ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

---

• Bacterial flora of remote tribespeople carries antibiotic resistance genes
• A blueprint for clearing the skies of space debris
• Evolution puts checks on virgin births
• Wearable device turns user's thumbnail into a miniature wireless track pad
• Detector at the South Pole explores the mysterious neutrinos
• A video camera that powers itself

Bacterial flora of remote tribespeople carries antibiotic resistance genes Posted: 17 Apr 2015 11:50 AM PDT Scientists have found antibiotic resistance genes in the bacterial flora of a South American tribe that never before had been exposed to antibiotic drugs. The findings suggest that bacteria in the human body have had the ability to resist antibiotics since long before such drugs were ever used to treat disease.

A blueprint for clearing the skies of space debris Posted: 17 Apr 2015 05:52 AM PDT Scientists have put forward a blueprint for a purely space-based system to solve the growing problem of space debris. The proposal will be used to detect objects, and a recently developed high-efficiency laser system will be used to track space debris and remove it from orbit.

Evolution puts checks on virgin births Posted: 17 Apr 2015 05:52 AM PDT It seems unnatural that a species could survive without having sex. Yet over the ages, evolution has endowed females of certain species of amphibians, reptiles and fish with the ability to clone themselves, and perpetuate offspring without males. Researchers have found that in species where females have evolved the ability to reproduce without males relatively recently, fertilization is still ensuring the survival of the maximum number of healthy offspring and thus males are still needed.

Wearable device turns user's thumbnail into a miniature wireless track pad Posted: 16 Apr 2015 12:53 PM PDT Researchers are developing a new wearable device that turns the user's thumbnail into a miniature wireless track pad. They envision that the technology could let users control wireless devices when their hands are full -- answering the phone while cooking, for instance. It could also augment other interfaces, allowing someone texting on a cellphone, say, to toggle between symbol sets without interrupting his or her typing. Finally, it could enable subtle communication in circumstances that require it, such as sending a quick text to a child while attending an important meeting.

Detector at the South Pole explores the mysterious neutrinos Posted: 16 Apr 2015 08:52 AM PDT Neutrinos are a type of particle that pass through just about everything in their path from even the most distant regions of the universe. The giant IceCube experiment at the South Pole can detect when there is a collision between neutrinos and atoms in the ice using detectors. New research results from the Niels Bohr Institute have measured the neutrinos and calculated some of the physical properties of the otherwise exotic and poorly understood particles.

A video camera that powers itself Posted: 15 Apr 2015 07:29 AM PDT Scientists have invented a prototype video camera that is the first to be fully self-powered -- it can produce an image each second, indefinitely, of a well-lit indoor scene. They designed a pixel that can not only measure incident light but also convert the incident light into electric power.

You are subscribed to email updates from Strange & Offbeat News -- ScienceDaily To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States