ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Acoustic cloaking device hides objects from sound
• Concerns and considerations with the naming of Mars craters
• Cancer cells don't take 'drunken' walks through body
• Bending the light with a tiny chip: Silicon chip acts as a lens-free projector, may one day fit in cell phones
• To drink or not to drink: Decision-making center of brain identified
• Cosmetic treatment can open door to bacteria
• Personality predicts social learning in wild monkeys: Bold or anxious baboons learn to solve tasks from other baboons
• Timid jumping spider uses ant as bodyguard
• Effective thermal camouflage and invisibility device for soldiers created
• Employers routinely discriminate against stammerers

Acoustic cloaking device hides objects from sound Posted: 11 Mar 2014 03:47 PM PDT Engineers have demonstrated the world's first three-dimensional acoustic cloak. The new device reroutes sound waves to create the impression that the cloak and anything beneath it are not there. The phenomenon works in all three dimensions, no matter which direction the sound is coming from or where the observer is located, and holds potential for future applications such as sonar avoidance and architectural acoustics.

Concerns and considerations with the naming of Mars craters Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:40 AM PDT Recently initiatives that capitalise on the public's interest in space and astronomy have proliferated, some putting a price tag on naming space objects and their features, such as Mars craters. The International Astronomical Union would like to emphasize that such initiatives go against the spirit of free and equal access to space, as well as against internationally recognized regulations. Hence no purchased names can ever be used on official maps and globes.

Cancer cells don't take 'drunken' walks through body Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:38 AM PDT Biologists have believed that cancers cells spread through the body in a slow, aimless fashion, resembling a drunk who can't walk three steps in a straight line. They now know that's true in a flat petri dish, but not in the three-dimensional space of an actual body. This finding is important because it should lead to more accurate results for scientists studying how cancer spreads through the body, often leading to a grim prognosis. To address this dimensional disagreement, the study's authors have produced a new mathematical formula that they say better reflects the behavior of cells migrating through 3D environments.

Bending the light with a tiny chip: Silicon chip acts as a lens-free projector, may one day fit in cell phones Posted: 11 Mar 2014 08:00 AM PDT Traditional projectors -- like those used to project a film or classroom lecture notes -- pass a beam of light through a tiny image, using lenses to map each point of the small picture to corresponding points on a large screen. A tiny silicon chip eliminates the need for bulky and expensive lenses, and instead projects the image electronically by 'bending the light' with no mechanically moving parts.

To drink or not to drink: Decision-making center of brain identified Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:58 AM PDT Although choosing to do something because the perceived benefit outweighs the financial cost is something people do daily, little is known about what happens in the brain when a person makes these kinds of decisions. Studying how these cost-benefit decisions are made when choosing to consume alcohol, a researcher identified distinct profiles of brain activity that are present when making these decisions.

Cosmetic treatment can open door to bacteria Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:49 AM PDT Many people have 'fillers' injected into their facial tissue to give them 'bee-stung lips' or to smooth out their wrinkles. Unfortunately, a lot of cosmetic treatment customers experience unpleasant side effects in the form of tender subcutaneous lumps that are difficult to treat and which -- in isolated cases -- have led to lesions that simply will not heal. Research recently published now supports that, despite the highest levels of hygiene, this unwanted side effect is caused by bacterial infection.

Personality predicts social learning in wild monkeys: Bold or anxious baboons learn to solve tasks from other baboons Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:11 AM PDT Baboons learn from other baboons about new food sources -- but only if they are bold or anxious. The results suggest that personality plays a key role in social learning in animals, something previously ignored in animal cognition studies. Researchers examined how personality influenced whether baboons solved foraging tasks and whether they then demonstrated to others how to solve the tasks. They found bolder baboons did both.

Timid jumping spider uses ant as bodyguard Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:06 AM PDT Ants are the unlikely guardians of jumping spiders in their battle against aggressive spitting spiders. A timid jumping spider uses the scent of ants as a secret weapon to save itself from becoming the somewhat soggy prey of the predatory spitting spider. The downside to this plan is that jumping spiders are also a favorite snack of its very own saviors. To overcome this additional hazard, the spider has made yet another plan in the form of an ant-proof nest.

Effective thermal camouflage and invisibility device for soldiers created Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:03 AM PDT Scientists have created a thermal illusion device to control thermal camouflage and invisibility using thermotic materials. Every natural object exhibits thermal signatures. However, if these signals are blocked or masked, then these objects become undetectable. The new device can block thermal signatures (leading to invisibility) and provide illusionary camouflage at the same time. This cloaking technology is cost-effective, easily scalable, as well as applicable to even bigger objects (such as soldiers on night missions), and it has also overcome limitations like narrow bandwidth and polarization-dependence. The technology is ready to roll out for military applications.

Employers routinely discriminate against stammerers Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:09 AM PDT Employers are routinely discriminating against people who stammer, rejecting them because of concerns about possible negative reactions from customers or team members, new research suggests. Two-thirds of the participants in this study who were successful in gaining employment believed they were appointed because "the nature of the job meant no-one else would stick it, which often indicated a lonely or repetitive job." As a result, the men often described their workplace experiences as "mindless" or "frustrating." Around one per cent of the population has a stammer, 80 per cent of those are men.

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