ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Finding infant Earths and potential life just got easier
• Poisonous cure: Toxic fungi may hold secrets to tackling deadly diseases
• Why tool-wielding crows are left- or right-beaked
• 'Non-echolocating' fruit bats actually do echolocate, with wing clicks
• Electric eels deliver taser-like shocks
• New revelations on dark matter and relic neutrinos
• Astronomers observe galactic 'blow out'
• Pulsars with black holes could hold the 'Holy Grail' of gravity
• 3-D printing to the rescue of gastronomy for frail seniors
• Stem cells from deceased patients recreated to study present-day illnesses

Finding infant Earths and potential life just got easier Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:31 AM PST Among the billions and billions of stars in the sky, where should astronomers look for infant Earths where life might develop? New research shows where -- and when -- infant Earths are most likely to be found.

Poisonous cure: Toxic fungi may hold secrets to tackling deadly diseases Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:10 AM PST Take two poisonous mushrooms, and call me in the morning. While no doctor would ever write this prescription, toxic fungi may hold the secrets to tackling deadly diseases. A team of scientists has discovered an enzyme that is the key to the lethal potency of poisonous mushrooms. The results reveal the enzyme's ability to create the mushroom's molecules that harbor missile-like proficiency in attacking and annihilating a single vulnerable target in the human liver.

Why tool-wielding crows are left- or right-beaked Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:07 AM PST New Caledonian crows show preferences when it comes to holding their tools on the left or the right sides of their beaks, in much the same way that people are left- or right-handed. Now researchers suggest that those bill preferences allow each bird to keep the tip of its tool in view of the eye on the opposite side of its head. Crows aren't so much left- or right-beaked as they are left- or right-eyed.

'Non-echolocating' fruit bats actually do echolocate, with wing clicks Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:07 AM PST In a discovery that overturns conventional wisdom about bats, researchers have found that Old World fruit bats -- long classified as 'non-echolocating' -- actually do use a rudimentary form of echolocation. Perhaps most surprisingly, the clicks they emit to produce the echoes that guide them through the darkness aren't vocalizations at all. They are instead produced by the bats' wings, although scientists don't yet know exactly how the bats do it.

Electric eels deliver taser-like shocks Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:06 AM PST The electric eel -- the scaleless Amazonian fish that can deliver an electrical jolt strong enough to knock down a full-grown horse -- possesses an electroshock system uncannily similar to a Taser. That is the conclusion of a nine-month study of the way in which the electric eel uses high-voltage electrical discharges to locate and incapacitate its prey.

New revelations on dark matter and relic neutrinos Posted: 04 Dec 2014 09:13 AM PST Satellite have been studying relic radiation (the most ancient light in the Universe). This light has been measured precisely across the entire sky for the first time, in both intensity and polarization, thereby producing the oldest image of the Universe. This primordial light lets us "see" some of the most elusive particles in the Universe: dark matter and relic neutrinos. Between 2009 and 2013, the Planck satellite observed relic radiation, sometimes called cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Today, with a full analysis of the data, the quality of the map is now such that the imprints left by dark matter and relic neutrinos are clearly visible.

Astronomers observe galactic 'blow out' Posted: 04 Dec 2014 06:11 AM PST For the first time, an international team of astronomers has revealed the dramatic 'blow out' phase of galactic evolution. The astronomers have discovered dense gas being blasted out of a compact galaxy (called SDSS J0905+57) at speeds of up to two million miles per hour. The gas is being driven to distances of tens of thousands of light years by the intense pressure exerted on it by the radiation of stars that are forming rapidly at the galaxy's center. This is having a major impact on the evolution of the galaxy.

Pulsars with black holes could hold the 'Holy Grail' of gravity Posted: 04 Dec 2014 04:41 AM PST The intermittent light emitted by pulsars, the most precise timekeepers in the universe, allows scientists to verify Einstein's theory of relativity, especially when these objects are paired up with another neutron star or white dwarf that interferes with their gravity. However, this theory could be analysed much more effectively if a pulsar with a black hole were found, except in two particular cases, according to researchers. Pulsars are very dense neutron stars that are the size of a city (their radius approaches ten kilometers), which, like lighthouses for the universe, emit gamma radiation beams or X-rays when they rotate up to hundreds of times per second. These characteristics make them ideal for testing the validity of the theory of general relativity, published by Einstein between 1915 and 1916.

3-D printing to the rescue of gastronomy for frail seniors Posted: 04 Dec 2014 04:40 AM PST Researchers are now developing personalised food for elderly people with chewing or swallowing problems, by working on printable versions of meat and vegetables.

Stem cells from deceased patients recreated to study present-day illnesses Posted: 02 Dec 2014 06:36 AM PST Research scientists have developed a novel method to re-create brain and intestinal stem cells from patients who died decades ago, using DNA from stored blood samples to study the potential causes of debilitating illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease.

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