ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Misquotes and memes: Did Ben Franklin really say that?
• Newly discovered 48-million-year-old lizard walked on water in Wyoming
• Dagger-like canines of saber-toothed cats took years to grow
• Amazing light-manipulating abilities of squid
• Human-like 'eye' in single-celled plankton: Mitochondria, plastids evolved together
• Discovery of nanotubes offers new clues about cell-to-cell communication
• Observing the birth of a planet
• Bizarre mating habits of flatworms
• Bow ties and cuttlefish: New insight into a visual super sense
• Quantum teleportation? Producing spin-entangled electrons

Misquotes and memes: Did Ben Franklin really say that? Posted: 01 Jul 2015 12:26 PM PDT As Independence Day approaches, social media is lighting up with memes and quotes from the nation's Founding Fathers. But did George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin actually say these things for which they receive so much acclaim? A scholar can tell the truth about Ben.

Newly discovered 48-million-year-old lizard walked on water in Wyoming Posted: 01 Jul 2015 12:18 PM PDT A newly discovered, 48-million-year-old fossil, known as a 'Jesus lizard' for its ability to walk on water, may provide insight into how climate change may affect tropical species.

Dagger-like canines of saber-toothed cats took years to grow Posted: 01 Jul 2015 12:18 PM PDT The fearsome teeth of the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis fully emerged at a later age than those of modern big cats, but grew at a rate about double that of their living relatives. The findings, for the first time, provide specific ages for developmental dental events in Smilodon. The eruption rate of the cat's permanent upper canines was a speedy six millimeters per month, but the teeth weren't fully developed until three years of age.

Amazing light-manipulating abilities of squid Posted: 01 Jul 2015 11:06 AM PDT Perhaps not the brightest of cephalopods, the California market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) has amazing light-manipulating abilities.

Human-like 'eye' in single-celled plankton: Mitochondria, plastids evolved together Posted: 01 Jul 2015 10:33 AM PDT Scientists have peered into the eye-like structure of single-celled marine plankton called warnowiids and found it contains many of the components of a complex eye.

Discovery of nanotubes offers new clues about cell-to-cell communication Posted: 01 Jul 2015 10:19 AM PDT When it comes to communicating with each other, some cells may be more "old school" than was previously thought. Certain types of stem cells use microscopic, threadlike nanotubes to communicate with neighboring cells, like a landline phone connection, rather than sending a broadcast signal.

Observing the birth of a planet Posted: 01 Jul 2015 08:48 AM PDT Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a young giant gas planet still embedded in the midst of the disk of gas and dust surrounding its parent star. For the first time, scientists are able to directly study the formation of a planet at a very early stage.

Bizarre mating habits of flatworms Posted: 01 Jul 2015 07:48 AM PDT Failing to find a mating partner is a dent to the reproductive prospects of any animal, but in the flatworm species Macrostomum hystrix it might involve a real headache. Zoologists have discovered the extraordinary lengths to which this animal is willing to go in order to reproduce -- including apparently injecting sperm directly into their own heads.

Bow ties and cuttlefish: New insight into a visual super sense Posted: 01 Jul 2015 05:37 AM PDT An experiment originally designed to test the visual abilities of octopuses and cuttlefish has given researchers an unprecedented insight into the human ability to perceive polarized light -- the super sense that most of us don't even know we have.

Quantum teleportation? Producing spin-entangled electrons Posted: 01 Jul 2015 05:28 AM PDT Scientists have successfully produced pairs of spin-entangled electrons and demonstrated, for the first time, that these electrons remain entangled even when they are separated from one another on a chip. This research could contribute to the creation of futuristic quantum networks operating using quantum teleportation, which could allow information contained in quantum bits -- qubits -- to be shared between many elements on chip, a key requirement to scale up the power of a quantum computer. The ability to create non-local entangled electron pairs -- known as Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pairs -- on demand has long been a dream.

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