ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• How water dissolves stone, molecule by molecule
• NASA Goddard planetary instruments score a hat trick
• Vaginally administered erectile dysfunction medication may alleviate menstrual cramping, study suggests
• 'Spinning trap' developed to measure electron roundness
• New genetic research finds shark, human proteins stunningly similar
• Hummingbird metabolism unique in burning glucose, fructose equally
• You can't get entangled without a wormhole: Physicist finds entanglement instantly gives rise to a wormhole
• Probiotic therapy alleviates autism-like behaviors in mice
• Astronomers discover planet that shouldn't be there
• Sharks prefer to sneak up from behind: Caribbean reef sharks can tell if a human is facing toward them
• Mother lemon sharks 'home' to their birthplace to give birth
• Love connection: Advice for online daters
• Soft mini-robots: Micro-robots will become soft and move like biological organisms, experts predict
• What do investors and college football pollsters have in common?
• Study gives new meaning to 'let your fingers do the walking'
• Tripped tongues teach speech secrets
• 'Valley girl speak' extending to males
• What a Formula 1 race does to your eardrums
• Sound protection standards for secret spaces may be insufficient
• Carbon monoxide may help shrink tumors, amplify effectiveness of chemotherapy
• Ultrathin 'diagnostic skin' allows continuous patient monitoring
• Women find sexually explicit ads unappealing -- unless price is right

How water dissolves stone, molecule by molecule Posted: 05 Dec 2013 03:56 PM PST Scientists have combined cutting-edge experimental techniques and computer simulations to find a new way of predicting how water dissolves crystalline structures like those found in natural stone and cement.

NASA Goddard planetary instruments score a hat trick Posted: 05 Dec 2013 03:56 PM PST Planetary instruments from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., hit the trifecta on Dec. 4, running three experiments of the same kind at different places in space.

Vaginally administered erectile dysfunction medication may alleviate menstrual cramping, study suggests Posted: 05 Dec 2013 02:18 PM PST Women with moderate to severe menstrual cramps may find relief in a class of erectile dysfunction drugs, according to a team of researchers.

'Spinning trap' developed to measure electron roundness Posted: 05 Dec 2013 02:17 PM PST Researchers have developed a method of spinning electric and magnetic fields around trapped molecular ions to measure whether the ions' tiny electrons are truly round -- research with major implications for future scientific understanding of the universe.

New genetic research finds shark, human proteins stunningly similar Posted: 05 Dec 2013 01:58 PM PST Despite widespread fascination with sharks, the world's oldest ocean predators have long been a genetic mystery. The first deep dive into a great white shark's genetic code has fished up big surprises behind a design so effective it has barely changed since before dinosaurs roamed.

Hummingbird metabolism unique in burning glucose, fructose equally Posted: 05 Dec 2013 01:58 PM PST Hummingbird metabolism is a marvel of evolutionary engineering. These tiny birds can power all of their energetic hovering flight by burning the sugar contained in the floral nectar of their diet.

You can't get entangled without a wormhole: Physicist finds entanglement instantly gives rise to a wormhole Posted: 05 Dec 2013 11:22 AM PST Quantum entanglement is one of the more bizarre theories to come out of the study of quantum mechanics -- so strange, in fact, that Albert Einstein famously referred to it as "spooky action at a distance."

Probiotic therapy alleviates autism-like behaviors in mice Posted: 05 Dec 2013 11:19 AM PST Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is diagnosed when individuals exhibit characteristic behaviors, decreased social interactions, and impaired communication. Curiously, many with ASD also suffer from gastrointestinal issues, like abdominal cramps and constipation. Guided by this co-occurrence of brain and gut problems, researchers are investigating a bacterium that alleviates GI and behavioral symptoms in autistic-like mice, introducing a potentially transformative probiotic therapy for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Astronomers discover planet that shouldn't be there Posted: 05 Dec 2013 11:16 AM PST Astronomers have discovered the most distantly orbiting planet found to date around a single, sun-like star. Weighing in at 11 times Jupiter's mass and orbiting its star at 650 times the average Earth-Sun distance, planet HD 106906 b is unlike anything in our own Solar System and defies current planet formation theories.

