ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Photo editing algorithm changes weather, seasons automatically in your shots
• Best way to brush teeth? Even dentists, dental associations don't agree
• To eat or not to eat: New disposable biosensor may help physicians determine which patients can safely be fed following surgery
• Robot folds itself up and walks away: Demonstrates potential for sophisticated machines that build themselves
• Learning from origami to design new materials
• Gut microbes browse along gene buffet
• Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup: Extremophilic ecosystems writ small
• The black hole at the birth of the Universe

Photo editing algorithm changes weather, seasons automatically in your shots Posted: 08 Aug 2014 09:40 AM PDT A computer algorithm enables users to instantly change the weather, time of day, season, or other features in outdoor photos with simple text commands. Machine learning and a clever database make it possible.

Best way to brush teeth? Even dentists, dental associations don't agree Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:07 AM PDT Advice on how we should brush our teeth from dental associations and toothpaste companies is 'unacceptably inconsistent', finds new research. "The public needs to have sound information on the best method to brush their teeth," says the senior author of the study. "If people hear one thing from a dental association, another from a toothbrush company and something else from their dentist, no wonder they are confused about how to brush. In this study we found an unacceptably inconsistent array of advice from different sources.

To eat or not to eat: New disposable biosensor may help physicians determine which patients can safely be fed following surgery Posted: 07 Aug 2014 12:40 PM PDT A disposal, plastic listening device that attaches to the abdomen may help doctors definitively determine which post-operative patients should be fed and which should not, an invention that may improve outcomes, decrease healthcare costs and shorten hospital stays, according to a study. The device could also be used to help diagnose irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease, in addition to helping obese people learn by the sounds from their gut when they should or shouldn't eat to help them lose weight.

Robot folds itself up and walks away: Demonstrates potential for sophisticated machines that build themselves Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:59 AM PDT A team of engineers used little more than paper and Shrinky dinks -- the classic children's toy that shrinks when heated -- to build a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes flat, and crawls away without any human intervention. The advance demonstrates the potential to quickly and cheaply build sophisticated machines that interact with the environment, and to automate much of the design and assembly process.

Learning from origami to design new materials Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:58 AM PDT A challenge increasingly important to physicists and materials scientists in recent years has been how to design controllable new materials that exhibit desired physical properties rather than relying on those properties to emerge naturally. Now physicists and polymer scientists are using origami-based folding methods for 'tuning' the fundamental physical properties of any type of thin sheet.

Gut microbes browse along gene buffet Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:57 AM PDT A detailed examination of gene expression in the guts of mice raised under three different microbial conditions shows that the host organism controls which genes are made available to gut microbes at various portions of the intestine. Usage of particular genes is regulated by the microbes, but access to the genes is determined by the host.

Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup: Extremophilic ecosystems writ small Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:57 AM PDT An international team of researchers has found extremely small habitats that increase the potential for life on other planets while offering a way to clean up oil spills on our own. Looking at samples from the world's largest natural asphalt lake, they found active microbes in droplets as small as a microliter, which is about 1/50th of a drop of water.

The black hole at the birth of the Universe Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:56 AM PDT The big bang poses a big question: if it was indeed the cataclysm that blasted our universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago, what sparked it? Three Perimeter Institute researchers have a new idea about what might have come before the big bang. It's a bit perplexing, but it is grounded in sound mathematics and is it testable?

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