ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Building heart tissue that beats
• Bees capable of learning feats with tasty prize in sight
• Sea anemone is genetically half animal, half plant
• Nineteen new speedy praying mantis species discovered that hide and play dead to avoid capture
• New view of supernova death throes in 3-D
• Follow the ant trail for drug design: Ant behavior inspires software design
• Scent of the familiar: You may linger like perfume in your dog's brain
• Real-looking snow in Disney's 'Frozen' based in simulations that predict blast scenarios
• Astronomers complete cosmic dust census
• Biodiesel from alligator fat reduces waste
• Rats' brains may 'remember' odor experienced while under general anesthesia, study suggests

Building heart tissue that beats Posted: 18 Mar 2014 12:47 PM PDT When a heart gets damaged, such as during a major heart attack, there's no easy fix. But scientists working on a way to repair the vital organ have now engineered tissue that closely mimics natural heart muscle that beats, not only in a lab dish but also when implanted into animals.

Bees capable of learning feats with tasty prize in sight Posted: 18 Mar 2014 11:25 AM PDT Bumblebees are capable of some remarkable learning feats, especially when they might get a tasty reward, according to two studies. In the first study, the researchers found bees capable of learning to solve increasingly complex problems, an example of scaffold learning. In a second study, the researchers found bees learned by watching and communicating with other bees, a process called social learning.

Sea anemone is genetically half animal, half plant Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:38 AM PDT Evolutionary and developmental biologists have discovered that sea anemones display a genomic landscape with a complexity of regulatory elements similar to that of fruit flies or other animal model systems. This suggests that this principle of gene regulation is already 600 million years old and dates back to the common ancestor of human, fly and sea anemone.

Nineteen new speedy praying mantis species discovered that hide and play dead to avoid capture Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:37 AM PDT A scientist has discovered 19 new species of praying mantis from Central and South America. The new species of bark mantises were discovered in tropical forests and also found among existing museum collections. As highly visual predators, the bark mantis species appear to be active hunters that pursue prey as opposed to ambush hunters that wait for prey to come close.

New view of supernova death throes in 3-D Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:36 AM PDT A powerful, new three-dimensional model provides fresh insight into the turbulent death throes of supernovas, whose final explosions outshine entire galaxies and populate the universe with elements that make life on Earth possible. It shows how the turbulent mixing of elements inside stars causes them to expand, contract, and spit out matter before they finally detonate.

Follow the ant trail for drug design: Ant behavior inspires software design Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:20 AM PDT New drugs often fail because they cause undesirable side effects. Researchers have now developed simulation software that predicts the properties of active agents and virtually builds new ones. The software's search process is modeled after the behavior of ants. In order to allow the software to search for new composite agents, the research team uses an ant algorithm. Like an ant colony on the search for food, the algorithm screens through the molecular building blocks for components with the desired properties. Depending on the strength of the desirable and undesirable effects of the virtual products, the building blocks receive a 'grade'. In the ant world, this would equate to marking the trail to food with pheromones.

Scent of the familiar: You may linger like perfume in your dog's brain Posted: 18 Mar 2014 08:20 AM PDT An area of the canine brain associated with reward responds more strongly to the scents of familiar humans than it does to the scents of other humans, or even to those of familiar dogs. This is among the first brain-imaging studies of dogs responding to biological odors. When humans smell the perfume or cologne of someone they love, they may have an immediate, emotional reaction that's not necessarily cognitive.

Real-looking snow in Disney's 'Frozen' based in simulations that predict blast scenarios Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:39 AM PDT Simulation-based engineering science allows researchers to predict the effects of building explosions and analyze the response of building materials to those threats. Researchers developed the Material Point Method, a computer-generated tool that not only creates blast scenarios that informs blast and impact resistant materials and design, but also is crossing over into Hollywood animation -- most recently, Disney's Oscar-winning animated film, Frozen.

Astronomers complete cosmic dust census Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:32 AM PDT Astronomers have completed a benchmark study of more than 300 galaxies, producing the largest census of dust in the local Universe, the Herschel Reference Survey. Astronomers observed galaxies at far-infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths and captured the light directly emitted by dust grains.

Biodiesel from alligator fat reduces waste Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:30 AM PDT Animal fat from chicken, pork, beef and even alligators could give an economical, ecofriendly boost to the biofuel industry, according to researchers who reported a new method for biofuel production. The report follows up on their earlier study on the potential use of gator fat as a source of biodiesel fuel.

Rats' brains may 'remember' odor experienced while under general anesthesia, study suggests Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:30 AM PDT Rats' brains may remember odors they were exposed to while deeply anesthetized, suggests research. In the study, rats were exposed to a specific odor while under general anesthesia. Examination of the brain tissue after they had recovered from anesthesia revealed evidence of cellular imprinting, even though the rats behaved as if they had never encountered the odor before.

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