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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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The price being paid for a massive policy failure on mosquito control, says World Health Organization leader Margaret Chan

Speaking at the agency's annual World Health Assembly, Dr Chan said experts had "dropped the ball" in the 1970s with regards to getting a handle on disease-carrying insects.  More than 60 countries and territories now have continuing Zika transmission.  Most recently, the infection, spread by mosquito bites, reached Africa. The virus is thought to cause serious birth defects during pregnancy and has been declared a global public health emergency. According to Dr Chan, outbreaks that become emergencies always reveal specific weaknesses in affected countries and illuminate the fault lines in our collective preparedness."Zika reveals an extreme consequence of the failure to provide universal access to sexual and family planning services," she said. Dr Chan added that Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been hit hard by Zika, have the highest proportion of unintended pregnancies in the world.Eradication campaigns were successful in the America...
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US scientists bred a genetically modified (GM) mosquito that can resist malaria infection

If the lab technique works in the field, it could offer a new way of stopping the biting insects from spreading malaria to humans, they say.  The scientists put a new "resistance" gene into the mosquito's own DNA, using a gene editing method called Crispr.  And when the GM mosquitoes mated - their offspring inherited the same resistance, PNAS journal reports.  In theory, if these mosquitoes bite people, they should not be able to pass on the parasite that causes malaria.  About 3.2bn people - almost half of the world's population - are at risk of malaria.  Bed nets, insecticides and repellents can help stop the insects biting and drugs can be given to anyone who catches the infection, but the disease still kills around 580,000 people a year.   Scientists have been searching for new ways to fight malaria. The University of California team believe their GM mosquito could play a pivotal role - breeding resistant offspring to replace endemic, malaria...
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