Posted 11/16/09 at 07:41:26 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Online scammers tend to cash in on people's sense of alarm. By that token, the ongoing H1N1 flu pandemic is like a blank check for online criminals. And they seem to be in no mood to let this opportunity slip past them. According to a report published by web security firm Sophos, the sale of counterfeit antiviral drugs meant to combat H1N1 flu symptoms is going on unabated on the internet. Hundreds of millions of spam adverts and websites are being used by these fraudulent online pharmacies to lure unsuspecting, flu-fearing people.

According to the report, a vast number of such fraudulent online pharmacies are based out of Russia, while the bulk of their victims are from the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada and France. A lot appears to be at stake as online charlatans are earning thousands of dollars each day by selling drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza online. "The criminals can be members of more than one affiliate network, and some have boasted of earning more than $100,000 per day," Sophos said in a statement.

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Posted 07/08/08 at 03:50:33 PM by Pulkit Chandna

A billionaire computer scientist, David E. Shaw, is heading a private team that is currently working on one of the most scientifically audacious projects right now, a supercomputer named Anton that will leapfrog the most powerful supercomputers by half a decade. Anton is being built for the sole purpose of hastening simulations of molecular reactions.

This brawny super-rig would allow molecular simulations to last about a millisecond (10^-3) or more, which seems like an eternity compared to the current simulations that barely last anywhere between a few femtoseconds (10^-15) and a microsecond (10^-6) – a thousand-fold increase. The supercomputer derives its might from 517 processors that work in conjunction. The elongated molecular simulations will advance drug research by leaps and bounds as scientists would be able to develop newer drugs based on the data from Anton.

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