Five Hawks Down: watch the tragic migration of six Californian raptors

Tracking project establishes northern Argentina is wintering ground of Swainson's hawks

Image: @TrackingTalons / Ruland Kolen
  • Watch these six dots move across the map and be moved yourself: this is a story about coming of age, discovery, hardship, death and survival.
  • Each dot is a tag attached to the talon of a Swainson's Hawk. We follow them on their very first migration, from northern California all the way down to Argentina.
  • After one year, only one is still alive.
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How will we travel to another star?

Proxima Centauri, our closest star, is more than 4 light years away. Reaching it under 10,000 years will be challenging; reaching it with living humans will be even harder.

NASA
  • Eventually, humanity will want to travel to a new solar system to propagate the human race, explore, and maybe find signs of alien life.
  • But our closest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, is so far away that current methods could take tens of thousands of years.
  • How will we surmount this incredible distance and the other challenges associated with interstellar travel?
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Venice will now start charging tourists an entrance fee

The new charge was announced in a tweet by the city's mayor.

If a romantic gondola ride in Venice is on your bucket list for 2019, it will cost you slightly more for the experience now the Italian city has introduced a new 'tax' on tourists.

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The first successful flight of an ionic-wind aircraft

Silent, carbon-free propulsion with no moving parts.

(Barrett, et al/Nature)
  • A team of scientists at MIT have flown the first ionic-wind aircraft.
  • It's the first successful test of the emission-free technology.
  • The days of propellers and combustion engines are numbered. Imagine silent aircraft gliding overhead!
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Increased air travel may decrease the chances of a global pandemic

The closer together we get, the argument goes, the healthier we'll be.

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  • The more exposed we are to each other, the less surprising a pathogen will be to our bodies.
  • Terrorism, high blood pressure, and staffing issues threaten to derail progress.
  • Pursuing global health has to be an active choice.
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