ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Rural microbes could boost city dwellers' health, study finds
• Cyber buddy is better than 'no buddy'
• Picky male black widow spiders prefer well-fed virgins
• Scientists identify source of mysterious sound in the Southern Ocean
• Hundreds of genetic mutations found in healthy blood of a supercentenarian
• Predicting drift of floating pumice 'islands' can benefit shipping
• Surface area of the digestive tract much smaller than previously thought
• Fiction prepares us for a world changed by global warming
• Male-biased tweeting: Gender differences in the use of Twitter
• Political ravens? Ravens notice the relationships among others, study shows
• Researchers compare hip width and sexual behavior
• Liquid spacetime: What if spacetime were a kind of fluid?
• Biting vs. chewing: Cutting their food helps kids behave better
• Checking up on crude oil in the ground: Nanoreporters tell 'sour' oil from 'sweet'
• Impact of Facebook unfriending analyzed by researchers
• New electric fish genus, species discovered in Brazil's Rio Negro
• Stink, stank, stunk: When excessive sweating is a problem
• Lack of breeding threatens blue-footed boobies' survival

Rural microbes could boost city dwellers' health, study finds Posted: 23 Apr 2014 02:09 PM PDT The greater prevalence of asthma, allergies and other chronic inflammatory disorders among people of lower socioeconomic status might be due in part to their reduced exposure to the microbes that thrive in rural environments, according to a new scientific paper.

Cyber buddy is better than 'no buddy' Posted: 23 Apr 2014 12:10 PM PDT A researcher is looking to give exercise enthusiasts the extra nudge they need during a workout, and her latest research shows that a cyber buddy can help. The study is the first to indicate that although a human partner is still a better motivator during exercise, a software-generated partner also can be effective.

Picky male black widow spiders prefer well-fed virgins Posted: 23 Apr 2014 10:26 AM PDT New research shows that male black widow spiders prefer their female mates to be well-fed virgins -- a rare example of mate preference by male spiders. The study found they can tell whether a potential mate is well-fed and unmated by pheromones released by females.

Scientists identify source of mysterious sound in the Southern Ocean Posted: 23 Apr 2014 10:26 AM PDT Scientists have conclusive evidence that the source of a unique rhythmic sound, recorded for decades in the Southern Ocean and called the 'bio-duck,' is the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis). First described and named by submarine personnel in the 1960s who thought it sounded like a duck, the bio-duck sound has been recorded at various locations in the Southern Ocean, but its source has remained a mystery, until now.

Hundreds of genetic mutations found in healthy blood of a supercentenarian Posted: 23 Apr 2014 10:26 AM PDT Genetic mutations are commonly studied because of links to diseases such as cancer; however, little is known about mutations occurring in healthy individuals. Researchers have now detected over 400 mutations in healthy blood cells of a 115-year-old woman, suggesting that lesions at these sites are largely harmless over the course of a lifetime.

Predicting drift of floating pumice 'islands' can benefit shipping Posted: 23 Apr 2014 10:25 AM PDT A new technique will aid in predicting the dispersal and drift patterns of large floating 'islands' of pumice created by volcanic eruptions at sea. Known as pumice rafts, these large mobile accumulations of pumice fragments can spread to affect a considerable area of the ocean, damaging vessels and disrupting shipping routes for months or even years. The ability to predict where these rafts will end up could give enough advance warning for protective measures to be put in place on shipping routes or in harbours where the presence of pumice is hazardous.

Surface area of the digestive tract much smaller than previously thought Posted: 23 Apr 2014 08:15 AM PDT The internal surface area of the gastro-intestinal tract has long been considered to be between 180 and 300 square meters. Scientists have used refined microscopic techniques that indicate a much smaller area. "Actually, the inner surface of the gastro-intestinal tract is only as large as a normal studio apartment," says one scientist.

Fiction prepares us for a world changed by global warming Posted: 23 Apr 2014 07:27 AM PDT Climate fiction, or simply cli-fi, is a newly coined term for novels and films which focus on the consequences of global warming. New research shows how these fictions serve as a mental laboratory that allows us to simulate the potential consequences of climate change and imagine other living conditions.

