Science and Technology: Athens hosts Science and Technology Festival

17/11/2008

Athens' Zappeion Palace will host a Science and Technology Festival. Also in science news: Turkey's tourism portal is one of the Web's most popular sites, and Macedonia ranks high in lung cancer-related deaths.

The Zappeion Palace in Athens will host a Science and Technology Festival from November 28th to December 4th. The festival includes basic and applied science exhibitions and showcases significant achievements in new technologies. The event's organiser is the secretariat general for science and technology of Greece's development ministry.

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Turkey's three leading mobile operators -- Turkcell, Avea and Vodafone -- introduced a number portability service on November 9th. It enables users to retain their telephone numbers when changing from one operator to another. Operators say they can complete a customer's number transfer in six days at most.

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Turkey's official tourism portal, www.goturkey.com, ranks as one of the world's most popular websites, a culture and tourism ministry official said on Thursday (November 13th). The portal received eight points out of a total of ten from Google, based on its importance and international popularity. Users can view the portal in Turkish, German, English or French.

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Macedonian Health Minister Bujar Osmani announced on Thursday (November 13th) that his country registers 860 new lung cancer cases annually. At a press conference, Osmani said lung cancer is the deadliest cancer for men worldwide and in Macedonia, while ranking third and fourth, respectively, for women.

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The city hospital in Gjilan, Kosovo, received equipment for modern medical analyses in its clinic. The clinic will perform lab, haematology and biochemical tests, thus offering a unique service in Kosovo. The health ministry funded the 51,000-euro investment, which the hospital inaugurated on Wednesday (November 12th).

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Students from the Mathematics High School in Belgrade won five individual gold medals and one team gold medal at the Mathematics Olympics in Moscow, ranking best among 200 students and 50 teams.

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A Yale University team led by a Turkish neurosurgeon, Murat Gunel, identified three genes that cause aneurysms in the brain. The ground-breaking find may help prevent cerebral haemorrhages.

(Various sources – 10/11/08-17/11/08)