ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• 'Touched' female cockroaches reproduce faster
• Night owls, unlike early birds, tend to be unmarried risk-takers
• 'Sewing machine' idea gives insight into origins of Alzheimer's
• Scientists solve the riddle of zebras' stripes: Those pesky bugs
• New yeast species travelled the globe with a little help from the beetles
• Lose the paunch, halt the hair loss?
• Knowledge transfer between computers: Computers teach each other Pac-Man
• Beer lovers tweet what they drink: Twitter maps show Americans' beer preferences
• Attention changes in the course of a dog's life mirror those of humans
• U.S. states' personalities linked to their politics
• Sleep may stop chronic pain sufferers from becoming zombies
• Clusters of 'broken hearts' may be linked to massive natural disasters
• Acrobatic motor protein could pave way for new cancer therapies

'Touched' female cockroaches reproduce faster Posted: 01 Apr 2014 06:02 PM PDT To speed up reproduction, there's no substitute for the tender touch of a live roach. That's the takeaway from a study examining whether artificial antennae can mimic a cockroach antenna's capacity to hasten reproduction in cockroach females.

Night owls, unlike early birds, tend to be unmarried risk-takers Posted: 01 Apr 2014 01:22 PM PDT Women who are night owls share the same high propensity for risk-taking as men, according to a recent study. The research suggests that sleep patterns are linked with important character traits and behavior, said a study author. Night owls -- people who tend to stay up late and wake up late in the morning -- are different in many important ways from early risers, he found.

'Sewing machine' idea gives insight into origins of Alzheimer's Posted: 01 Apr 2014 09:23 AM PDT A new imaging tool inspired by the humble sewing machine has been invented, providing fresh insight into the origins of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. These diseases are caused by tiny toxic proteins too small to be studied with traditional optical microscopy.

Scientists solve the riddle of zebras' stripes: Those pesky bugs Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:21 AM PDT Why zebras have black and white stripes is a question that has intrigued scientists and spectators for centuries. Scientists now examined this riddle systematically.

New yeast species travelled the globe with a little help from the beetles Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:27 AM PDT A new globe-trotting yeast species that lives on tree-associated beetles has been discovered by scientists. This new species demonstrates the importance of preserving biodiversity, as yeasts like this may help efforts to develop renewable fuel sources in the future. "This new species is a real globetrotter," said an author. "It's possible the yeast originated in Asia, and was subsequently brought to the USA by these insects."

Lose the paunch, halt the hair loss? Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:27 AM PDT A new discovery showing how hair growth activated fat tissue growth in the skin below the hair follicle could lead to the development of a cream to dissolve fat. The world first research confirmed that changes in the hair growth cycle led to fluctuations in the thickness of the underlying fat layer of the skin -- essentially meaning that the skin can regulate fat production.

Knowledge transfer between computers: Computers teach each other Pac-Man Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:27 AM PDT Researchers have developed a method to allow a computer to give advice and teach skills to another computer in a way that mimics how a real teacher and student might interact. Researchers had the agents -- as the virtual robots are called -- act like true student and teacher pairs: student agents struggled to learn Pac-Man and a version of the StarCraft video game. The researchers were able to show that the student agent learned the games and, in fact, surpassed the teacher.

Beer lovers tweet what they drink: Twitter maps show Americans' beer preferences Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:23 AM PDT Researchers who mapped tweets revealed how "beer space" on Twitter reflects real-world preferences of brews and beer brands in the United States. For example, tweet preferences for Bud Light were found in the Eastern half of the US, while preferences for Coors Light originate in the Western half, particularly near Colorado and surrounding states. Other beer spaces included Miller Lite preferences in the Midwest and Great Plains, and brands like Corona and Dos Equis in the Southern border regions of the US.

Attention changes in the course of a dog's life mirror those of humans Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:22 AM PDT Dogs are known to be 'Man's best friend'. No other pet has adjusted to human lifestyles as well as this four-legged animal. Scientists have been the first to investigate the evolution of dogs' attentiveness in the course of their lives and to what extent they resemble humans in this regard. The outcome: dogs' attentional and sensorimotor control developmental trajectories are very similar to those found in humans.

U.S. states' personalities linked to their politics Posted: 31 Mar 2014 02:06 PM PDT If one state's citizens are more agreeable and another's more conscientious, could that influence how each state is governed? A recently published study suggests it could. Political scientists matched personality data from more than 600,000 Americans with state-level measures of political culture, and found striking results.

Sleep may stop chronic pain sufferers from becoming zombies Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:14 AM PDT Chronic pain sufferers could be kept physically active by improving the quality of their sleep, new research suggests. The study found that sleep was a worthy target for treating chronic pain and not only as an answer to pain-related insomnia.

Clusters of 'broken hearts' may be linked to massive natural disasters Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:08 AM PDT Dramatic spikes in cases of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also called broken heart syndrome, were found in two states after major natural disasters, suggesting the stress of disasters as a likely trigger, according to research. Authors call for greater awareness among emergency department physicians and other first responders.

Acrobatic motor protein could pave way for new cancer therapies Posted: 26 Mar 2014 08:45 AM PDT For the first time, researchers have shown how a protein motor, Kif15, uses acrobatic flexibility to navigate within the mitotic spindle. Understanding how it works could prove vital for the development of targeted cancer therapies. The study describes the behavior of Kif15 for the first time and provides a breakthrough step towards understanding the role it plays in cell division.

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