ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Amputees discern familiar sensations across prosthetic hand
• Mind-controlled prosthetic arms that work in daily life are now a reality
• Astronomers see right into heart of exploding star
• Penguins Use Their Personalities to Prepare for Climate Change
• Impossibly bright dead star: X-ray source in the Cigar Galaxy is the first ultraluminous pulsar ever detected
• Smartphone understands hand gestures
• Hungry black hole eats faster than thought possible
• Slime-producing molecules help spread disease from cats to endangered sea otters
• Trying to fool a kindergartner? Not so fast
• How dinosaurs divided their meals at the Jurassic dinner table
• Talking to your car is often distracting
• High-sugar diet no problem for genetic mutants
• The skin cancer selfie: Gigapixel camera helps diagnose early
• Are Montana's invasive fish in for a shock?
• Tracing our ancestors at the bottom of the sea

Amputees discern familiar sensations across prosthetic hand Posted: 08 Oct 2014 12:36 PM PDT Patients connected to a new prosthetic system said they 'felt' their hands for the first time since they lost them in accidents. In the ensuing months, they began feeling sensations that were familiar and were able to control their prosthetic hands with more -- well -- dexterity.

Mind-controlled prosthetic arms that work in daily life are now a reality Posted: 08 Oct 2014 12:36 PM PDT For the first time, robotic prostheses controlled via implanted neuromuscular interfaces have become a clinical reality. A novel osseointegrated (bone-anchored) implant system gives patients new opportunities in their daily life and professional activities.

Astronomers see right into heart of exploding star Posted: 08 Oct 2014 11:11 AM PDT Astronomers have been able to see into the heart of an exploding star, by combining data from telescopes that are hundreds or even thousands of kilometers apart.

Penguins Use Their Personalities to Prepare for Climate Change Posted: 08 Oct 2014 11:09 AM PDT Birds' individual personalities may be among the factors that could improve its chances of successfully coping with environmental stressors.

Impossibly bright dead star: X-ray source in the Cigar Galaxy is the first ultraluminous pulsar ever detected Posted: 08 Oct 2014 10:34 AM PDT Astronomers working with NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. The object, previously thought to be a black hole because it is so powerful, is in fact a pulsar -- the incredibly dense rotating remains of a star.

Smartphone understands hand gestures Posted: 08 Oct 2014 10:16 AM PDT Computer scientists have developed a new app enabling users to operate their smartphone with gestures. This development expands the range of potential interactions with such devices.

Hungry black hole eats faster than thought possible Posted: 08 Oct 2014 10:13 AM PDT Astronomers have discovered a black hole that is consuming gas from a nearby star 10 times faster than previously thought possible. The black hole -- known as P13 -- lies on the outskirts of the galaxy NGC7793 about 12 million light years from Earth and is ingesting a weight equivalent to 100 billion billion hot dogs every minute.

Slime-producing molecules help spread disease from cats to endangered sea otters Posted: 08 Oct 2014 09:21 AM PDT Sticky polymers that form slimy biofilms and large, waterborne particles speed the transmission of a parasitic disease from cats to marine snails to endangered sea otters in California's coastal waters, this study finds.

Trying to fool a kindergartner? Not so fast Posted: 08 Oct 2014 09:19 AM PDT A new study shows that by the age of five, children become wary of information provided by people who make overly confident claims.

How dinosaurs divided their meals at the Jurassic dinner table Posted: 07 Oct 2014 06:29 PM PDT How the largest animals to have ever walked on Earth fed, and how this allowed them to live alongside one another in prehistoric ecosystems, is the subject of new research.

Talking to your car is often distracting Posted: 07 Oct 2014 06:16 AM PDT Two new studies show that despite public belief to the contrary, hands-free, voice-controlled automobile infotainment systems can distract drivers, although it is possible to design them to be safer. Apple's Siri and Chevrolet's MyLink were most distracting, while Toyota's Entune was least distracting, the study showed.

High-sugar diet no problem for genetic mutants Posted: 06 Oct 2014 10:35 AM PDT A genetic pathway for circumventing the weight gain that accompanies a high-sugar diet has been discovered by scientists. Building on previous work with C. elegans, researchers found that certain genetic mutants -- those with a hyperactive SKN-1 gene -- could be fed incredibly high-sugar diets without gaining any weight, while regular C. elegans ballooned on the same diet.

The skin cancer selfie: Gigapixel camera helps diagnose early Posted: 06 Oct 2014 08:41 AM PDT Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer type in the US, and it's also the deadliest form of skin cancer. If caught early enough though, it is almost always curable. The gigapixel camera is essentially 34 microcameras in one and has a high enough resolution to zoom in to a tiny freckle making routine screenings available to a larger number of people at a fraction of the cost.

Are Montana's invasive fish in for a shock? Posted: 06 Oct 2014 08:38 AM PDT The feasibility of electrofishing to selectively remove invasive trout species from Montana streams has been the focus of new study. Electrofishing has been recommended as an alternative to using fish toxicants known as piscicides that effect all gill-breathing organisms.

Tracing our ancestors at the bottom of the sea Posted: 06 Oct 2014 05:49 AM PDT A new European Marine Board report recommends exploration of sea-submerged settlements abandoned by our ancestors. Researchers are studying the remains of prehistoric human settlements which are now submerged beneath coastal seas. Some of these drowned sites are tens of thousands of years old.

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