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Solar plane lands in New York City

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...
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250 million year old fossil of reptile discovered from Brazil

A newly discovered 250-million-year-old fossil reptile from Brazil gives an "extraordinary" insight into life just before the dinosaurs appeared.  At the time, the world was recovering from a massive extinction that wiped out most living species.  The reptile, named Teyujagua or "fierce lizard", is the close relative of a group that gave rise to dinosaurs, crocodiles and birds.  The fossil is "beautiful" and fills an evolutionary gap, say scientists.  Dr Richard Butler from the University of Birmingham said the animal is a new species that has not been previously known.  "It's very close to the ancestry of a very important group of reptiles called archosauriforms," the co-researcher on the study, published in the journalScientific Reports, told. "It helps us understand how that group evolved."  Teyujagua paradoxa was a small crocodile-like animal that probably lived at the side of lakes, feeding on fish.  The ancient rept...
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Mushroom is the earliest fossil of a land-dwelling organism

The fungus, which dates back 440 million years, spent its life under the ground rotting down matter.  Even the scientist who analysed it - Dr Martin Smith - admits it is a ''humble little fungus''.  But the pioneer, known as Tortotubus, could help explain how early life colonised the rocky barren Earth.  Most scientists agree that life moved from the sea to the land between 500 and 450 million years ago.  But in order for plants and animals to gain a foothold on terra firma there needed to be nutrients and soil to support them. Fungi kick-started this process, by getting nitrogen and oxygen into the rudimentary soil.Dr Smith says there were probably bacteria and algae already on land - but these are rarely preserved in the fossil record.  This makes Tortotubus probably the oldest fossil of a land-dwelling organism yet to be found.The fossilised fungus has been found in many locations, including Sweden and Scotland.  Each microfossil is shorter than...
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Homo naledi fossil prints come to London

They are among the most sensational fossils to be found in Africa in recent years, and visitors to London's Natural History Museum can see what all the fuss is about on Friday.  3D prints of the remains of Homo naledi will be on display at the NHM's Science Uncovered event.  They were given to the institution by the Johannesburg discovery team.  Bones from perhaps 15 of the human-like creatures were recovered from a cave complex not far from the city.  It is the biggest haul of fossil hominin remains ever identified on the African continent. The researchers - led by Lee Berger of Wits University - have   scanned the bones to make faithful copies, and these have now been shared with the London museum.  At Science Uncovered, Dr Louise Humphrey will be explaining their significance and what they could tell us about human origins.  I think the effect on the field is transformative," she told, "not just because the morphology indicates a new specie...
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