Male-biased tweeting: Gender differences in the use of Twitter Posted: 23 Apr 2014 07:27 AM PDT Today women take an active part in public life. Without a doubt, they also converse with other women. In fact, they even talk to each other about other things besides men. As banal as it sounds, this is far from being the norm in Hollywood movies. The same goes for Twitter, as a new study shows.

Political ravens? Ravens notice the relationships among others, study shows Posted: 23 Apr 2014 07:19 AM PDT Cognitive biologists have revealed that ravens do understand and keep track of the rank relations between other ravens. Such an ability has been known only from primates. Like many social mammals, ravens form different types of social relationships -- they may be friends, kin, or partners and they also form strict dominance relations. From a cognitive perspective, understanding one's own relationships to others is a key ability in daily social life ("knowing who is nice or not"). Yet, also understanding the relationships group members have with each other sets the stage for "political" maneuvers ("knowing who might support whom").

Researchers compare hip width and sexual behavior Posted: 23 Apr 2014 07:17 AM PDT Hip width and risk of birth-related trauma may play a role in a woman's decision to have sex. Women who were more inclined to have one-night stands had wider hips, reveals a study into how a woman's build influences her sexual behavior. Results of the study show that the number of sexual partners a woman had is largely driven by one-night stand behavior. This, in turn, correlates with a woman's hip width and not waist-to-hip ratio. Overall, women in this study with hips wider than 14.2 inches had more sexual partners and more one-night stands than women with hips under 12.2 inches wide.

Liquid spacetime: What if spacetime were a kind of fluid? Posted: 23 Apr 2014 06:52 AM PDT What if spacetime were a kind of fluid? This is the question tackled by theoretical physicists working on quantum gravity by creating models attempting to reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. Some of these models predict that spacetime at the Planck scale is no longer continuous – as held by classical physics – but discrete in nature. Just like the solids or fluids we come into contact with every day, which can be seen as made up of atoms and molecules when observed at sufficient resolution. A structure of this kind generally implies, at very high energies, violations of Einstein's special relativity (a integral part of general relativity).

Biting vs. chewing: Cutting their food helps kids behave better Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:23 PM PDT There's a new secret to get your child to behave at the dinner table -- cut up their food! This new study found that when 6- to 10-year-old children ate food that they had to bite with their front teeth, chicken on the bone, they were rowdier than when the food had been cut into bite-sized pieces.

Checking up on crude oil in the ground: Nanoreporters tell 'sour' oil from 'sweet' Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:46 AM PDT Scientists have created a nanoscale detector that checks for and reports on the presence and concentration of hydrogen sulfide in crude oil and natural gas while they're still in the ground.

Impact of Facebook unfriending analyzed by researchers Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:09 AM PDT Two studies are shedding new light on the most common type of 'friend' to be unfriended on Facebook and their emotional responses to it. The studies show that the most likely person to be unfriended is a high school acquaintance. Both studies were based on a survey of 1,077 people conducted on Twitter.

New electric fish genus, species discovered in Brazil's Rio Negro Posted: 22 Apr 2014 09:12 AM PDT Discovery of a new species of electric knife fish in the Amazon Basin in Brazil is leading to a new interpretation of classifications and interrelationships among closely related groups. As the diversity of electric fishes becomes more thoroughly documented, researchers will be able to explore possible causes of this group's adaptive radiation over evolutionary time.

Stink, stank, stunk: When excessive sweating is a problem Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:32 AM PDT Sweating is a natural function of the body to cool it down during physical exertion or from a warm environment or to even help cope with emotional situations. However, some people have overactive glands and produce sweat excessively, a medical condition called hyperhidrosis. A dermatologist offers tips to deal with the condition.

Lack of breeding threatens blue-footed boobies' survival Posted: 21 Apr 2014 10:59 AM PDT Blue-footed Boobies are on the decline in the Galápagos. A new study indicates numbers of the iconic birds, known for their bright blue feet and propensity to burst into dance to attract mates, have fallen more than 50 percent in less than 20 years. Scientists started noticing a strange trend at the Galápagos' 10 or so blue-footed booby breeding colonies in 1997. The colonies were simply empty. The researchers suspect a lack of sardines, a highly nutritious and easy to find source of food, is the culprit behind the birds' nose-diving population for a number of reasons.

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