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Vincent Padois, head tutor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University who teaches robotics and is babysitting the Paris ICub, makes a demonstration with ICub robot, a ?hybrid embodied cognitive system for a humanoid robot" about 1 metre (3.2 feet) high, at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris September 4, 2009. Six versions of ICub exist in laboratories across Europe, where scientists are painstakingly tweaking its electronic brain to make it capable of learning, just like a human child and hoping it will learn how to adapt its behaviour to changing circumstances, offering new insights into the development of human consciousness.   REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

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    Ariane rocket orbits satellites for Africa and N. America

    KOUROU, French Guyana
    Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:32pm EST

    KOUROU, French Guyana (Reuters) - An Ariane-5 rocket blasted off from French Guyana on Friday putting into orbit telecommunications satellites for Africa and North America, the six Ariane mission this year.

    Science  |  Technology

    The rocket was launched from Europe's space base in Kourou, on the northeast coast of South America, at 6.41 p.m. (4:41 p.m. EDT), space officials said.

    Twenty-seven minutes after lift-off the rocket placed into a preliminary orbit RASCOM-QAF1 a telecoms satellite designed to provide service throughout Africa.

    Six minutes later the rocket released Horizons-2 for Washington-based operator Intelsat. This satellite will serve the United States, Canada and parts of the Caribbean.



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