ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• It’s alive! Bacteria-filled liquid crystals could improve biosensing
• Game-winning momentum is just an illusion
• Better batters from brain-training research: Baseball player study significantly improves vision, reduces strikeouts
• Why does the brain remember dreams?
• Study on flu evolution may change textbooks, history books
• New 'pomegranate-inspired' design solves problems for lithium-ion batteries
• Geographical passwords easier to remember
• First large-scale study of stock market volatility, mental disorders
• Sex cells: The sex of individual cells matters
• Promise of a bonus counter-productive in brains with high dopamine levels
• Asian longhorned beetles pheromone could be used to manage pest
• Photo + fragrance of chocolate cake = more chocolate cakes sold

It’s alive! Bacteria-filled liquid crystals could improve biosensing Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:07 PM PST Plop living, swimming bacteria into a novel water-based, nontoxic liquid crystal and a new physics takes over. The dynamic interaction of the bacteria with the liquid crystal creates a novel form of soft matter: living liquid crystal. This new type of active material holds promise for improving the early detection of diseases.

Game-winning momentum is just an illusion Posted: 17 Feb 2014 09:17 AM PST When a team goes on a multi-game winning streak, it has nothing to do with momentum, according to a new study. By examining varsity college hockey teams winning and losing record, researchers discovered that that momentum advantages don't exist.

Better batters from brain-training research: Baseball player study significantly improves vision, reduces strikeouts Posted: 17 Feb 2014 09:16 AM PST UC Riverside baseball players who participated in novel brain-training research saw significant improvement in vision, resulting in fewer strikeouts and more hits. The experiment demonstrated that improvements from a multiple perceptual-learning approach transfer to real-world tasks.

Why does the brain remember dreams? Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:59 AM PST Some people recall a dream every morning, whereas others rarely recall one. In a new study, research shows that the temporo-parietal junction, an information-processing hub in the brain, is more active in high dream recallers. Increased activity in this brain region might facilitate attention orienting toward external stimuli and promote intrasleep wakefulness, thereby facilitating the encoding of dreams in memory.

Study on flu evolution may change textbooks, history books Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST A new study reconstructing the evolutionary tree of flu viruses challenges conventional wisdom and solves some of the mysteries surrounding flu outbreaks of historical significance. The study challenges several tenets of conventional wisdom -- for example, the notion that the virus moves largely unidirectionally from wild birds to domestic birds rather than with spillover in the other direction. It also helps resolve the origin of the virus that caused the unprecedentedly severe influenza pandemic of 1918.

New 'pomegranate-inspired' design solves problems for lithium-ion batteries Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST A novel battery electrode features silicon nanoparticles clustered like pomegranate seeds in a tough carbon rind. The design could enable smaller, lighter rechargeable batteries for electric cars, cell phones and other devices.

Geographical passwords easier to remember Posted: 14 Feb 2014 10:09 AM PST It's much easier to remember a place you have visited than a long, complicated password, which is why s computer scientist is developing a system he calls geographical passwords.

First large-scale study of stock market volatility, mental disorders Posted: 13 Feb 2014 07:03 PM PST Falling stock prices lead to increased hospitalizations for mental disorders, according to new research. Researchers assessed the relationship between stock price movements and mental disorders using data on daily hospitalizations for mental disorders in Taiwan over 4,000 days between 1998 and 2009. They found that a 1000-point fall in the Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalisation Weighted Stock Index (TAIEX) coincided with a 4.71% daily increase in hospitalizations for mental disorders.

Sex cells: The sex of individual cells matters Posted: 13 Feb 2014 11:19 AM PST The idea that sex sells is generally accepted as fact. The idea that the sex of cells is important to biomedical research is not as well-known, but an article suggests that the sex of individual cells matters.

Promise of a bonus counter-productive in brains with high dopamine levels Posted: 13 Feb 2014 09:22 AM PST Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that the amount of dopamine in the brain plays a role in how people perform when promised a high bonus.

Asian longhorned beetles pheromone could be used to manage pest Posted: 13 Feb 2014 08:28 AM PST Female Asian longhorned beetles lure males to their locations by laying down sex-specific pheromone trails on tree surfaces, according to an international team of researchers. The finding could lead to the development of a tool to manage this invasive pest that affects about 25 tree species in the United States.

Photo + fragrance of chocolate cake = more chocolate cakes sold Posted: 11 Feb 2014 06:42 AM PST Fashion magazines come pre-loaded with scratch-and-sniff panels for perfume and aftershave, but what about advertisements for foods like chocolate chip cookies and fresh-baked bread? According to a new study, when food advertisements combine a photo of food with an "imagined odor," consumers both salivate more for the item and then consume it in larger quantities.

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