ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Staying cool: Saharan silver ants' heat-deflecting adaptations
• Musicians don't just hear in tune, they also see in tune
• Jet contrails affect surface temperatures
• Biomedical breakthrough: Carbon nanoparticles you can make at home
• Emotional brains 'physically different' from rational ones
• Hubble views a bizarre cosmic quartet
• Saturn's moon Titan's atmosphere even more Earth-like than previously thought
• Adult craze for human breast milk purchased online poses serious health risks
• Humans' built-in GPS is our 3-D sense of smell
• Toward nanorobots that swim through blood to deliver drugs
• Cellulose from wood can be printed in 3D

Staying cool: Saharan silver ants' heat-deflecting adaptations Posted: 18 Jun 2015 11:58 AM PDT Researchers have discovered two strategies that enable Saharan silver ants to stay cool in one of the world's hottest environments. They are the first to demonstrate that the ants use a coat of uniquely shaped hairs to control electromagnetic waves over an extremely broad range from the solar spectrum to the thermal radiation spectrum and that different physical mechanisms are used in different spectral bands to realize the same biological function of reducing body temperature.

Musicians don't just hear in tune, they also see in tune Posted: 18 Jun 2015 10:45 AM PDT Auditory melodies can enhance a musician's visual awareness of written music, particularly when the two match, a new experiment shows. That is the conclusion of the latest scientific experiment designed to puzzle out how the brain creates an apparently seamless view of the external world based on the information it receives from the eyes.

Jet contrails affect surface temperatures Posted: 18 Jun 2015 09:22 AM PDT High in the sky where the cirrus ice crystal clouds form, jet contrails draw their crisscross patterns. Now researchers have found that these elevated ice cloud trails can influence temperatures on the ground and affect local climate, according to a team of geographers.

Biomedical breakthrough: Carbon nanoparticles you can make at home Posted: 18 Jun 2015 09:22 AM PDT Researchers have found an easy way to produce carbon nanoparticles that are small enough to evade the body's immune system, reflect light in the near-infrared range for easy detection, and carry payloads of pharmaceutical drugs to targeted tissues. The new approach generates the particles in a few hours and uses only a handful of ingredients, including store-bought molasses.

Emotional brains 'physically different' from rational ones Posted: 18 Jun 2015 07:41 AM PDT Researchers have found physical differences in the brains of people who respond emotionally to others' feelings, compared to those who respond more rationally.

Hubble views a bizarre cosmic quartet Posted: 18 Jun 2015 07:38 AM PDT A new image shows a gathering of four cosmic companions. This quartet forms part of a group of galaxies known as the Hickson Compact Group 16, or HCG 16 -- a galaxy group bursting with dramatic star formation, tidal tails, galactic mergers and black holes.

Saturn's moon Titan's atmosphere even more Earth-like than previously thought Posted: 18 Jun 2015 07:38 AM PDT Scientists have observed how a widespread polar wind is driving gas from the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. The team analyzed data gathered over seven years by the international Cassini probe, and found that the interactions between Titan's atmosphere, and the solar magnetic field and radiation, create a wind of hydrocarbons and nitriles being blown away from its polar regions into space. This is very similar to the wind observed coming from the Earth's polar regions.

Adult craze for human breast milk purchased online poses serious health risks Posted: 18 Jun 2015 04:50 AM PDT The recent craze for human breast milk amongst certain fitness communities, fetishists and chronic disease sufferers is ill advised say the authors of a new study. Failure of women to sanitize properly when expressing milk, the failure to sterilize equipment properly, and the improper or prolonged storage and transportation of milk can expose consumers to bacterial food-borne illnesses like any other raw milk.

Humans' built-in GPS is our 3-D sense of smell Posted: 17 Jun 2015 02:52 PM PDT Like homing pigeons, humans have a nose for navigation because our brains are wired to convert smells into spatial information, according to new research.

Toward nanorobots that swim through blood to deliver drugs Posted: 17 Jun 2015 09:58 AM PDT Someday, treating patients with nanorobots could become standard practice to deliver medicine specifically to parts of the body affected by disease. But merely injecting drug-loaded nanoparticles might not always be enough to get them where they need to go. Now scientists are reporting the development of new nanoswimmers that can move easily through body fluids to their targets.

Cellulose from wood can be printed in 3D Posted: 17 Jun 2015 06:17 AM PDT A group of researchers have managed to print and dry three-dimensional objects made entirely by cellulose for the first time with the help of a 3D-bioprinter. They also added carbon nanotubes to create electrically conductive material. The effect is that cellulose and other raw material based on wood will be able to compete with fossil-based plastics and metals in the on-going additive manufacturing revolution, which started with the introduction of the 3D-printer.

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