ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

---

• Scientists prove ground, tree salamanders have same diets
• Archerfish target shoot with 'skillfully thrown' water
• Atomically thin material opens door for integrated nanophotonic circuits
• A new model for a cosmological enigma -- dark matter: Solving long-standing and troublesome puzzles
• Bats change strategy when food is scarce
• Dreadnoughtus: Gigantic, exceptionally complete sauropod dinosaur
• First Neanderthal rock engraving found in Gibraltar: Abstract art older than thought?
• A smart fluorescent antenna for Wi-Fi applications
• Burnt out birds suggest hard work could be bad for your health
• Salamander skin peptide promotes quick, effective wound healing in mice

Scientists prove ground, tree salamanders have same diets Posted: 04 Sep 2014 10:16 AM PDT Salamanders spend the majority of their lives below ground and surface only for short periods of time. When they do emerge, salamanders can be spotted not only on forest floors but also in trees, often climbing as high as 8 feet. However, it has never been clear to biologists why salamanders take time to climb vegetation. Now, researchers tested a long-standing hypothesis that salamanders might climb vegetation for food.

Archerfish target shoot with 'skillfully thrown' water Posted: 04 Sep 2014 10:15 AM PDT Archerfish hunt by shooting jets of water at unsuspecting prey on leaves or twigs above, knocking them into the water below before gobbling them up. Now, a study finds that those fish are much more adaptable and skillful target-shooters than anyone had given them credit for. The fish really do use water as a tool making them the first known tool-using animal to adaptively change the hydrodynamic properties of a free jet of water.

Atomically thin material opens door for integrated nanophotonic circuits Posted: 04 Sep 2014 09:12 AM PDT Researchers have described a new combination of materials that could be a step towards building computer chips capable of transporting digital information at the speed of light.

A new model for a cosmological enigma -- dark matter: Solving long-standing and troublesome puzzles Posted: 04 Sep 2014 09:12 AM PDT Astrophysicists believe that about 80 percent of the substance of our universe is made up of mysterious "dark matter" that can't be perceived by human senses or scientific instruments.

Bats change strategy when food is scarce Posted: 04 Sep 2014 08:12 AM PDT Bats could be more flexible in their echolocation behavior than previously thought, according to a new study into the foraging techniques of the desert long-eared bat. Gleaning bats usually have long ears for the detection of faint sound cues and low wing loading to allow them to carry heavy loads -- features that increase drag and are linked to slower flight. So why would bats adapted to one foraging mode (gleaning), adopt another (hawking)?

Dreadnoughtus: Gigantic, exceptionally complete sauropod dinosaur Posted: 04 Sep 2014 06:30 AM PDT The new 65-ton (59,300 kg) dinosaur species Dreadnoughtus schrani is the largest land animal for which body mass can be accurately calculated. Its skeleton is the most complete ever found of its type, with over 70 percent of the bones, excluding the head, represented. Because all previously discovered supermassive dinosaurs are known from relatively fragmentary remains, Dreadnoughtus offers an unprecedented window into the anatomy and biomechanics of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth.

First Neanderthal rock engraving found in Gibraltar: Abstract art older than thought? Posted: 04 Sep 2014 05:45 AM PDT The first example of a rock engraving attributed to Neanderthals has been discovered in Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar. Dated at over 39,000 years old, it consists of a deeply impressed cross-hatching carved into rock. Its analysis calls into question the view that the production of representational and abstract depictions on cave walls was a cultural innovation introduced into Europe by modern humans. On the contrary, the findings support the hypothesis that Neanderthals had a symbolic material culture.

A smart fluorescent antenna for Wi-Fi applications Posted: 03 Sep 2014 10:31 AM PDT A new invention uses ionized gas in fluorescent light tubes to transmit Internet wireless frequency signals throughout a building with the aid of already existing electrical wiring.

Burnt out birds suggest hard work could be bad for your health Posted: 02 Sep 2014 05:52 PM PDT Unequal sharing of workloads in societies could leave the most industrious individuals at higher risk of poor health and prone to accelerated ageing, according to a new study of a cooperative bird in the Kalahari Desert.

Salamander skin peptide promotes quick, effective wound healing in mice Posted: 02 Sep 2014 12:12 PM PDT Move over antibiotic ointment, there might be a new salve to dominate medicine cabinets of the future, and it comes from an unlikely place -- the lowly salamander.

You are subscribed to email updates from Strange & Offbeat News -- ScienceDaily To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610