one of astronomy's "holy grails". The results were presented at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Seattle, US. Sofia is a successor to the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), which was retired in 1995. The long-delayed Sofia project is now picking up where the KAO left off - allowing astronomers to see light at colours deep in the infrared. Space telescopes can see out in this part of the spectrum as well, but Sofia allows far more flexibility. Beyond the dust "The real unique thing is that you have a platfor

Twenty-eleven will be the "year of launchers", says European Space Agency director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain. Europe expects to have three different rockets operating from its French Guiana spaceport in the coming months. The workhorse Ariane 5 will be joined by the Russian Soyuz vehicle and a new small launcher called Vega. At his annual Paris press conference to preview the year ahead, Mr Dordain said this represented a major change in the way Esa conducted its space activities. And he told the BBC everyone might be surprised at how complex an undertaking this would be. "For 30 years we have exploited one launcher, the best launcher in the world, Ariane - but it was one launcher," he explained. "From this year, we will exploit three launchers in parallel - Ariane, Soyuz and Vega. It will introduce some constraints because the traffic will be much heavier from [the spaceport], and I'm not so sure we've yet totally understood the constraints which ar

Sailors may soon have a weapon in their battle against sea-borne raiders: an anti-pirate laser. BAE Systems has demonstrated its new laser system, which can temporarily blind would-be attackers. The system would prevent pirates from being able to aim their weapons at targets, BAE claims. But further safety testing is needed before such a system could be commercially deployed. BAE said it has developed a low-cost laser distraction system that can travel through the sea air while being housed onboard a moving ship. At distances of between 1.2km (0.75 miles) and 1.5km (0.85 miles), the laser beam acts as a warning signal, letting the pirates know they've been spotted, said Brian Hore of BAE. "Today's pirates tend to be opportunistic. If they know they've been spotted, they're likely to look for an alternative target," he told BBC News. Blinding light At closer ranges, the green laser beam will dazzle them, making it difficult for the pirates to use weapons of the

Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet outside our Solar System, and the first that is undoubtedly rocky like Earth. Measurements of unprecedented precision have shown that the planet, Kepler 10b, has a diameter 1.4 times that of Earth, and a mass 4.6 times higher. However, because it orbits its host star so closely, the planet could not harbour life. The discovery has been hailed as "among the most profound in human history". The result was announced at the 217th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, US, by Nasa's Kepler team. The Kepler space telescope, designed to look for the signs of far-flung planets, first spotted the planet 560 light years away, alongside hundreds of other candidate planets. Kepler relies on the "transiting" technique, which looks for planets that pass between their host star and Earth. A tiny fraction of the star's light is blocked periodically, giving a hint that the star has a planet orbiting it.

Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet outside our Solar System, and the first that is undoubtedly rocky like Earth. Measurements of unprecedented precision have shown that the planet, Kepler 10b, has a diameter 1.4 times that of Earth, and a mass 4.6 times higher. However, because it orbits its host star so closely, the planet could not harbour life. The discovery has been hailed as "among the most profound in human history". The result was announced at the 217th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, US, by Nasa's Kepler team. The Kepler space telescope, designed to look for the signs of far-flung planets, first spotted the planet 560 light years away, alongside hundreds of other candidate planets. Kepler relies on the "transiting" technique, which looks for planets that pass between their host star and Earth. A tiny fraction of the star's light is blocked periodically, giving a hint that the star has a planet orbiting it.

The hunt for the elusive Higgs boson particle - crucial to current theories of physics - looks set to become a one-horse race after 2011. A US "particle smasher" has been denied an extension that would have kept it running until 2014. The Tevatron accelerator will now end operations this year as was originally planned. After that, Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will have a clear run at searching for the particle. The Tevatron facility is operated by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) which is in turn run by the US Department of Energy (DOE). In October last year, an expert panel recommended extending the Tevatron's lifetime by three years, allowing physicists to continue using the accelerator in their hunt for the Higgs. Fermilab employees have now been told that a difficult US budget situation means the panel's recommendation will not be followed, and the particle smasher will be closed this year. But scientists are keen not to write off a

It has been fascinating to see photographs of what is reported to be a new Chinese stealth fighter, the J-20. Some US commentators have flagged it up as evidence that China is preparing to challenge American military dominance in the Pacific, and to me the treatment given to the photos overseas says more than the images themselves. The Wall Street Journal website made the J-20 pictures their lead item a couple of days ago, and the Los Angeles Times has chosen to link the appearance of new Chinese weapons to the US defence secretary, Robert Gates' visit to that country this weekend. It is all very reminiscent of the atmosphere in the mid-1980s, when grainy images of new Soviet weapons made front page news, and we tried to analyse what difference the new tank or plane would make to the global balance of power. In the Cold War, releases of new data about Soviet hardware were all part and parcel of the Pentagon spending battle. The financial implications of addressing some newly identi

