ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Snake robots learn to turn by following the lead of real sidewinders
• Wandering Jupiter accounts for our strange solar system
• Quantum correlation can imply causation
• Atlantic Ocean overturning, responsible for mild climate in northwestern Europe, is slowing
• Colliding stars explain enigmatic 17th century explosion
• Magnets can control heat and sound
• Have researchers discovered the sound of the stars?
• Airships: The future of aviation?
• Sewage could be a source of valuable metals and critical elements
• Squid-inspired 'invisibility stickers' could help soldiers evade detection in the dark

Snake robots learn to turn by following the lead of real sidewinders Posted: 23 Mar 2015 01:22 PM PDT Researchers who develop snake-like robots have picked up a few tricks from real sidewinder rattlesnakes on how to make rapid and even sharp turns with their undulating, modular device. Working with colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Zoo Atlanta, they have analyzed the motions of sidewinders and tested their observations on CMU's snake robots.

Wandering Jupiter accounts for our strange solar system Posted: 23 Mar 2015 01:22 PM PDT Jupiter may have swept through the early solar system like a wrecking ball, destroying a first generation of inner planets before retreating into its current orbit, according to a new study. The findings help explain why our solar system is so different from the hundreds of other planetary systems that astronomers have discovered in recent years.

Quantum correlation can imply causation Posted: 23 Mar 2015 12:06 PM PDT Contrary to the statistician's slogan, in the quantum world, certain kinds of correlations do imply causation. New research shows that in quantum mechanics, certain kinds of observations will let you distinguish whether there is a common cause or a cause-effect relation between two variables. The same is not true in classical physics.

Atlantic Ocean overturning, responsible for mild climate in northwestern Europe, is slowing Posted: 23 Mar 2015 10:27 AM PDT The Atlantic overturning is one of Earth's most important heat transport systems, pumping warm water northwards and cold water southwards. Also known as the Gulf Stream system, it is responsible for the mild climate in northwestern Europe. Scientists now found evidence for a slowdown of the overturning -- multiple lines of observation suggest that in recent decades, the current system has been weaker than ever before in the last century, or even in the last millennium.

Colliding stars explain enigmatic 17th century explosion Posted: 23 Mar 2015 10:22 AM PDT New observations made with APEX and other telescopes reveal that the star that European astronomers saw appear in the sky in 1670 was not a nova, but a much rarer, violent breed of stellar collision.

Magnets can control heat and sound Posted: 23 Mar 2015 10:08 AM PDT Researchers have discovered how to control heat with a magnetic field. The study is the first ever to demonstrate that acoustic phonons -- the elemental particles that transmit both heat and sound -- have magnetic properties.

Have researchers discovered the sound of the stars? Posted: 23 Mar 2015 04:57 AM PDT A chance discovery has provided experimental evidence that stars may generate sound. When examining the interaction of an ultra-intense laser with a plasma target, researchers observed something unexpected. Scientists realized that in the trillionth of a second after the laser strikes, plasma flowed rapidly from areas of high density to more stagnant regions of low density, in such a way that it created something like a traffic jam. Plasma piled up at the interface between the high and low density regions, generating a series of pressure pulses: a sound wave.

Airships: The future of aviation? Posted: 23 Mar 2015 04:57 AM PDT Researchers have completed a three year investigation into stratospheric passenger airships as part of a multi-national engineering project designed to provide a future sustainable air transport network.

Sewage could be a source of valuable metals and critical elements Posted: 23 Mar 2015 04:52 AM PDT Poop could be a goldmine -- literally. Surprisingly, treated solid waste contains gold, silver and other metals, as well as rare elements such as palladium and vanadium that are used in electronics and alloys.

Squid-inspired 'invisibility stickers' could help soldiers evade detection in the dark Posted: 23 Mar 2015 04:52 AM PDT Squid are the ultimate camouflage artists, blending almost flawlessly with their backgrounds so that unsuspecting prey can't detect them. Using a protein that's key to this process, scientists have designed "invisibility stickers" that could one day help soldiers disguise themselves, even when sought by enemies with tough-to-fool infrared cameras.

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