ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Why some geckos lose their ability to stick to surfaces
• How the 'beast quake' is helping scientists track real earthquakes
• Expressing anger linked with better health in some cultures
• Nanowire clothing could keep people warm, without heating everything else
• Brain imaging may help predict future behavior
• Forget the selfish gene: Evolution of life is driven by the selfish ribosome, research suggests
• Too much gas, too little food appear major factors in injury, disease-related memory loss
• Was Beethoven's music literally heartfelt? Could a cardiac arrhythmia have influenced famous works by the musical great?
• Responsive material could be the 'golden ticket' of sensing
• Where did all the stars go? Dark cloud obscures hundreds of background stars
• Hey, guys: Posting a lot of selfies doesn't send a good message
• DNA origami could lead to nano 'transformers' for biomedical applications

Why some geckos lose their ability to stick to surfaces Posted: 07 Jan 2015 05:49 PM PST Biologists have found that evolution can downgrade or entirely remove adaptations a species has previously acquired, giving the species new survival advantages. The researchers focused their attention on geckos, specifically the adhesive system that allows geckos to cling to surfaces. They found that gecko species in which the adhesive system was either lost or simplified saw elevated rates of evolution related to morphology and locomotion.

How the 'beast quake' is helping scientists track real earthquakes Posted: 07 Jan 2015 05:44 PM PST Seismologists will again be monitoring the ground-shaking cheers of Seahawks fans, this year with a bigger team, better technology and faster response times. Scientists with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network will install instruments to provide real-time monitoring of the stadium's movement during the 2015 NFL playoffs.

Expressing anger linked with better health in some cultures Posted: 07 Jan 2015 09:29 AM PST In the US and many Western countries, people are urged to manage feelings of anger or suffer its ill effects -- but new research with participants from the US and Japan suggests that anger may actually be linked with better, not worse, health in certain cultures.

Nanowire clothing could keep people warm, without heating everything else Posted: 07 Jan 2015 09:29 AM PST To stay warm when temperatures drop outside, we heat our indoor spaces -- even when no one is in them. But scientists have now developed a novel nanowire coating for clothes that can both generate heat and trap the heat from our bodies better than regular clothes. They now report on their technology, which could help us reduce our reliance on conventional energy sources.

Brain imaging may help predict future behavior Posted: 07 Jan 2015 09:29 AM PST Noninvasive brain scans have led to basic science discoveries about the human brain, but they've had only limited impacts on people's day-to-day lives. A review article highlights a number of recent studies showing that brain imaging can help predict an individual's future learning, criminality, health-related behaviors, and response to drug or behavioral treatments. The technology may offer opportunities to personalize educational and clinical practices.

Forget the selfish gene: Evolution of life is driven by the selfish ribosome, research suggests Posted: 07 Jan 2015 07:14 AM PST Since the discovery of how DNA encodes genetic information, most research on the evolution of life has focused on genes. According to the 'selfish gene' theory, cells and organisms exist simply as packages to protect and transmit genes. New research challenges this idea, proposing instead that if anything is 'selfish' it must be the ribosome. That upends everything we think we know about the evolution of life and, in fact, the function of ribosomes themselves.

Too much gas, too little food appear major factors in injury, disease-related memory loss Posted: 07 Jan 2015 07:11 AM PST Inflammation plays a role in learning and memory loss that can result from brain injury or disease, and researchers now have evidence that neurons may be suffering from too much gas and too little food.

Was Beethoven's music literally heartfelt? Could a cardiac arrhythmia have influenced famous works by the musical great? Posted: 07 Jan 2015 06:13 AM PST Could it be that when Ludwig van Beethoven composed some of the greatest masterpieces of all time that he was quite literally following his heart?

Responsive material could be the 'golden ticket' of sensing Posted: 07 Jan 2015 05:22 AM PST A new responsive material 'glued' together with short strands of DNA, and capable of translating thermal and chemical signals into visible physical changes, could underpin a new class of biosensors or drug delivery systems.

Where did all the stars go? Dark cloud obscures hundreds of background stars Posted: 07 Jan 2015 05:16 AM PST Some of the stars appear to be missing in this intriguing new image. But the black gap in this glitteringly beautiful starfield is not really a gap, but rather a region of space clogged with gas and dust. This dark cloud is called LDN 483 -- for Lynds Dark Nebula 483. Such clouds are the birthplaces of future stars.

Hey, guys: Posting a lot of selfies doesn't send a good message Posted: 06 Jan 2015 09:18 AM PST The picture isn't pretty for guys who post a lot of selfies on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. A new study showed that men who posted more online photos of themselves than others scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.

DNA origami could lead to nano 'transformers' for biomedical applications Posted: 05 Jan 2015 12:10 PM PST If the new nano-machines built at The Ohio State University look familiar, it's because they were designed with full-size mechanical parts such as hinges and pistons in mind. The project is the first to prove that the same basic design principles that apply to typical full-size machine parts can also be applied to DNA--and can produce complex, controllable components for future nano-robots.

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