A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
The engineered Mediterranean fruit flies possess a gene that prevents female flies from reaching adulthood. When released into the environment, they mate with wild members of the same species and pass on the gene to their offspring, which die before they can cause damage to crops. The flies have been produced by the British-based company Oxitec. This invasive species causes millions of dollars in damage to Australian crops each year. The Department of Agriculture and Food in Western Australia (DAFWA) has now announced it will conduct an indoor assessment of the engineered fruit flies. Eggs were imported from the UK and reared at DAFWA research facilities. Their potential for pest control will now be assessed in glasshouse trials. In Western Australia, the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), also known as the Medfly, is a major problem for commercial orchards and householders. It feeds on more than 250 types of fruit, including citrus,...