ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Traces of recent water on Mars: Liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago
• Chernobyl's birds adapting to ionizing radiation
• 'Horsing around' reduces stress hormones in youth
• Controlling brain waves to improve vision
• Ancient Maya and virtual worlds: Different perspectives on material meanings
• Three-banded panther worm debuts as new model in study of regeneration
• Key to enjoying massive online photo files may be giving up some control
• Physicist demonstrates dictionary definition of siphon was dodgy
• Psychological study of spite: 'Virtually ignored' by researchers

Traces of recent water on Mars: Liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago Posted: 25 Apr 2014 04:50 AM PDT New research has shown that there was liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago. The southern hemisphere of Mars is home to a crater that contains very well-preserved gullies and debris flow deposits. The geomorphological attributes of these landforms provide evidence that they were formed by the action of liquid water in geologically recent time.

Chernobyl's birds adapting to ionizing radiation Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:30 PM PDT Birds in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl are adapting to -- and may even be benefiting from -- long-term exposure to radiation, ecologists have found. The study is the first evidence that wild animals adapt to ionizing radiation, and the first to show that birds which produce most pheomelanin, a pigment in feathers, have greatest problems coping with radiation exposure.

'Horsing around' reduces stress hormones in youth Posted: 24 Apr 2014 02:05 PM PDT New research reveals how youth who work with horses experience a substantial reduction in stress -- and the evidence lies in kids' saliva. "We were coming at this from a prevention perspective," said a developmental psychologist working on this study. "We are especially interested in optimizing healthy stress hormone production in young adolescents, because we know from other research that healthy stress hormone patterns may protect against the development of physical and mental health problems."

Controlling brain waves to improve vision Posted: 24 Apr 2014 02:05 PM PDT A novel technique to test brain waves is being used to see how the brain processes external stimuli that do and don't reach our awareness. "When we have different things competing for our attention, we can only be aware of so much of what we see," said a researcher on the study. "For example, when you're driving, you might really be concentrating on obeying traffic signals." But say there's an unexpected event: an emergency vehicle, a pedestrian -- will you actually see the unexpected, or will you be so focused on your initial task that you don't notice?

Ancient Maya and virtual worlds: Different perspectives on material meanings Posted: 24 Apr 2014 12:18 PM PDT The Mayan perspective on the material world has been explored in science, and begins to uncover parallels with today's online culture. The Maya believed that part of your identity could inhabit material objects. Maya might even name these objects, talk to them or take them to special events. They considered these items to be alive. The practice of sharing your identity with material possessions might seem unusual in a modern context. But is it that different from today's selfie-snapping, candy-crushing online culture, where social media profiles can be as important to a person's identity as his or her real-world interactions?

Three-banded panther worm debuts as new model in study of regeneration Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:47 AM PDT The three-banded panther worm (Hofstenia miamia), a small organism with the ability to regenerate any missing body part, is being introduced to the scientific community. As a model, Hofstenia could help further our understanding of regeneration, how its mechanisms have evolved over millennia, and what limits regeneration in other animals, including humans.

Key to enjoying massive online photo files may be giving up some control Posted: 23 Apr 2014 08:15 AM PDT People who have massive online photo collections might actually enjoy their archives more by giving up a bit of control, research suggests. The 14-month study showed that people reflected more on past events and developed a renewed interest in their online photos when a device called Photobox would randomly print four or five of those photos at varying intervals each month.

Physicist demonstrates dictionary definition of siphon was dodgy Posted: 23 Apr 2014 07:22 AM PDT A physicist sparked controversy over how a humble siphon worked when he noticed an incorrect definition in the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary. In 2010, the eagle-eyed researcher spotted the mistake, which went unnoticed for 99 years, which incorrectly described atmospheric pressure, rather than gravity, as the operating force in a siphon.

Psychological study of spite: 'Virtually ignored' by researchers Posted: 23 Apr 2014 07:18 AM PDT In spite of spite's large and small impacts, and the obvious power it can hold on the human psyche, it has been 'virtually ignored' by social, personality and clinical psychologists, researchers have said in a recent paper. They have attempted to remedy that oversight by measuring spitefulness with a test similar to those used for other personality traits.

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