ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Weigh-in once a week or you'll gain weight
• Spider's web weaves way to advanced networks and displays
• Switching to spintronics: Electric field switching of ferromagnetism at room temperature
• Short-necked Triassic marine reptile discovered in China
• Ancient, hydrogen-rich waters deep underground around the world: Waters could support isolated life
• 'Perfect storm' quenching star formation around a supermassive black hole
• Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs may have nearly knocked off mammals, too
• Bugs life: The nerve cells that make locusts ‘gang up’
• Unraveling the light of fireflies
• Smart window that tints and powers itself invented

Weigh-in once a week or you'll gain weight Posted: 17 Dec 2014 02:14 PM PST Stepping on the scale is common among dieters but how does the frequency of weigh-ins impact weight? A new study showed that the more frequently dieters weighed themselves the more weight they lost, and if participants went more than a week without weighing themselves, they gained weight.

Spider's web weaves way to advanced networks and displays Posted: 17 Dec 2014 02:14 PM PST Searching for new ways to develop efficient, flexible networks, physicists discovered the designs of spider webs and leaf venation, refined across thousands of years of evolution, are worthy models for the next generation of optoelectronic applications.

Switching to spintronics: Electric field switching of ferromagnetism at room temperature Posted: 17 Dec 2014 01:16 PM PST Researchers have used an electric field to reverse the magnetization direction in a multiferroic spintronic device at room temperature, a demonstration that points a new way towards spintronics and smaller, faster and cheaper ways of storing and processing data.

Short-necked Triassic marine reptile discovered in China Posted: 17 Dec 2014 12:40 PM PST A new species of short-necked marine reptile from the Triassic period has been discovered in China.

Ancient, hydrogen-rich waters deep underground around the world: Waters could support isolated life Posted: 17 Dec 2014 11:11 AM PST A team of scientists has mapped the location of hydrogen-rich waters found trapped kilometers beneath Earth's surface in rock fractures in Canada, South Africa and Scandinavia. Common in Precambrian Shield rocks -- the oldest rocks on Earth -- the ancient waters have a chemistry similar to that found near deep sea vents, suggesting these waters can support microbes living in isolation from the surface.

'Perfect storm' quenching star formation around a supermassive black hole Posted: 17 Dec 2014 11:10 AM PST Astronomers have discovered that modest black holes can shut down star formation by producing turbulence. High-energy jets powered by supermassive black holes can blast away a galaxy's star-forming fuel, resulting in so-called "red and dead" galaxies: those brimming with ancient red stars yet containing little or no hydrogen gas to create new ones.

Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs may have nearly knocked off mammals, too Posted: 17 Dec 2014 07:13 AM PST The classic story is that mammals rose to dominance after the dinosaurs went extinct, but a new study shows that some of the most common mammals living alongside dinosaurs, the metatherians, extinct relatives of living marsupials, were also nearly wiped out when an asteroid hit the planet 66 million years ago.

Bugs life: The nerve cells that make locusts ‘gang up’ Posted: 17 Dec 2014 06:06 AM PST A team of biologists has identified a set of nerve cells in desert locusts that bring about 'gang-like' gregarious behavior when they are forced into a crowd. The findings demonstrate the importance of individual history for understanding how brain chemicals control behaviour, which may apply more broadly to humans also.

Unraveling the light of fireflies Posted: 17 Dec 2014 04:45 AM PST How do fireflies produce those mesmerizing light flashes? Using cutting-edge imaging techniques, scientists have unraveled the firefly's intricate light-producing system for the first time.

Smart window that tints and powers itself invented Posted: 17 Dec 2014 04:43 AM PST Scientists have developed a smart window which can darken or brighten without the need for an external power source.

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