ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Beer, beef and politics: Findings at viking archaeological site show power trumping practicality
• Lethal control of wolves backfires on livestock
• Oldest ever engraving discovered on 500,000-year-old shell
• World’s fastest 2-D camera, 100 billion frames per second, may enable new scientific discoveries
• Geckos are sticky without effort: Death has no impact on strength geckos use to adhere to surfaces
• 'Mirage Earth' exoplanets may have burned away chances for life
• Fractal geometry: Finding the simple patterns in a complex world
• Gut bacteria from a worm can degrade plastic
• Astronomers detect atomic hydrogen emission in galaxies at record breaking distances

Beer, beef and politics: Findings at viking archaeological site show power trumping practicality Posted: 03 Dec 2014 01:10 PM PST Vikings are known for raiding and trading, but those who settled in Iceland centuries ago spent more time producing and feasting on booze and beef — in part to gain political clout in a place very different from their homeland, says an archaeologist.

Lethal control of wolves backfires on livestock Posted: 03 Dec 2014 11:25 AM PST Researchers have found that it is counter-productive to kill wolves to keep them from preying on livestock. Shooting and trapping lead to more dead sheep and cattle the following year, not fewer. Wildlife biologists say that, for each wolf killed, the odds of more livestock depredations increase significantly.

Oldest ever engraving discovered on 500,000-year-old shell Posted: 03 Dec 2014 11:24 AM PST Homo erectus on Java was already using shells of freshwater mussels as tools half a million years ago, and as a 'canvas' for an engraving. The discovery of an engraved geometrical pattern on one of the shells came as a total surprise. The zig zag pattern, that can only be seen with oblique lighting, is clearly older than the weathering processes on the shell arising from fossilization.

World’s fastest 2-D camera, 100 billion frames per second, may enable new scientific discoveries Posted: 03 Dec 2014 11:24 AM PST A team of biomedical engineers has developed the world's fastest receive-only 2-D camera, a device that can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second.

Geckos are sticky without effort: Death has no impact on strength geckos use to adhere to surfaces Posted: 03 Dec 2014 09:53 AM PST Scientists have studied a variety of features in geckos such as the adhesive toe pads on the underside of the feet with which geckos attach to surfaces with remarkable strength. Biologists have now conducted experiments in the lab on live and dead geckos that show, for the first time, that dead geckos can adhere to surfaces with the same strength as living geckos. The research could have applications in the field of robotics.

'Mirage Earth' exoplanets may have burned away chances for life Posted: 03 Dec 2014 09:48 AM PST Planets orbiting close to low-mass stars — easily the most common stars in the universe — are prime targets in the search for extraterrestrial life. But new research led by an astronomy graduate student indicates some such planets may have long since lost their chance at hosting life because of intense heat during their formative years.

Fractal geometry: Finding the simple patterns in a complex world Posted: 03 Dec 2014 08:12 AM PST A mathematician has developed a new way to uncover simple patterns that might underlie apparently complex systems, such as clouds, cracks in materials or the movement of the stockmarket. The method, named fractal Fourier analysis, is based on new branch of mathematics called fractal geometry. The method could help scientists better understand the complicated signals that the body gives out, such as nerve impulses or brain waves.

Gut bacteria from a worm can degrade plastic Posted: 03 Dec 2014 08:11 AM PST Plastic is well-known for sticking around in the environment for years without breaking down, contributing significantly to litter and landfills. But scientists have now discovered that bacteria from the guts of a worm known to munch on food packaging can degrade polyethylene, the most common plastic.The finding could lead to new ways to help get rid of the otherwise persistent waste, the scientists say.

Astronomers detect atomic hydrogen emission in galaxies at record breaking distances Posted: 03 Dec 2014 05:38 AM PST Using the world's largest radio telescope, astronomers have detected the faint signal emitted by atomic hydrogen gas in galaxies three billion light years from Earth, breaking the previous record distance by 500 million light years.

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