ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Robotics and the law: When software can harm you
• One in four UK show dogs competing at Crufts is overweight
• Scientist works on taste, texture and color of lab-produced hamburger
• 3D printers poised to have major implications for food manufacturing
• Transistor built from a molecule and a few atoms
• From sticks to balls: The shape of bacteria is evolving to better adapt to the throat
• Male black widow spiders destroy female’s web to deter rivals

Robotics and the law: When software can harm you Posted: 13 Jul 2015 05:57 PM PDT Twenty years in, the law is finally starting to get used to the Internet. Now it is imperative that the law figure out how to deal effectively with the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence, an expert says.

One in four UK show dogs competing at Crufts is overweight Posted: 13 Jul 2015 05:54 PM PDT One in four dogs competing in the world's largest canine show (Crufts) is overweight, despite the perception that entrants are supposed to represent ideal specimens of their breed, reveals research.

Scientist works on taste, texture and color of lab-produced hamburger Posted: 13 Jul 2015 11:41 AM PDT A researcher is confident his recipe for his $300,000 cultured hamburger will not only come down in price but someday make it to market.

3D printers poised to have major implications for food manufacturing Posted: 13 Jul 2015 11:41 AM PDT The use of 3D printers has the potential to revolutionize the way food is manufactured within the next 10 to 20 years, impacting everything from how military personnel get food on the battlefield to how long it takes to get a meal from the computer to your table, according to new research.

Transistor built from a molecule and a few atoms Posted: 13 Jul 2015 09:22 AM PDT Physicists have used a scanning tunneling microscope to create a minute transistor consisting of a single molecule and a small number of atoms. The observed transistor action is markedly different from the conventionally expected behavior and could be important for future device technologies as well as for fundamental studies of electron transport in molecular nanostructures.

From sticks to balls: The shape of bacteria is evolving to better adapt to the throat Posted: 13 Jul 2015 09:20 AM PDT It's no coincidence that the earthworm's slender shape makes it perfect for weaving through narrow tunnels. Evolution molds the shapes of living creatures according to the benefits they offer. At the microscopic level, do the various shapes of bacteria also contribute to their survival? Does a spherical bacterium (coccus) have a better chance of infecting its host than its stick-shaped neighbor (bacillus)?

Male black widow spiders destroy female’s web to deter rivals Posted: 13 Jul 2015 06:53 AM PDT Male black widow spiders destroy large sections of the female's web during courtship and wrap it up in their own silk. New research shows that this home-wrecking behavior deters rival males, by making the female's web less attractive to them. Surprisingly, the females don't seem to mind the destruction. The authors of the study say the males' behavior could protect the female from harassment, enabling her to get on with parenting.

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