A solar powered plane aims to fly into history on Monday, taking off from Abu Dhabi on a round-the-world odyssey to promote alternative energy.
The flight of Solar Impulse 2, whose hoped-for Saturday takeoff had to be put off due to strong winds, will cap 13 years of research and testing by two Swiss pilots whose idea was ridiculed by the aviation industry.

Two mummified bodies found on Mexico's highest peak appear to be embracing each other and their discovery could put an end to the mystery of climbers who vanished after an avalanche in 1959, officials said.
A mission to recover the bodies from the Pico de Orizaba was suspended until next Monday in order to build a special container to carry the remains intact, one of the rescue workers said Friday.

A bird that was long thought to have gone extinct has been rediscovered in Myanmar after a team of scientists used a recording of the species' distinctive call to track it down.
The Jerdon's Babbler (chrysomma altirostre altirostre) -- a small brown bird similar in size to a house sparrow -- was last spotted in Myanmar in 1941 and was thought to have died out altogether.

A hard-hitting video investigation into China's grave air pollution problem has been pulled from mainstream video sites, days after it garnered more than 100 million hits online.
"Under the Dome", an independent documentary produced by former Chinese state media journalist Chai Jing, was no longer available on popular mainland video sites, including Youku and iQiyi, as of Saturday afternoon.

Men and women may not always be on the same footing but you would think both sexes would be equal in the face of gigantic floods, typhoons or droughts. Think again.
Countless studies show that natural disasters on average kill more women than men -- 90 percent female fatalities in some cases, prevent girls from going to school, increase the threat of sexual assault. And the list goes on.

Glaciologist Erin Pettit began a research project to find out what humpback whales heard when a big piece of ice falls from a glacier and crashes into the ocean. But the sound generated by ice drifting in the water turned out to be just as interesting.
Acoustic research in Alaska's Icy Bay and other glacier ice-filled waters found that the fizz created by the release of pressurized air bubbles within glacier ice makes fjords the noisiest places in the ocean.

Mars once had a body of water bigger than Earth's Arctic Ocean and vast enough to cover the entire surface of the planet, NASA scientists said in a study released on Thursday.
The new research, providing estimates on the quantity of water on the Red Planet, is based upon detailed observations of two slightly different forms of water in Mars' atmosphere, and was published in the journal Science.

Astronomers observed four versions of a supernova thanks to the gravity of a cluster of galaxies, which magnified and bent the exploding star's light to create multiple images, scientists said Thursday.
Although multiple likenesses have been created by light-deflecting galaxies and active black holes before, so many versions of one supernova have never been produced by the optical effect.

A NASA spacecraft called Dawn is about to become the first mission to orbit a dwarf planet when it slips into orbit Friday around Ceres, the most massive body in the asteroid belt.
The mission aims to shed light on the origins of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, from its "rough and tumble environment of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter," said mission director Marc Rayman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

A tomb from the fifth century BC, likely that of a Celtic prince, has been unearthed in a small French town, shedding light on Iron Age European trade, researchers said Wednesday.
The "exceptional" grave, crammed with Greek and possibly Etruscan artifacts, was discovered in a business zone on the outskirts of Lavau in France's Champagne region, said the National Archaeological Research Institute, Inrap.
