Top 5

Google has released its wearable technology device, Glass, in the UK. The device, which is still a prototype at the moment, costs £1,000 and you have to be over 18 to buy it. Glass lets you film stuff and check the internet on the move, with a built-in camera and microphone to record photos, video and sounds.  Google says Glass is a hands-free, quick alternative to smart phones but some people are concerned about privacy and that using Glass while driving would be unsafe.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by the recent violence and fighting in Iraq, with many fleeing to refugee camps. A group called Isis has taken control of several towns and cities from the Iraq government in recent weeks and say they’ve captured the country’s main oil refinery. It’s believed almost a million Iraqis have fled their homes since January.

 

A hot-air balloon was forced to land in the middle of a street in Northampton after the wind suddenly dropped.  When pilot Matt Rate noticed the lack of wind, he called his crew on the ground to let them know he was planning to come down. He originally planned to land in a nearby park but was at risk of hitting a tree, so decided to land on the street. As he came down towards the ground, his team sectioned off an area of the road. Both the pilot and his two passengers were unharmed. He said the landing was the safest option at the time and if he had left it any later he could have come down over the town centre.

 

Researchers have warned that the world’s protected areas are not safeguarding most of the world’s imperiled biodiversity, and clear changes need to be made on how nations undertake future land protection if wildlife is going to be saved. The findings by scientists from organizations come at a time when countries are working toward what could become the biggest expansion of protected areas in history. The authors of the new study found that 85 percentage of world’s 4,118 threatened mammals, birds, and amphibian species are not adequately protected in existing national parks, and are therefore vulnerable to extinction in the near term.

 

NASA has spelled out the success story of the Mars Curiosity rover, which would be completing a Martian year – 687 Earth days – on June 24. The rover has already having accomplished the mission’s main goal of determining whether Mars once offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. One of Curiosity’s first major findings after landing on the Red Planet in August 2012 was an ancient riverbed at its landing site. Nearby, at an area known as Yellowknife Bay, the mission met its main goal of determining whether the Martian Gale Crater ever was habitable for simple life forms.