ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Bottling up sound waves: Acoustic bottle beams hold promise for imaging, cloaking, levitation and more
• Flores bones show features of Down syndrome, not a new 'Hobbit' human
• Mathematical equation to predict happiness: Doesn't depend on how well things go, but on whether things are better than expected
• No-power Wi-Fi connectivity could fuel Internet of Things reality
• How amphibians crossed continents: DNA helps piece together 300-million-year journey
• Horses communicate with eyes and mobile ears
• Baby Universe picture brought closer to theory
• Extracting audio from visual information: Algorithm recovers speech from vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass
• How 'biological spark plug' in biomolecular motors works
• World's fastest external phone charger goes: Charges in 15 minutes without need for electrical socket
• Kangaroos win when aborigines hunt with fire: Co-evolution benefits Australia's martu people and wildlife

Bottling up sound waves: Acoustic bottle beams hold promise for imaging, cloaking, levitation and more Posted: 04 Aug 2014 12:15 PM PDT Researchers have developed a technique for generating acoustic bottles in open air that can bend the paths of sound waves along prescribed convex trajectories. These self-bending bottle beams hold promise for ultrasonic imaging and therapy, and acoustic cloaking, levitation and particle manipulation.

Flores bones show features of Down syndrome, not a new 'Hobbit' human Posted: 04 Aug 2014 12:15 PM PDT In October 2004, excavation of fragmentary skeletal remains from the island of Flores in Indonesia yielded what was called 'the most important find in human evolution for 100 years.' Its discoverers dubbed the find Homo floresiensis, a name suggesting a previously unknown species of human.

Mathematical equation to predict happiness: Doesn't depend on how well things go, but on whether things are better than expected Posted: 04 Aug 2014 12:14 PM PDT The happiness of over 18,000 people worldwide has been predicted by a mathematical equation, with results showing that moment-to-moment happiness reflects not just how well things are going, but whether things are going better than expected.

No-power Wi-Fi connectivity could fuel Internet of Things reality Posted: 04 Aug 2014 10:42 AM PDT Engineers have designed a new communication system that uses radio frequency signals as a power source and reuses existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity to battery-free devices.

How amphibians crossed continents: DNA helps piece together 300-million-year journey Posted: 04 Aug 2014 09:32 AM PDT A professor has succeeded in constructing a first-of-its-kind comprehensive diagram of the geographic distribution of amphibians, showing the movement of 3,309 species between 12 global ecoregions. Armed with DNA sequence data, he sought to accurately piece together the 300-million-year storyline of their journey.

Horses communicate with eyes and mobile ears Posted: 04 Aug 2014 09:30 AM PDT Horses are sensitive to the facial expressions and attention of other horses, including the direction of the eyes and ears. The findings are a reminder for us humans to look beyond our own limitations and recognize that other species may communicate in ways that we can't, the researchers say. After all, human ears aren't mobile.

Baby Universe picture brought closer to theory Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:30 AM PDT The Planck Telescope allowed physicists to draw the most detailed map of the first light emitted after the Big Bang. Some of its features do not entirely fit the standard cosmological theory, but scientists have discovered that these anomalies could be explained by how the data was processed.

Extracting audio from visual information: Algorithm recovers speech from vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:05 AM PDT Researchers at MIT, Microsoft, and Adobe have developed an algorithm that can reconstruct an audio signal by analyzing minute vibrations of objects depicted in video. In one set of experiments, they were able to recover intelligible speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag photographed from 15 feet away through soundproof glass.

How 'biological spark plug' in biomolecular motors works Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:01 AM PDT Using high-performance computers and quantum mechanical methods, researchers have simulated processes that reveal how the "biological spark plug" works in the biomolecular motors of cells. The investigations focused on the myosin protein, which, among other things, is responsible for muscle movement. The researchers' extensive simulations show how the release of energy is initiated in this complex motor.

World's fastest external phone charger goes: Charges in 15 minutes without need for electrical socket Posted: 04 Aug 2014 03:59 AM PDT The world's 'fastest' external phone charger is set to be launched. The Petalite Flux battery can charge itself from empty to full in just 15 minutes. The device, small enough to fit in your pocket or bag, eradicates the need to plug your phone into a wall electricity socket or computer usb slot. Instead, if your Smartphone needs charging, you can simply connect it to the Flux battery and continue with your day.

Kangaroos win when aborigines hunt with fire: Co-evolution benefits Australia's martu people and wildlife Posted: 04 Aug 2014 03:57 AM PDT Australia's Martu people hunt kangaroos and set small fires to catch lizards, as they have for at least 2,000 years. A researcher found such human-made disruption boosts kangaroo populations – showing how co-evolution helped marsupials and made Aborigines into unintentional conservationists.

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