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Brilliant computer scientist who mentored the founders of GoogleThe influence of the Stanford University computer scientist Rajeev Motwani, who has been found dead in the swimming pool of his California home, at the age of 47, stretched beyond Silicon Valley to affect the lives of millions of people around the world.Known among his peers as having a brilliant mind, Motwani was an award-winning professor whose work in data mining and algorithms scooped a string of accolades, including the prestigious Gödel prize (2001). But it was in his role as a mentor and adviser to some of the world's most powerful technology companies - including his pivotal part in the development of the internet search engine Google - that he made the greatest impact. He had a critical role in assisting the graduate research of the Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, encouraging the duo and helping them develop the systems that made them billionaires, so kickstarting what has probably become the pre-

As Brazilian authorities retrieved 16 more bodies from the Air France Flight 447 crash this morning, investigators were focusing on airspeed indicators called pitot tubes as the cause of the disaster. [More]

Harris Corp. has announced it has received a $13.5 million order to provide the U.S. Air Force with both high-performance vehicular radios and its new digital tactical intercom system, which centralizes access and control of vehicular communication. (HRS)

The Maryland Department of Environment has fined more than two dozen Baltimore-area businesses for pollution violations.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has signed a deal with the Marine Corps Systems Command to support the program that provides information technology services to the Marines. (JEC)

ABB Ltd (ABB), a power and automation technology group, has secured a contract worth about $223 million from Sonatrach for three gas plants in Algeria. Scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2012, the project includes new compressor trains, re-instrumentation of existing gas treatment plants and an integrated control system (ABB's extended automation system 800xA) for both the new and existing facilities.

If you are a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to new technology and have not got around to checking out the Twitter craze, maybe you shouldn't bother.

Children may be at greater risk from the microscopic particles in traffic pollution than previously thought, according to new research seen by BBC News.

Duke Energy Corp. today tapped Cisco Systems Inc. to test "smart grid" software and hardware that the utility hopes will enable its customers to track and reduce their electricity consumption more efficiently.The Charlotte, N.C.-based utility (NYSE: DUK) will deploy communications architecture based on Internet protocol-based open standards -- an approach Cisco says will permit easier accommodation of new technologies into the grid. The companies plan to start by installing nearly 2 million residential "smart meters," as well as routers, switches and other "distributed automation" infrastructure, throughout Duke's service territory in Indiana and Ohio during the next five years. [More]

In the normal lung, the airways are lined by a balanced mixture of ciliated, secretory and neuroendocrine cells which perform functions as diverse as air humidification, detoxification, and clearance of environmental particles.