Berlin, Dec 30 : The world is gearing up to celebrate 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy.

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) has been launched by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) under the theme, "The Universe, yours to discover".

Thousands of IYA2009 events are described on the national websites, as well as on astronomy2009. org.

The official IYA2009 Opening Ceremony will take place in Paris on 15 and 16 January 2009.

London, Dec 29 : In what is being considered as an embarrassing series of incidents for the British Government, nearly 3,000 Government computers have been nicked or reported lost since 2002, along with other electronic equipments.

This means that the government has lost a laptop every single day over the course of seven years

According to a report in The Sun, the huge haul includes 1,774 laptops, plus a further 1,035 large desktop computers.

New Delhi, Dec 27 : China has officially started construction of a Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which when completed, would be the world's largest radio telescope.

The dish-like telescope, as large as 30 football fields, will stand in a region of typical Karst depressions in Guizhou Province in China, when it's completed in 2013.

Chinese scientists and officials selected Dawodang, Pingtang County as the site, where a Karst valley will match the shape of the huge bowl-like astronomical instrument.

Washington, Dec 26 : Physicists at the University of Toronto (U of T) have cracked the mystery behind the strange and uncannily well-ordered hexagonal columns found at such popular tourist sites as

London, Dec 26 : Chinese scientists have devised new low cost platinum-free fuel cells that promises to offer cheaper green power.

These cells use alkali membrane and may make it possible to replace the expensive platinum metal with low cost nickel catalyst.

In a standard fuel cell, a platinum catalyst at one electrode breaks down hydrogen into protons and electrons.

The protons pass through a proton exchange membrane to a second electrode where they react with oxygen to produce water. The electrons are syphoned off as electric current.