You could say so many things are for the birds. The latest is having children in old age.

Jokes aside, scientists are happy to report that a a 74-year-old Laysan albatross with as many as 30 offspring is trying for another child.

The bird with the Latin name Phoebastria immutabilis, and called ‘Wisdom’, nests on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, alongside nearly 70% of all Laysan albatrosses in Hawaii. She was first ringed as an adult in 1956 by the legendary ornithologist Chandler Robbins and is now the world’s oldest known banded bird in the wild.

“We are optimistic that the egg will hatch,” Jonathan Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge said in a statement. Millions of seabirds return to the refuge to nest and raise their young every year.

Wisdom and her partner, a bird called Akeakamai, have returned to the Pacific Ocean atoll since 2006. They mate for life, and lay one egg a year.  Akeakamai has not been seen for the past several years and Wisdom has started speaking with other males since her return.

Albatrosses are not expected to live more than 50 years, making Wisdom a legend among birds. She hatched her latest chick a few years ago in February 2021, making her at least 70 years old.

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Solar Impulse 2, the aircraft attempting to circumnavigate the world fueled only by sun power, will be grounded in Hawaii until next April for battery repairs. On July 3, the plane completed the longest leg of its global flight – a record-breaking (non-stop, solo piloted) five-day, five-night journey from Nagoya, Japan, to Hawaii – during which its storage batteries overheated, sustaining “irreversible” damage, according to a statement from the team.

The route from Japan was piloted by Andre Borschberg. Following several days of essential repairs, it was planned for Betrand Piccard to command the next stage of the journey to Phoenix, Arizona. Maintenance checks indicated that the temperature of the batteries during quick ascents and descents in a tropical climate was “not properly anticipated.” The aircraft is now housed in a University of Hawaii hangar at the Kalaeloa airport on Oahu while repairs are made.hangar in Hawaii while the engineering team researches options for improved cooling and heating. The remainder of the journey has been suspended until 2016.

“The damage to the batteries is not a technical failure or a weakness in the technology,” the team said. “Setbacks are part of the challenges of a project which is pushing technological boundaries to the limits.”

Although Solar Impulse 2 has a wingspan larger than that of a Boeing 747, equipped with 17,000 solar cells that power its four electric motors – the aircraft only weighs about 5,000 pounds – as much as a minivan. The solar cells recharge lithium batteries that allow the plane to fly at night.

The battery problems were not the first project setback. Weather problems delayed the first leg of the Pacific flight, and after finally taking off from Nanjing, China, in May en route to Hawaii, the plane landed in Nagoya, Japan after high winds damaged a wing.

The Solar Impulse team said in a news release that there was no weakness with the technology, but the team didn’t anticipate temperature fluctuations associated with rapid altitude changes in a tropical climate. They will continue the attempt to circumvent the globe.

“Solar Impulse is attempting a historic first of flying around the world only on solar energy,” the pilots said in a statement. “And while Solar Impulse has completed eight legs, covering nearly half of the journey, setbacks are part of the challenges of a project which is pushing technological boundaries to the limits.”

The 13-leg journey started in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in early March. Stay connected to up-to-the-minute status at the Solar Impulse website (link here).

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