Photo by mosley.brian If we could somehow justify using emoticons in our stories, there’d be a big, weeping frowny face right about here. Officials at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo say they confirmed late Tuesday that female giant panda Mei Xiang is not really pregnant. Mei’s recent hormonal surge was just another in a series of false pregnancies that she’s experienced over the last few years. Sigh. With no new panda cub in sight, the…

Photo by Daniel.Techie{TaiShan~4 Ever} @ 127.0.0.1 As part of its ongoing efforts to breed a new panda cub, the National Zoo artificially inseminated Mei Xiang back in January (but only after they let Tian Tian have a go at doing it the old fashioned way). Today zoo officials say they have detected a rise in Mei’s progestagen levels, which means we’re now just 40 to 50 days away from discovering whether it worked. At…