A German wildlife rescue project is deploying small aerial drones to find and protect young deer hiding in tall grass from being shredded by combine harvesters cutting hay in spring.

The pilot project has shown great promise in spotting the young animals, about 100,000 of which fall victim in Germany every year to the large agricultural machines, said project spokesman Rolf Stockum on Friday.

A Japanese whaling fleet is set to leave port Saturday in the first hunt since the U.N.'s top court last month ordered Tokyo to stop killing whales in the Antarctic.

The departure of ships from Ayukawa in the country's northeast marks the annual start to a coastal whaling program not covered by the International Court of Justice's landmark ruling -- which found Japan's Southern Ocean expedition was a commercial activity masquerading as scientific research.

Kazakhstan's first-ever Earth observation satellite is to be fired into orbit next week from the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana, launch company Arianespace said.

The 830-kilogram (1,829-pound) orbiter will provide Kazakhstan with data for mapmaking and security, monitor changes in nature and agriculture, and provide support for rescue operations in case of natural disaster, it said in a statement.

Scientists said Thursday they have cracked the genetic code of the tsetse fly, potentially helping to tackle one of sub-Saharan Africa's most devastating livestock diseases as well as human sleeping sickness.

"Decoding the tsetse fly's DNA is a major scientific breakthrough," said Kostas Bourtzis from a joint body of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency which sequenced the genome in a 10-year international effort.

Bollywood's glitterati on Thursday heard an appeal to use their star power to fight climate change as they opened their first awards ceremony in the United States.

Bringing a somber note in the midst of Bollywood's trademark festive dancing, Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian scientist who leads the Nobel Prize-winning U.N. climate panel, took the stage in Tampa, Florida, to urge stars to channel their influence for the planet.

Scientists are watching an iceberg bigger than the island of Guam as it slowly moves away from an Antarctic glacier.

NASA scientist Kelly Brunt said it is more a wonder than a worry and is not a threat to shipping or sea level rise.

Spanish scientists have for the first time used gene therapy to reverse memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's, an advance that could lead to new drugs to treat the disease, they said Wednesday.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona team injected a gene which causes the production of a protein that is blocked in patients with Alzheimer's into the hippocampus -- a region of the brian essential to memory processing -- in mice that were in the initial stages of the disease.

For those who have everything, how about a Soviet-era space capsule dating back to the 1970s, when it carried three cosmonauts into space?

German firm Lempertz unveiled plans Wednesday for what it says is the first such auction in Europe, with the capsule expected to fetch up to 1.4 million euros ($1.9 million) on May 7.

Environmentalists Wednesday urged the United States to drop plans to haul India to the WTO to open its solar market, saying the action would hurt the fight against climate change.

The World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body in Geneva has scheduled Friday to hear the U.S. case for a panel against India, which has some of the world's most ambitious plans for expanding solar power.

Three-toed sloths have a unique abdominal design -- their innards fixed to their lower ribs to avoid squashing the lungs while hanging upside down, a study said Wednesday.

The South and Central American forest dweller, also known as the brown-throated sloth, spends a large part of its life hanging from its hind legs to reach young, tender leaves growing on the tips of branches, as well as to groom.