Nature Hub

  By Ian Youngs Entertainment & arts reporter- BBC News, Edited by -Vinuri Randhula Silva, IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, The classic Fleetwood Mac line-up on stage, with Christine McVie centre, in 2018 Christine McVie, who has died at the age of 79, was an integral member of the complicated cast of characters who made up one of the greatest bands ever. In 19 70, Fleetwood Mac were fading as a blues-rock force, their leader Peter Green having left after an LSD-induced decline, when the remaining members decamped to a country house to try to find a new direction. Christine McVie had already given up her own career as a singer and keyboardist after realising she would hardly see her husband, Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie, if they were in different bands. But a few days before they were due to set out on a US tour, Fleetwood Mac "suddenly felt they needed another instrument to fill out the sound", she later explained. "And there I was - sitting around doin...

 By-  Vinuri Randhulla Silva, The  Goliath birdeater  ( Theraphosa blondi ) belongs to the  tarantula  family  Theraphosidae . Found in northern  South America , it is the largest  spider  in the world by mass (175 g (6.2 oz)) and body length (up to 13 cm (5.1 in), and second to the  giant huntsman spider  by leg span.  It is also called the  Goliath tarantula  or  Goliath bird-eating spider ; the practice of calling theraphosids "bird-eating" derives from an early 18th-century copper engraving by  Maria Sibylla Merian  that shows one  eating a hummingbird . Despite the spider's name, it rarely preys on birds . These spiders can have a leg span up to 30 cm (12 in),  a body length of up to 13 cm (5.1 in) and can weigh up to 175 g (6.2 oz). Bird eaters are one of the few tarantula species that lack tibial spurs, located on the first p...

  By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent, Edited by Amal Udawatta, Related Top IMAGE SOURCE, NASA Image caption, The Orion capsule looks back at the Moon and Earth on Monday The US space agency's Orion capsule has reached a key milestone on its demonstration mission around the Moon. On Monday, it moved some 430,000km (270,000 miles) beyond the Earth - the furthest any spacecraft designed to carry humans has travelled. The ship is uncrewed on this occasion, but if it completes the current flight without incident, astronauts will be on the next outing in two years' time. Nasa is planning a series of ever more complex missions with Orion. They're part of the agency's Artemis programme, which seeks to return people to the lunar surface after a gap of 50 years. Monday's milestone marks the middle point of the mission. "This halfway point teaches us to number our days so that we can get a heart of wisdom," said Mike Sarafin, Nasa's Artemis mission manage...