The footprint per airship passenger would be about 4.5kg, compared to 53kg if that person was traveling via a jet plane....
BITS 'N' PIECES
The footprint per airship passenger would be about 4.5kg, compared to 53kg if that person was traveling via a jet plane.
That’s according to Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) who have developed a new environmentally friendly airship 84 years after the Hindenburg disaster.
The 100-passenger Airlander 10 airship can apparently take off and land from almost any flat surface and reached heights of 7,000ft (2,100m) and speeds of up to 50 knots (57mph) during its final tests.
HAV said it is in discussions with a number of airlines to operate a string of routes it will serve from 2025. The journey by airship would take roughly the same time as aeroplane travel once getting to and from the airport was taken into account, but would generate a much smaller carbon footprint.
A group of scientists have concluded that sharks possess an internal navigation system similar to GPS that allows them to use Earth’s magnetic forces to travel long distances with accuracy.
Researchers from Florida State University made the discovery by subjecting 20 bonnethead sharks, part of the hammerhead family, to “magnetic displacement” exercises that replicated geographical locations hundreds of miles from where they were captured.
When the sharks were exposed to magnetic cues emulating a site about 375 miles south of where they were captured, they turned to swim north, exhibiting a “homeward orientation” suggesting the use of magnetic forces in their navigation, said Bryan Keller, the lead author of the study.
The research helps explain why sharks can travel across vast oceans but return to exactly the same location annually to feed, breed and give birth.
This tortoise has single-handedly brought her species back from a 100-year extinction.
Found on Fernandina Island in Ecuador’s Galápagos national park two years ago, this week she was officially classified as Chelonoidis phantasticus – a species of giant tortoises thought to have gone extinct over a century ago.
Aged between 80 to 100 years old and weighing 30kg, the hunt is now on to find this tortoise a mate. Researchers are eager to help her avoid the fate of ‘Lonesome George’ – another Galápagos tortoise whose death in 2012 marked the end of his species.