ScienceDaily: Strange Science News |
- Information storage for the next generation of plastic computers: Efficient conversion from magnetic storage to light is key
- Eavesdropping on brain cell chatter
- How smells stick to your memories: Your nose can be a pathfinder
- Searching for dark energy with neutrons: With neutrons, scientists can now look for dark energy in the lab
- Using video surveillance to measure peoples' hand washing habits
- Ant colonies help evacuees in disaster zones
- Augmented reality: Bringing history and the future to life
- Computer software analyzing facial expressions accurately predicts student test performance
- Fish exposed to antidepressants exhibit altered behavioral changes
- Potential use of Google Glass in surgical settings
- Masculine boys, feminine girls more likely to engage in cancer risk behaviors, study finds
- Lemurs match scent of a friend to sound of her voice
- Climate change likely culprit in coqui frog's altered calls, say biologists
| Posted: 16 Apr 2014 01:24 PM PDT Inexpensive computers, cell phones and other systems that substitute flexible plastic for silicon chips may be one step closer to reality, thanks to new research. Scientists have made a new proposal for overcoming a major obstacle to the development of such plastic devices -- the large amount of energy required to read stored information.  |
| Eavesdropping on brain cell chatter Posted: 16 Apr 2014 11:33 AM PDT Everything we do -- all of our movements, thoughts and feelings -- are the result of neurons talking with one another, and recent studies have suggested that some of the conversations might not be all that private. Brain cells known as astrocytes may be listening in on, or even participating in, some of those discussions. But a new mouse study suggests that astrocytes might only be tuning in part of the time -- specifically, when the neurons get really excited about something.  |
| How smells stick to your memories: Your nose can be a pathfinder Posted: 16 Apr 2014 10:33 AM PDT Waves in your brain make smells stick to your memories and inner maps. Researchers have recently discovered the process behind this phenomenon. The brain, it turns out, connects smells to memories through an associative process where neural networks are linked through synchronized brain waves of 20-40 Hz.  |
| Posted: 16 Apr 2014 10:33 AM PDT It does not always take a huge accelerator to do particle physics: First results from a low energy, table top alternative takes validity of Newtonian gravity down by five orders of magnitude and narrows the potential properties of the forces and particles that may exist beyond it by more than one hundred thousand times. Gravity resonance spectroscopy is so sensitive that it can now be used to search for Dark Matter and Dark Energy.  |
| Using video surveillance to measure peoples' hand washing habits Posted: 16 Apr 2014 07:16 AM PDT Use of video surveillance to better understand essential hygiene behavior has been pioneered by researchers. Still, despite years of global public awareness campaigns, hand washing rates remain low. Caregivers of young children in low-income, developing world settings are found to wash their hands only 17 percent of the time after using the toilet. A new study finds that video surveillance can provide insights into hand washing behavior. Study findings could inform the design, monitoring and evaluation of hygiene campaigns.  |
| Ant colonies help evacuees in disaster zones Posted: 16 Apr 2014 07:16 AM PDT An escape route mapping system based on the behavior of ant colonies could give evacuees a better chance of reaching safe harbor after a natural disaster or terrorist attack by building a map showing the shortest routes to shelters and providing regular updates of current situations such as fires, blocked roads or other damage via the smart phones of emergency workers and those caught up in the disaster.  |
| Augmented reality: Bringing history and the future to life Posted: 16 Apr 2014 07:14 AM PDT Have you ever wished you had a virtual time machine that could show you how your street looked last century? Or have you wanted to see how your new furniture might look, before you've even bought it? Thanks to new research you can now do just that.  |
| Computer software analyzing facial expressions accurately predicts student test performance Posted: 16 Apr 2014 07:13 AM PDT Real-time engagement detection technology that processes facial expressions can perform with accuracy comparable to that of human observers, according to new research. The study used automatic expression recognition technology to analyze students' facial expressions on a frame-by-frame basis and estimate their engagement level. The study also revealed that engagement levels were a better predictor of students' post-test performance than the students' pre-test scores.  |
| Fish exposed to antidepressants exhibit altered behavioral changes Posted: 16 Apr 2014 06:05 AM PDT Fish exposed to the antidepressant Fluoxetine, an active ingredient in prescription drugs such as Prozac, exhibited a range of altered mating behaviours, repetitive behaviour and aggression towards female fish, according to new research. "With increased aggression, in the highest level of concentration, female survivorship was only 33% compared to the other exposures that had a survivorship of 77-87.5%. The females that died had visible bruising and tissue damage," according to the lead author.  |
| Potential use of Google Glass in surgical settings Posted: 16 Apr 2014 06:04 AM PDT A new article shows the potential applications for Google Glass in the surgical setting, particularly in relation to training. Personal portable information technology is advancing at a breathtaking speed. Google has recently introduced Glass, a device that is worn like conventional glasses, but that combines a computerized central processing unit, touchpad, display screen, high-definition camera, microphone, bone-conduction transducer, and wireless connectivity.  |
| Masculine boys, feminine girls more likely to engage in cancer risk behaviors, study finds Posted: 16 Apr 2014 06:03 AM PDT The most "feminine" girls and "masculine" boys are more likely than their peers to engage in behaviors that pose cancer risks, according to a new study. The most feminine teenage girls use tanning beds more frequently and are more likely to be physically inactive, while the most masculine teenage boys are more likely to use chewing tobacco and to smoke cigars, compared with their gender-nonconforming peers.  |
| Lemurs match scent of a friend to sound of her voice Posted: 15 Apr 2014 05:38 PM PDT Scientists report that ring-tailed lemurs respond more strongly to the scents and sounds of female lemurs when the scent they smell and the voice they hear belong to the same female -- even when she's nowhere in sight. Linking a particular female's call with her unique aroma gives the lemurs a way to figure out if she is nearby, since the scents tend to linger.  |
| Climate change likely culprit in coqui frog's altered calls, say biologists Posted: 14 Apr 2014 01:08 PM PDT The abundant Puerto Rican coqui frog has experienced changes since the 1980s that are likely due to global warming, biologists report. The call of the male coqui became shorter and higher pitched, and the animal itself has become smaller. The study is the first to show the effect of temperature change on a species of frogs in the tropics over a period of more two decades.  |
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