ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Female cowbirds pay attention to cowbird nestling survival, study finds
• Scents sell: The sweet smell of success
• Caterpillar deceives corn plant into lowering defenses against it
• Human-like nose can sniff out contamination in drinking water
• First estimate of the number of small, primordial galaxies in the early universe
• Designer molecule shines a spotlight on mysterious 4-stranded DNA

Female cowbirds pay attention to cowbird nestling survival, study finds Posted: 09 Sep 2015 09:51 AM PDT Brown-headed cowbirds have a reputation for being deadbeat parents: They lay their eggs in other birds' nests and then disappear, the story goes, leaving the care and feeding of their offspring to an unwitting foster family. A new study suggests, however, that cowbird moms pay close attention to how well their offspring do, returning to lay their eggs in the most successful host nests, and avoiding those that have failed.

Scents sell: The sweet smell of success Posted: 09 Sep 2015 09:48 AM PDT The concept of 'olfactory branding' has been the focus of recent research, and how in some settings, such as the hotel lobby, it can supplant or augment the more traditional audiovisual marketing signals.

Caterpillar deceives corn plant into lowering defenses against it Posted: 09 Sep 2015 09:41 AM PDT In a deception that likely has evolved over thousands of years, a caterpillar that feeds on corn leaves induces the plant to turn off its defenses against insect predators, allowing the caterpillar to eat more and grow faster, according to chemical ecologists.

Human-like nose can sniff out contamination in drinking water Posted: 09 Sep 2015 07:06 AM PDT A bioelectronic nose that mimics the human nose can detect traces of bacteria in water by smelling it, without the need for complex equipment and testing. According to a study, the technology works by using the smell receptors in the human nose. The sensor is simple to use and it can detect tiny amounts of contamination in water, making it more sensitive than existing detection methods. The authors of the study say this could make the technology even more useful in the field.

First estimate of the number of small, primordial galaxies in the early universe Posted: 09 Sep 2015 06:12 AM PDT Astronomers have generated the most accurate statistical description yet of faint, early galaxies as they existed in the universe 500 million years after the Big Bang.

Designer molecule shines a spotlight on mysterious 4-stranded DNA Posted: 09 Sep 2015 06:06 AM PDT A small fluorescent molecule has shed new light on knots of DNA thought to play a role in regulating how genes are switched on and off. DNA is typically arranged in a double helix, where two strands are intertwined like a coiled ladder, but previous research has shown the existence of unusual DNA structures called quadruplexes, where four strands are arranged in the form of little knots.

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