ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Complex environments push 'brain' evolution
• Privacy challenges: Just four vague pieces of info can identify you, and your credit card
• Structure of world's largest single cell is reflected at the molecular level
• Generating Mobius strips of light
• CAT scan of nearby supernova remnant reveals frothy interior
• Baleen whales hear through their bones
• Research about unique cardinal revealed
• Walking on ice takes more than brains: 'Mini-brain' in spinal cord aids in balance
• Infants create new knowledge while sleeping
• Ancient 'genomic parasites' spurred evolution of pregnancy in mammals
• Functioning brain tissue grown in 3-D structure
• The tell-tale signs of a galactic merger
• Feelings of loneliness, depression linked to binge-watching television
• Can synesthesia be taught? Colored letters, tasty sounds?
• Vehicle body made from cotton, hemp, and wood
• Could a new proposed particle help to detect Dark Matter?

Complex environments push 'brain' evolution Posted: 29 Jan 2015 01:08 PM PST Little animations trying to master a computer game are teaching neuroscience researchers how the brain evolves when faced with difficult tasks. Neuroscientists have programmed animated critters that they call 'animats.' The critters have a rudimentary neural system made of eight nodes: two sensors, two motors, and four internal computers that coordinate sensation, movement and memory.

Privacy challenges: Just four vague pieces of info can identify you, and your credit card Posted: 29 Jan 2015 01:08 PM PST Just four fairly vague pieces of information -- the dates and locations of four purchases -- are enough to identify 90 percent of the people in a data set recording three months of credit-card transactions by 1.1 million users. If someone had copies of just three of your recent receipts -- or one receipt, one Instagram photo of you having coffee with friends, and one tweet about the phone you just bought -- would have a 94 percent chance of extracting your credit card records from those of a million other people. This is true, the researchers say, even in cases where no one in the data set is identified by name, address, credit card number, or anything else that we typically think of as personal information.

Structure of world's largest single cell is reflected at the molecular level Posted: 29 Jan 2015 01:07 PM PST Biologists used the world's largest single-celled organism, an aquatic alga called Caulerpa taxifolia, to study the nature of structure and form in plants. It is a single cell that can grow to a length of six to twelve inches.

Generating Mobius strips of light Posted: 29 Jan 2015 12:16 PM PST Physicists have experimentally produced Möbius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light's electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape.

CAT scan of nearby supernova remnant reveals frothy interior Posted: 29 Jan 2015 11:30 AM PST Cassiopeia A, or Cas A for short, is one of the most well studied supernova remnants in our galaxy. But it still holds major surprises. Astronomers have now generated a new 3-D map of its interior using the astronomical equivalent of a CAT scan. They found that the Cas A supernova remnant is composed of a collection of about a half dozen massive cavities -- or 'bubbles.'

Baleen whales hear through their bones Posted: 29 Jan 2015 11:30 AM PST Understanding how baleen whales hear has posed a great mystery to marine mammal researchers. Biologists reveal that the skulls of at least some baleen whales, specifically fin whales in their study, have acoustic properties that capture the energy of low frequencies and direct it to their ear bones.

Research about unique cardinal revealed Posted: 29 Jan 2015 11:29 AM PST A biological sciences professor is receiving attention for his research and publication on a bilateral gynandromorph bird found in the wild. More specifically, the bird has the brownish-gray feathered appearance of a female cardinal on its right side and that of a male cardinal's red feathers on its left side.

Walking on ice takes more than brains: 'Mini-brain' in spinal cord aids in balance Posted: 29 Jan 2015 10:28 AM PST Scientists have discovered how a "mini-brain" in the spinal cord aids in balance. Much of the balancing act that our bodies perform when faced with a task such as walking on an icy surface happens unconsciously, thanks to a cluster of neurons in our spinal cord that function as a "mini-brain" to integrate sensory information and make the necessary adjustments to our muscles so that we don't slip and fall, researchers report.

Infants create new knowledge while sleeping Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:55 AM PST There is no rest for a baby's brain -- not even in sleep. While infants sleep they are reprocessing what they have learned. Researchers have discovered that babies of the age from nine to 16 months remember the names of objects better if they had a short nap.

Ancient 'genomic parasites' spurred evolution of pregnancy in mammals Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:55 AM PST Large-scale genetic changes that marked the evolution of pregnancy in mammals have been identified by an international team of scientists. They found thousands of genes that evolved to be expressed in the uterus in early mammals. Surprisingly, these genes appear to have been recruited from other tissue types by transposons -- ancient mobile genetic elements sometimes thought of as genomic parasites. The study sheds light on how organisms evolve new morphological structures and functions.

Functioning brain tissue grown in 3-D structure Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:54 AM PST Researchers have induced human embryonic stem cells to self-organize into a three-dimensional structure similar to the cerebellum, providing tantalizing clues in the quest to recreate neural structures in the laboratory. One of the primary goals of stem-cell research is to be able to replace damaged body parts with tissues grown from undifferentiated stem cells. For the nervous system, this is a particular challenge because not only do specific neurons need to be generated, but they must also be coaxed into connecting to each other in very specific ways.

The tell-tale signs of a galactic merger Posted: 29 Jan 2015 07:43 AM PST Astronomers have captured a striking view of spiral galaxy NGC 7714. This galaxy has drifted too close to another nearby galaxy and the dramatic interaction has twisted its spiral arms out of shape, dragged streams of material out into space, and triggered bright bursts of star formation.

Feelings of loneliness, depression linked to binge-watching television Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:43 AM PST It seems harmless: getting settled in for a night of marathon session for a favorite TV show, like House of Cards. But why do we binge-watch TV, and can it really be harmless? A recent study has found that the more lonely and depressed you are, the more likely you are to binge-watch.

Can synesthesia be taught? Colored letters, tasty sounds? Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:42 AM PST Can synesthesia have cognitive benefits and can it be taught? There are over 60 known types of synesthesia, a condition in which stimulation of one sense, such as taste, leads to automatic, involuntary experience in a second sense. People with synesthesia tend to perform better on memory tasks, particularly involving color, abstract patterns or words and this can also be transferred to creative disciplines such as music.

Vehicle body made from cotton, hemp, and wood Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:42 AM PST Carbon and glass fibers reinforce synthetics so that they can be used for vehicle body construction. But in this regard, there is an abundance of potential found in natural fibers -- obtained from hemp, cotton, or wood. If you combined bio-based textile and carbon fibers, you can obtain extremely light yet very sturdy components.

Could a new proposed particle help to detect Dark Matter? Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:41 AM PST Researchers have proposed a new fundamental particle which could explain why no one has managed to detect 'Dark Matter', the elusive missing 85 per cent of the Universe's mass. Dark Matter is thought to exist because of its gravitational effects on stars and galaxies, gravitational lensing (the bending of light rays) around these, and through its imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background (the afterglow of the Big Bang). Despite compelling indirect evidence and considerable experimental effort, no one has managed to detect Dark Matter directly.

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