Science and Technology: Romania's president honoured
15/03/2010
Traian Basescu is inducted into the Romanian Academy of Science. Also in science news: a robotics centre opens in Sarajevo, and Serbian officials are the first to e-sign their biometric ID cards.
 Romania's Academy of Science honours President Traian Basescu. [Getty Images] |
Romanian President Traian Basescu became an honourary member of the Romanian Academy of Science on Thursday (March 11th). Other honourary members have included Louis Braille, inventor of a printed language for the blind, German physicist Werner Karl Heisenberg, and the Romanian-American cell biologist George Emil Palade.
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A robotics centre for the Western Balkans, Bulgaria and Hungary opened on Wednesday (March 10th) in Sarajevo. About 3m euros will be invested in the project by year's end. The centre will not produce robots, rather will draw up projects and technical solutions for private companies that use robotic technology.
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Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and Telecommunications and Information Society Minister Jasna Matic on Monday (March 8th) became the first Serbian citizens to receive e-signature certificates based on their biometric ID cards. About 1.1m biometric ID cards have been issued in Serbia so far and their holders can apply for e-certificates.
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More than 100 Montenegrin websites stopped functioning Thursday (March 11th) after an attack by hackers. The target was one of the Montenegrin Telecom T-com hosting servers.
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Bulgarian and Greek scientists produced an atlas of fauna along the Nestos River on the border between their countries. They "mapped" the extensive biodiversity of the region in a publication translated into Greek, Bulgarian and English. The book was released on March 1st.
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Turkish professor Zehra Nese Kavak was elected to the executive board of the World Academy of Art and Science. She became one of 650 members of the academy worldwide in 2005 and the first Turkish member. Kavak is founder of the Prenatal Care Unit at Marmara University's Medical Faculty Hospital and is also general secretary of the Turkish Businesswomen Association.
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More than 90% of Turkish citizens believe that internet access is their fundamental right, according to a BBC poll published on March 8th. Turkey is highest by this indicator compared to any other European country in the study, which included more than 27,000 adults in 26 nations around the world. No other Balkan country was surveyed.
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Archaeologists unearthed rare findings, including architectural ruins of tombs, pottery and clay statuettes, during excavations at the Royal Necropolis in northwest Greece. The findings were presented at the 23th Scientific Meeting on Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace, at the Thessaloniki Aristotle University on Thursday (March 11th).
(Various sources -- 08/03/10 - 15/03/10)
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