March 2011 Archives

Wind turbines are killing many thousands of bats in North America and contributing to a population decline that may be costing agriculture billions, say researchers.

Scientists identified two major threats to bats: a fungal disease called white nose syndrome (WNS) and the blades of wind turbines.

Bats are useful to farmers because they eat large numbers of crop damaging insects, reducing the amount that has to be spent on pesticides.

This smashing picture of the Moon and Earth was taken by Russia's new Elektro-L spacecraft, a weather-forecasting satellite.

This is the first major spacecraft developed in post-Soviet Russia and it is designed to give Russian meteorologists the ability to watch the entire disk of the planet thanks to the satellite's position in the geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator.

Click on the image to embiggen.

Proud mum Mjukuu the gorilla taking her five-month-old son Tiny outside to explore their outdoor island for the first time at London Zoo.

The youngster clung to his 12-year-old mum as she made her way around their lush home, which includes climbing branches and a cave.

Up until now Mjukuu has preferred to keep her precious son inside in the warm away from the winter weather.

Photo: ZSL/PA Wire

It's a question that needs to be answered!

One of the UK's oldest breeding birds of prey has returned to Scotland to nest for the 21st year in a row.

Lady the osprey was spotted in the Loch of the Lowes wildlife reserve in Perthshire on Monday.

The bird, now thought to be around 26 years old, was identified using a close-up image of her iris taken with a camera hidden in her nest.

She was seen landing on a nesting site at the reserve, which belongs to the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), Monday lunchtime.

She stayed for a few minutes before disappearing from the area until dusk.

The bird, which travelled some 3,000 miles from West Africa, will now be under 24-hour protection to keep her safe from wildlife crime.

NASA's Messenger spacecraft has sent home the first image of Mercury ever taken from orbit around the planet.

The picture shows a wide swath of Mercury's southern hemisphere.

The bright crater at the top of the image is called Debussy, and a smaller crater called Matabei lies to Debussy's west.

The shadowed, pockmarked region south of the bright craters includes Mercury's south pole and slice of terrain that had never been seen up close before.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, three years overdue after a succession of delays, takes shape on one of the company's assembly lines in Washington state.

The first delivery of the $200m plane, which will be more fuel-efficient than the similar-size 767, is expected to be in the third quarter of this year.

So far, 56 airlines have placed a total of 847 firm orders.

Click on the image to embiggen.

A new lifelike seagull robot is an amazing bio-inspired flight machine.

SmartBird takes off, flies and lands on its own, flapping its wings and turning its head and tail to steer.

It is modeled on the herring gull and its appearance and movements are uncannily similar to the real thing.

Mixing a perfect Bloody Mary presents the ultimate cocktail challenge, it was claimed today.

The tomato juice and vodka drink is the most complex cocktail invented when it comes to flavour chemistry, scientists meeting in California were told.

US flavour expert Dr Neil Da Costa carried out research which uncovered several key secrets to successful Blood Mary mixing.

The prospect of ever hearing from the stuck Mars rover Spirit is fading after it failed to respond to repeated calls from Earth.

Despite the dismal outlook, Nasa will make a last-ditch effort to communicate with Spirit, which fell silent a little over a year ago.

If there's still no contact in the next month or so, the space agency will scale back its listening campaign for Spirit and focus on its healthy twin, Opportunity.