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After beating the speed record set by Usain Bolt (the world's fastest man), MIT’s four-legged robot called Cheetah is now coming after Aries Merritt (the world's fastest hurdler).

The university's Biometrics Robotics Lab has upgraded Cheetah with new algorithms, which will allow it to detect and jump over obstacles up to 40 centimeters tall. This would make Cheetah the first robot to handle obstacles autonomously.

Sangbae Kim, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT said, “A running jump is a truly dynamic behavior. You have to manage balance and energy, and be able to handle impact after landing. Our robot is specifically designed for those highly dynamic behaviors”.

The Agriculture Ministry’s recent data showed that almost half of Kazakhstan's population of rare saiga antelopes has wiped out in recent weeks.

Experts believe that the endangered beasts might have come in contact with a lung disease that is sweeping across the steppe.

Agriculture Ministry’s latest data reported on May 27 unveiled that the number of dead saigas has reached to 120, 977.

As per government estimates, almost 40% of the Kazakhstan’s total saiga population of 300,000 has died so far due to the deadly disease.

Latest figures given by Astana are even higher than an estimate of 265,000 given by the international Saiga Conservation Alliance after an aerial study of roaming grounds in Kazakhstan.

For almost six decades white-tailed eagles were not present in the UK. But things changed with a re-introduction programme started in 1975.

With the help of conservationists, the number of birds, also known as sea eagles in Scotland has now reached 100 pairs. The 100th breeding pair nested on Hoy in Orkney, becoming the first white-tailed eagles to nest in Orkney for 142 years.

The first young white-tailed eagles were released on Rum Island from Norway. In total, 82 young eagles were released over a decade on Rum Island.

RSPB Scotland director Stuart Housden was of the view, “The 100th breeding pair marks a huge milestone for the re-introduction of white-tailed eagles, and to reach it in this important anniversary year for the programme makes it even more special”.

The Manitoba government is going to strengthen its fight against zebra mussels by bringing in detection dogs for sniffing out the presence of the invasive species.

On Thursday, Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Tom Nevakshonoff, said that after a successful training period, last weekend the dog was deployed at Emerson. It will assist at high-risk and high-traffic watercraft inspection stations and border crossings in Manitoba when available.

The dog is known as Fauna. It can detect the presence of mollusk on watercraft and water-related equipment.

Researchers said that the discovery of bone in the jaw of an ancient shark has indicated that modern sharks are far more advanced than thought earlier.

The finding was reported in the journal PLOS one. It has challenged the evolutionary models, and suggested that the animals with the skeletons built of cartilage have evolved into those with more advanced bony skeletons.

Study’s lead author Professor John Long, a palaeontologist of Flinders University, said that fish-like sharks were thought to be ancient because they only had cartilage, and have never evolved to develop the bones.

Professor said that thus they have turned the idea on its head by stating that early fossil sharks actually had bone in their skeleton, but now they have lost it.

The US has indicted fifteen people from China with fraud and conspiracy as they conspired to take college entrance exams on behalf of others to obtain student visas in what is alleged as a mutually beneficial scam involving students and the test-takers.

The Federal Authorities have revealed a four-year scam where prospective students paid Chinese citizens to take a test for American universities on their behalf using a fake passport mailed from China. The scammed tests include those taken by the Educational Testing Service and the College Board such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.