UK technology could aid a US company's ambitions to send spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit. Bigelow Aerospace's plans include telescopes that could be sent into deep space. The UK's Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bigelow. UK ATC has developed an infrared sensor for the US-European James Webb Space Telescope. Bigelow's space telescope concepts include operating beyond the Moon, more than one million kilometres away at one of the Lagrange points - gravitational "sweet spots" where spacecraft can hold station without expending too much fuel. But before any deep space mission UK technology could be tested onboard the private space station Bigelow is planning. The space station, to be launched in 2014 and operated from 2015, will consist of three habitation modules. Orbital expansion Bigelow's modules are based on Nasa inflatable technology, also known as "expandable" technology. The US company has a

The PlayStation 3's security has been broken by hackers, potentially allowing anyone to run any software - including pirated games - on the console. A collective of hackers recently showed off a method that could force the system to reveal secret keys used to load software on to the machine. A US hacker, who gained notoriety for unlocking Apple's iPhone, has now used a similar method to extract the PS3's master key and publish it online. Sony declined to comment on the hack. "The complete console is compromised - there is no recovery from this," said pytey, a member of the fail0verflow group of hackers, who revealed the initial exploit at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin in December. "This is as bad as it gets - someone is getting into serious trouble at Sony right now." The group, which has previously hacked Nintendo's Wii and says it is vehemently against games piracy, said that it had developed the hack so that it could install other ope

Pirates have targeted Apple's new software download service just one day after it launched. Several groups claim to have found security flaws in the company's new Mac App Store, which launched on Thursday. The new service allows people to find and download approved applications to their Apple computers. However pirates suggest that the loopholes mean many pieces of paid-for software are vulnerable to unauthorised copying. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had hailed the launch as "innovative", but the company has yet to respond to the claims. While Mac users have been able to purchase and install programs on their computers for many years, the Californian technology giant hopes the new system can emulate the success of its music and mobile download services. The store has more than 1,000 programs for download, including best sellers such as Angry Birds and Twitter. Apple scrutiny Unlike ordinary software downloads, however, every program in the store is scrutinised by

It could be one of the most ambitious computer projects ever conceived. An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator that can replicate everything happening on Earth - from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on Milton Keynes' roads. Nicknamed the Living Earth Simulator (LES), the project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world. "Many problems we have today - including social and economic instabilities, wars, disease spreading - are related to human behaviour, but there is apparently a serious lack of understanding regarding how society and the economy work," says Dr Helbing, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, who chairs the FuturICT project which aims to create the simulator. Knowledge collider Thanks to projects

Facebook has reportedly raised funds from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal valuing the social networking site at $50bn (£32.3bn). The New York Times said that Goldman was investing $450m in Facebook, and Digital Sky Technologies another $50m. The paper, citing unnamed sources, said the terms of the deal implied a value for Facebook of just over $50bn. Goldman's involvement could also raise speculation that Facebook might float on the stock market. The Financial Times also reported that Goldman was investing $375m in Facebook, with Digital Sky putting in $75m. Cashing in A Facebook spokeswoman told the BBC that the company was not commenting on the New York Times story. Goldman also declined to comment. Click to play Click to play Technology blogger Mike Butcher said having people's personal information is Facebook's most valuable tool If valued at $50bn, Facebook is worth more than eBay and Time Warner. The fresh investment is expected to be used to fund devel

Mobile calls and texts made on any GSM network can be eavesdropped upon using four cheap phones and open source software, say security researchers. Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut demonstrated their eavesdropping toolkit at the Chaos Computer Club Congress (CCC) in Berlin. The work builds on earlier research that has found holes in many parts of the most widely used mobile technology. The pair spent a year putting together the parts of the eavesdropping toolkit. "Now there's a path from your telephone number to me finding you and listening to your calls," Mr Nohl told BBC News. "The whole way." He said many of the pieces in the eavesdropping toolkit already existed thanks to work by other security researchers but there was one part the pair had to create themselves. "The one piece that completed the chain was the ability to record data off the air," he said. In a demonstration at the CCC, the pair took attendees through all the steps that led from loca