ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Countering caregiver placebo effect in pets
• Bighead carp: From 5 to 150 centimeters in 37 million years
• A plague of fleas: Tiny Eurasian exotic is upending watery ecosystems across the northern Great Lakes
• Racing cars on walls would be possible, according to student paper
• What's the upside of feeling too sad for chocolate?

Countering caregiver placebo effect in pets Posted: 12 Mar 2014 12:02 PM PDT How do you know that your pet is benefiting from its pain medication? A new clinical trial design could help overcome pet owners' unconscious observation bias and determine whether the drugs they test are effective. "In veterinary medicine, we're one step removed from the patient, and so we run into what we call the 'caregiver placebo effect,' which is how we refer to a number of factors that result in unconscious influence on owners' responses," says a researcher. "Merely observing behavior can change it, and any changes in daily routine, like administering medication, will affect the way you relate to that animal and change its behavior." This makes controlling for the placebo effect more difficult, and even the most sensitive detection techniques still have trouble distinguishing between the real and the placebo effect.

Bighead carp: From 5 to 150 centimeters in 37 million years Posted: 12 Mar 2014 08:47 AM PDT During excavations in the open lignite-mining pit Na Duong in Vietnam, scientists discovered the world's oldest bighead carp. With a length of only 5 centimeters, Planktophaga minuta is also the smallest known fossil representative of this East Asian group. Modern bighead carp are among the largest members of the carp family, reaching a length of up to 1.5 meters and a weight of 50 kilograms.

A plague of fleas: Tiny Eurasian exotic is upending watery ecosystems across the northern Great Lakes Posted: 12 Mar 2014 08:46 AM PDT The spiny water flea, aka Bythotrephes, is devouring its way through the Great Lakes and into the surrounding inland waters, including Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park, disrupting an entire ecosystem from the bottom up.

Racing cars on walls would be possible, according to student paper Posted: 12 Mar 2014 05:25 AM PDT Driving a racing car at an angle of 90 degrees to the ground could be possible with the right track design, new research suggests. Student researchers wanted to investigate this because it has been previously shown that speedway cars actually travel at their fastest around the steep bends of speedway tracks. The group chose to look at two different vehicles -- an open wheeled Penske-Reynard-Honda racing car and an Audi TT road car -- to compare how different car shapes and characteristics would affect their gravity-defying capabilities.

What's the upside of feeling too sad for chocolate? Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:39 AM PDT The instant gratification and the pleasure derived from consuming excessive chocolate and deep-fried foods can lead way to a double-edged sword of negative consequences ranging from weight gain to feelings of low self-esteem. According to a new study, combating this type of self-destructive behavior may be achieved simply by making a person feel sad.

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