Airline’s ‘flight to nowhere’ sells out in ten minutes

An Australian airline says its seven-hour scenic “flight to nowhere,” which will take off and land at the same airport, sold out in ten minutes. Qantas says the unusual flight will depart from Sydney and return on the same day, offering passengers low-level scenic views over Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, and other spots. People snapped up seats, priced between £325 and £1,500.

The world’s oldest animal sperm is found

Paleontologists have discovered the world’s oldest animal sperm, hidden in a 100 million-year-old piece of amber. The experts discovered the sample in the reproductive tract of an ancient female crustacean encased in resin. The results “double the age of the oldest unequivocal fossil animal sperm,” the report authors wrote in Royal Society journal on Wednesday.

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Alligator on gas wins an improbable prize

An alligator on helium gas has won an Ig Nobel prize. Researchers undertook the experiment to try to understand how alligators communicate. The prizes are awarded by the science humour magazine, Annals of Improbable Research. Other winners this year included the team that wanted to see what happened when earthworms were vibrated at high frequency.

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