ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Post-medieval Polish buried as potential 'vampires' were likely local
• DNA survives critical entry into Earth's atmosphere
• Invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth blocks 'killer electrons'
• High-tech mirror beams heat away from buildings into space
• Unbelievable underworld and its impact on us all
• 'Eye of Sauron' provides new way of measuring distances to galaxies
• Shaping the future of energy storage with conductive clay
• Dogs hear our words and how we say them
• An 'eel-lectrifying' future for autonomous underwater robots
• The mysterious 'action at a distance' between liquid containers
• Bioengineering study finds two-cell mouse embryos already 'talking' about their future
• Particles, waves and ants
• Global quantum communications: No longer the stuff of fiction?
• Pleasure at another's misfortune is evident in children as young as two
• Drivers of sexual traits: Age and a whole lot more
• Goodbye drafty backside, hello 'Model G' patient gown
• Paramecia need Newton for navigation

Post-medieval Polish buried as potential 'vampires' were likely local Posted: 26 Nov 2014 11:42 AM PST Potential 'vampires' buried in northwestern Poland with sickles and rocks across their bodies were likely local and not immigrants to the region. In northwestern Poland, apotropaic funerary rites--a traditional practice intended to prevent evil--occurred throughout the 17th-18th c. AD.

DNA survives critical entry into Earth's atmosphere Posted: 26 Nov 2014 11:41 AM PST The genetic material DNA can survive a flight through space and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere -- and still pass on genetic information. Scientists obtained these astonishing results during an experiment on the TEXUS-49 research rocket mission.

Invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth blocks 'killer electrons' Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:38 AM PST An invisible shield has been discovered some 7,200 miles above Earth that blocks so-called 'killer electrons,' which whip around the planet at near-light speed and have been known to threaten astronauts, fry satellites and degrade space systems during intense solar storms.

High-tech mirror beams heat away from buildings into space Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:38 AM PST Engineers have invented a material designed to help cool buildings. The material reflects incoming sunlight, and it sends heat from inside the structure directly into space as infrared radiation.

Unbelievable underworld and its impact on us all Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:27 AM PST A new study has pulled together research into the most diverse place on earth to demonstrate how the organisms below-ground could hold the key to understanding how the worlds ecosystems function and how they are responding to climate change.

'Eye of Sauron' provides new way of measuring distances to galaxies Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:27 AM PST Scientists have developed a new way of measuring precise distances to galaxies tens of millions of light years away, using the W. M. Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The method is similar to what land surveyors use on Earth, by measuring the physical and angular, or 'apparent', size of a standard ruler in the galaxy, to calibrate the distance from this information.

Shaping the future of energy storage with conductive clay Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:26 AM PST Materials scientists have invented clay, which is both highly conductive and can easily be molded into a variety of shapes and sizes. It represents a turn away from the rather complicated and costly processing -- currently used to make materials for lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors -- and toward one that looks a bit like rolling out cookie dough with results that are even sweeter from an energy storage standpoint.

Dogs hear our words and how we say them Posted: 26 Nov 2014 09:43 AM PST When people hear another person talking to them, they respond not only to what is being said -- those consonants and vowels strung together into words and sentences -- but also to other features of that speech -- the emotional tone and the speaker's gender, for instance. Now, a report provides some of the first evidence of how dogs also differentiate and process those various components of human speech.

An 'eel-lectrifying' future for autonomous underwater robots Posted: 26 Nov 2014 07:39 AM PST Scientists have developed and built a prototype for an eel-like robotic fish to be operable remotely, small, sophisticated and intelligent enough to operate autonomously underwater. A new form of central pattern generator model is presented, by which the swimming pattern of a real Anguilliform fish is successfully applied to the robotic prototype. Mathematical model, control law design, different locomotion patterns, and locomotion planning are presented for an Anguilliform robotic fish.

The mysterious 'action at a distance' between liquid containers Posted: 26 Nov 2014 07:38 AM PST For several years, it has been known that superfluid helium housed in reservoirs located next to each other acts collectively, even when the channels connecting the reservoirs are too narrow and too long to allow for substantial flow. A new theoretical model reveals that the phenomenon of mysterious communication 'at a distance' between fluid reservoirs is much more common than previously thought.

Bioengineering study finds two-cell mouse embryos already 'talking' about their future Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:42 AM PST Bioengineers have discovered that mouse embryos are contemplating their cellular fates in the earliest stages after fertilization when the embryo has only two to four cells, a discovery that could upend the scientific consensus about when embryonic cells begin differentiating into cell types. Their research used single-cell RNA sequencing to look at every gene in the mouse genome.

Particles, waves and ants Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:42 AM PST Particles or waves traveling through disordered media are scattered at small impurities. Surprisingly, the density of these impurities does not affect the overall dwell time the particle -- or wave -- spends inside the medium. This remarkable finding applies not only to particles and waves, but also to crawling ants or drunken sailors hitting streetlamps.

Global quantum communications: No longer the stuff of fiction? Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:42 AM PST Neither quantum computers nor quantum cryptography will become prevalent technologies without memory systems able to manipulate quantum information easily and effectively. Scientists have recently made inroads into popularizing quantum information technologies by creating an atomic memory with outstanding parameters and an extremely simple construction.

Pleasure at another's misfortune is evident in children as young as two Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:40 AM PST Even very young children will show signs of schadenfreude when an inequitable situation is rectified. Until now, researchers believed that children didn't develop such a sophisticated emotion until the age of seven, but a new study found evidence of schadenfreude in children as young as two.

Drivers of sexual traits: Age and a whole lot more Posted: 26 Nov 2014 04:53 AM PST Many male animals have multiple displays and behaviors to attract females; and often the larger or greater the better. Understanding what has driven the evolution of these traits is an important evolutionary question.

Goodbye drafty backside, hello 'Model G' patient gown Posted: 19 Nov 2014 10:25 AM PST A new Detroit design called "Model G" is rolling off the assembly line in the Motor City in 2015, made with a cotton-poplin blend for comfort, color-coded trim for ease of use and – most importantly – a closed backside that finally offers patients more privacy and comfort in the hospital.

Paramecia need Newton for navigation Posted: 18 Nov 2014 01:37 PM PST While single-celled paramecia have the ability to respond to certain external stimuli, they appear not to use that sensory system for simple navigation, new research finds. The work suggests that the ability of paramecia to navigate around flat surfaces is entirely governed by Newton's Third Law of Motion and not by active behavior.

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