The Tribune

• LOS ALAMOS, a once secret city where scientists participated in the United States’ classified World War II nuclear development programme, can now be experienced much like it was then with a new app.

The “Los Alamos: The Secret City of The Manhattan Project” iPhone app takes users through an “augmented-reality” while visiting the northern New Mexico city to see it in its 1940s character. The app was created by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Packed with games, historical nuggets and role playing, the app is claimed to allow users to feel what it was like to join a secret project in an unknown location where the future of the world was at stake.

• THE WORLD’S first “smart duck” - Edwin - arrives packed with technology, such as motion sensors, memory, Bluetooth and LED lighting and costs $100. Although Edwin looks like a rubber duck for children’s bathime, it’s designed to do much more. Edwin quacks, gurgles and makes other sounds meant to be soothing, such as wind blowing. It connects by Bluetooth to a phone or tablet app to play games, music and interactive stories.

An LED light in its head turns on so it can be used as a night light while it reads a bedtime story or plays a lullaby. And, of course, it is waterproof.

• THE PILOTS of a solar-powered airplane on a globe-circling voyage that began more than a year ago said their flight over the Statue of Liberty before landing in New York inspired them on their mission to promote a world free from reliance on fossil fuels.

“Today, liberty is about finding and promoting renewable sources of power,” said Bertrand Piccard, the initiator and one of the pilots of the Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2. “Our mission is to demonstrate that just the energy of the sun can give us enough power to fly day and night.”

Piccard and Andre Borschberg flew the plane overnight Friday-Saturday to John F Kennedy International Airport from Pennsylvania.

The pair hope to leave this week on their journey across the Atlantic Ocean toward Europe.

• A TEST pilot successfully flew a solar-powered prototype aircraft last week for a company that envisions manufacturing a fleet of drones to provide aerial internet service for an estimated 4 billion people worldwide.

The test flight by Luminati Aerospace LLC took place at a former Northrop Grumman defence plant on eastern Long Island, New York, that once made military aircraft. Pilot Robert Lutz flew the VO-Substrata aircraft for about 20 minutes in the first test flight opened to the public. The white aircraft features wing-mounted solar cells and has a wingspan of about 43 feet.

• THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) has been recognised for its 26 years of support of the Technical Cadets Corps Programme.

BTC Fleet Manager, Steve Hepburn, who has been part of the programme for over a decade, was given Teacher of the Year award. BTC CEO, Leon Williams, spoke at the programme’s 2016 graduation ceremonies in New Providence and Grand Bahama on the topic “Advancing Technology, Embracing the Change”.