London, Feb 4 : Scientists from National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have developed a novel speech prediction software that can complete half-formed words or sentences.

The new software looks fragments of words and other signs of hesitation such as filler sounds that Japanese speakers use when searching for their next phrase, just as English people use "um" and "er".

"Although the concept of completion is widely used in text-based interfaces, there have been no reports of completion being effectively applied to speech," New Scientist quoted the researchers as saying.

Brussels/San Francisco  - Academics and armchair explorers were as of Monday offered a unique insight into the world's seas through a new release of Google Earth, which now also features satellite imagery, photos and videos of the planet's oceans.

The 5.0 version of the popular downloadable software was launched in San Francisco. The project was also presented in a number of European cities, including Brussels, where the European Commission is contributing by providing its own marine data.

Madikeri, Jan 31 : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to establish 15 weather forecasting units by next month at a cost of 20 lakh rupees.

Addressing the media in Madikeri in Karnataka on Saturday, Meteorology Programme Director of ISRO T G K Murthy informed, that the organisation is searching for a suitable place where the units could be set up to help farmers in the district monitor daily weather through a satellite.

ISRO owns 750 forecasting units across the country and 600 units have been set up by the central government.

Vienna/New Delhi  - India is set to sign its nuclear inspection agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday, bringing the country a step closer to enlarging its nuclear power sector, a diplomat said Thursday in Vienna.

Nuclear exporting countries decided last September to supply India, even though the country has not signed the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, on the condition that its civilian nuclear facilities come under IAEA controls.

Washington, Jan. 29 : A new study published in The American Naturalist suggests that mammals that hibernate or that hide in burrows are less likely to turn up on an endangered species list.

The study''s authors -- Dr. Lee Hsiang Liow of the University of Oslo and Mikael Fortelius of the University of Helsinki - claimed that the ability of such "sleep-or-hide" animals to buffer themselves from changing environments may help them avoid extinction.

In the study, Liow and his colleagues wanted to see if this trend holds for mammals living today.

Berlin, Jan 27 : The results of a recently conducted study by scientists have indicated that climate change can lead to enhanced grass productivity.

The study, by researchers at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), the University of Bayreuth and the Helmholtz Center in Munich, Germany, has found that more frequent freeze-thaw cycles in winter can increase biomass production.

For their experiment at the Ecological-Botanical Garden of the University of Bayreuth, the researchers installed underground heating on their plots, thereby enabling five additional thawing periods to take place in the winter of 2005/2006.