Sharks prefer to sneak up from behind: Caribbean reef sharks can tell if a human is facing toward them Posted: 05 Dec 2013 11:16 AM PST "Never turn your back on a shark" is the message from a new article. Biologists contend that sharks can comprehend body orientation and therefore know whether humans are facing them or not. This ability helps sharks to approach and possibly attack their prey from the blind side -- a technique they prefer.

Mother lemon sharks 'home' to their birthplace to give birth Posted: 05 Dec 2013 07:22 AM PST Research conducted in Bimini in The Bahamas spanning almost two decades shows that female lemon sharks that were born there returned 15 years later to give birth to their own young, confirming this behavior for the first time in sharks. The study began in 1995, and has resulted in the capture, tagging, and release of more than 2,000 baby sharks.

Love connection: Advice for online daters Posted: 05 Dec 2013 07:21 AM PST Most online dating users don't choose a potential mate the same way they choose a movie to watch, but new research suggests they'd be more amorously successful if that's how their dating service operated.

Soft mini-robots: Micro-robots will become soft and move like biological organisms, experts predict Posted: 05 Dec 2013 06:20 AM PST Increasingly small robots can carry out their functions even inside the human body. No, this isn't a sci-fi dream. The technology is almost ready. However there is still one condition they must meet to be effective: these devices need to have the same "softness" and flexibility as biological tissues.

What do investors and college football pollsters have in common? Posted: 05 Dec 2013 06:18 AM PST When it comes to choosing the best college football teams in the nation or the best companies to invest in, even the experts tend to fall for the same types of biased thinking that the rest of us do.

Study gives new meaning to 'let your fingers do the walking' Posted: 04 Dec 2013 03:12 PM PST A psychological study has found that skilled typists can't identify the positions of many of the keys on the QWERTY keyboard and probably didn't memorize them even when they first learned to type.

Tripped tongues teach speech secrets Posted: 04 Dec 2013 10:09 AM PST Tongue twisters are not just fun to say; it turns out that these sound-related slip-ups can also open windows into the brain's speech-planning processes.

'Valley girl speak' extending to males Posted: 04 Dec 2013 10:09 AM PST The American English speech variant known as uptalk, or "Valley Girl speak" – marked by a rise in pitch at the ends of sentences – is typically associated with young southern Californian females. New research shows uptalk is expanding to other demographic groups, including males.

What a Formula 1 race does to your eardrums Posted: 04 Dec 2013 10:09 AM PST An acoustical engineer always wanted to go to a Formula 1 Grand Prix but knew he needed to protect himself from the deafening roar of the engines. The advice he found online varied and the technical papers he read provided assessments of sound levels for NASCAR and other races, but he could find nothing that measured the noise levels or dosage specifically for Formula 1. So he decided to conduct his own test.

Sound protection standards for secret spaces may be insufficient Posted: 04 Dec 2013 10:09 AM PST What's the best place to conduct a conversation about a confidential or even classified matter? Surprisingly, probably not a conference room designed in accordance with acoustical criteria approved by the Department of Defense. While such "secret" rooms might meet DOD standards, they offer less protection against snooping than is found in a luxury condo, says one researcher who evaluated the acoustic performance of several classified spaces.

Carbon monoxide may help shrink tumors, amplify effectiveness of chemotherapy Posted: 04 Dec 2013 09:37 AM PST In recent years, research has suggested that carbon monoxide, the highly toxic gas emitted from auto exhausts and faulty heating systems, can be used to treat certain inflammatory medical conditions. Now a study shows for the first time that carbon monoxide may also have a role to play in treating cancer.

Ultrathin 'diagnostic skin' allows continuous patient monitoring Posted: 04 Dec 2013 07:36 AM PST A multidisciplinary research team has developed an ultrathin membrane that can stick to skin and carry arrays of diagnostic sensors and stimulatory components. The "electronic skin" allows remote patient monitoring and may someday be used to deliver treatments.

Women find sexually explicit ads unappealing -- unless price is right Posted: 04 Dec 2013 06:16 AM PST Sexual imagery is often used in magazine and TV ads, presumably to help entice buyers to purchase a new product. But new research suggests that women tend to find ads with sexual imagery off-putting, unless the advertised item is priced high enough.

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