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 venom of a wasp native to Brazil could be used as a weapon to fight cancer, scientists believe. A toxin in the sting kills cancer cells without harming normal cells, lab studies suggest. The University of Brazil team say the experimental therapy latches to tumour cells and makes them leak vital molecules. The work is at an early stage and more studies are needed to check the method will work safely in humans. Polybia paulista is an aggressive social wasp endemic in south-east Brazil. Though its sting is largely seen as unwelcome, scientists increasingly believe it could be put to good use. It contains an important toxin called MP1 which the insect uses to attack prey or defend itself. And recent studies in mice suggest it may target and destroy cancer cells. Prof Joao Ruggiero Netto and colleagues set out to discover how, by putting it under the microscope. They found MP1 interacts with fat molecules that are abnormally ...