ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Scientists create circuit board modeled on the human brain
• 3-D printing technique for making cuddly stuff: Printer uses needle to turn layers of wool yarn into loose felt
• Egyptologists identify tomb of royal children
• The scent of a man: Gender of experimenter has big impact on rats' stress levels, explains lack of replication of some findings
• Paper-thin tablets and TV screens? How to create nanowires only three atoms wide with an electron beam
• Weekly emails to hospital C-suite halt two decades of superbug outbreak
• System detects global trends in social networks two months in advance
• Whitefly confused by cacophony of smells
• The Moroccan flic-flac spider: A gymnast among the arachnids
• Sexual conflict affects females more than males, says new research on beetles
• Mite sets new record as world's fastest land animal
• Cartilage, made to order: Living human cartilage grown on lab chip
• Oops! Researchers find neural signature for mistake correction

Scientists create circuit board modeled on the human brain Posted: 28 Apr 2014 10:40 AM PDT Scientists have developed faster, more energy-efficient microchips based on the human brain -- 9,000 times faster and using significantly less power than a typical PC. This offers greater possibilities for advances in robotics and a new way of understanding the brain. For instance, a chip as fast and efficient as the human brain could drive prosthetic limbs with the speed and complexity of our own actions.

3-D printing technique for making cuddly stuff: Printer uses needle to turn layers of wool yarn into loose felt Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:13 AM PDT A new type of 3D printer can turn wool and wool blend yarns into fabric objects that people enjoy touching. The device looks something like a cross between a 3D printer and a sewing machine and produces 3D objects made of a form of loose felt.

Egyptologists identify tomb of royal children Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:08 AM PDT Who had the privilege to spend eternal life next to the pharaoh?  Close to the royal tombs in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, excavations by Egyptologists have identified the burial place of several children as well as other family members of two pharaohs.

The scent of a man: Gender of experimenter has big impact on rats' stress levels, explains lack of replication of some findings Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:06 AM PDT Scientists' inability to replicate research findings using mice and rats has contributed to mounting concern over the reliability of such studies. Pain researchers have now found that the gender of experimenters has a big impact on the stress levels of rodents used in research. The presence of male experimenters produced a stress response in mice and rats equivalent to that caused by restraining the rodents for 15 minutes in a tube or forcing them to swim for three minutes. This stress-induced reaction made mice and rats of both sexes less sensitive to pain.

Paper-thin tablets and TV screens? How to create nanowires only three atoms wide with an electron beam Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:06 AM PDT Scientists have used a focused beam of electrons to create some of the smallest nanowires ever made. The discovery gives a boost to efforts aimed at creating electrical circuits on mono-layered materials, raising the possibility of flexible, paper-thin tablets and television displays.

Weekly emails to hospital C-suite halt two decades of superbug outbreak Posted: 28 Apr 2014 06:42 AM PDT Efforts to reduce and stop the spread of infections caused by a highly resistant organism, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, at a large hospital proved ineffective until they added another weapon: weekly emails from the medical director of Infection Control to hospital leadership, according to a study. Prior to this, endemic rates of A. baumannii had been present at the institution for nearly two decades.

System detects global trends in social networks two months in advance Posted: 28 Apr 2014 06:42 AM PDT A new method of monitoring identifies what information will be relevant on social networks up to two months in advance. This may help predict social movements, consumer reactions or possible outbreaks of epidemics, according to a study. The system works using just 50,000 Twitter accounts, predicting what will "go viral" across the entire Internet. It can be used in real time, about different topics, in different languages and geographical areas, thus allowing for different contexts to be covered.

Whitefly confused by cacophony of smells Posted: 28 Apr 2014 04:46 AM PDT Bombarding pests with smells from many different plants temporarily confuses them and hinders their ability to feed, new research has shown. Exposing the whitefly to a heady aroma of cucumber, courgette, watercress, watermelon, cabbage and bean, the team found the insects became temporarily disorientated. Weaving their way between the plant cells to reach the sap is technically challenging and the team found the whiteflies failed to feed while they were being bombarded with the different plant chemicals.

The Moroccan flic-flac spider: A gymnast among the arachnids Posted: 28 Apr 2014 04:44 AM PDT A spider expert has described a new species: Cebrennus rechenbergi. It is the only spider that is able to move by means of flic-flac jumps. The flic-flac spider uses its legs to create a rolling motion. Like a gymnast, it propels itself off the ground, followed by a series of rapid flic-flac movements of its legs.

Sexual conflict affects females more than males, says new research on beetles Posted: 27 Apr 2014 04:13 PM PDT Sexual conflict over mating impacts the parental care behavior and reproductive productivity of burying beetles, new research shows. These beetles have surprisingly complex parental care, similar in form to that provided by birds such as robins or blackbirds, with offspring begging to be fed by touching parents, who respond by regurgitating partially digested food. Both males and females provide parental care, but females are the primary care givers, as in humans. So anything that affects the ability of females to provide parental care, such as costly mating, is likely to reduce overall reproductive productivity.

Mite sets new record as world's fastest land animal Posted: 27 Apr 2014 04:11 PM PDT A Southern California mite far outpaces the Australian tiger beetle, the current record-holder for running speed as measured in body lengths per second. By this measure, the mite runs 20 times faster than a cheetah and the equivalent of a person running 1300 miles per hour. The discovery is exciting not only because it sets a new world record, but also for what it reveals about the physiology of movement and the physical limitations of living structures, the researcher says.

Cartilage, made to order: Living human cartilage grown on lab chip Posted: 27 Apr 2014 03:51 PM PDT The first example of living human cartilage grown on a laboratory chip has been created by scientists. The researchers ultimately aim to use their innovative 3-D printing approach to create replacement cartilage for patients with osteoarthritis or soldiers with battlefield injuries. Osteoarthritis is marked by a gradual disintegration of cartilage, a flexible tissue that provides padding where bones come together in a joint. Causing severe pain and loss of mobility in joints such as knees and fingers, osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of physical disability in the United States.

Oops! Researchers find neural signature for mistake correction Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:50 AM PDT Researchers have captured an elusive brain signal underlying memory transfer and, in doing so, pinpointed the first neural circuit for "oops" -- the precise moment when one becomes consciously aware of a self-made mistake and takes corrective action. The findings verified a 20-year-old hypothesis on how brain areas communicate.

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