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 artist painted three versions of this famous scene, using broadly the same colour scheme. But time and light degradation have taken their toll on the pigments. Using a variety of techniques, the researchers have digitally restored the light blue walls and door to their original lilac and purple. The computer visualisation is part of a major new exhibition at the The Art Institute of Chicago, which brings together all three versions for only the second time since Van Gogh produced them. It is hoped visitors to the exhibition will get a deeper sense of the emotions the 19th Century artist was trying to convey in the works. "Science is vital in identifying the pigments that have faded, but then there is a lot of interpretation that we rely on from conservators and art historians who really know the hand of the artist, and know how to dial that virtual knob more or less," explained Dr Francesca Casadio, Mellon Senior Conservation Scientist at the Chicago...