ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Eleven-year cosmic search leads to black hole rethink
• Flower declines shrink bee tongues
• New theory of stealth dark matter may explain universe's missing mass
• Scientists build wrench 1.7 nanometers wide
• Shooting lightning out of the sky
• Shrapnel from an exploded star
• Too big for its boots: Black hole is 30 times expected size
• A new study predicts a quantum Goldilocks effect
• Total lunar eclipse will bring big red Moon to early morning sky

Eleven-year cosmic search leads to black hole rethink Posted: 24 Sep 2015 12:15 PM PDT One hundred years since Einstein proposed gravitational waves as part of his general theory of relativity, an 11-year search has failed to detect them, casting doubt on our understanding of galaxies and black holes.

Flower declines shrink bee tongues Posted: 24 Sep 2015 12:14 PM PDT Climate-related changes in flower diversity have resulted in a decrease in the length of alpine bumble bees' tongues, a new study reports, leaving these insects poorly suited to feed from and pollinate the deep flowers they were adapted to previously.

New theory of stealth dark matter may explain universe's missing mass Posted: 24 Sep 2015 11:28 AM PDT Scientists have come up with a new theory that may identify why dark matter has evaded direct detection in Earth-based experiments.

Scientists build wrench 1.7 nanometers wide Posted: 24 Sep 2015 11:28 AM PDT Chemists have invented a nanoscale wrench that allows them to precisely control nanoscale shapes. Their use of 'chirality-assisted synthesis' is a fundamentally new approach to shaping large molecules -- one of the foundational needs for making complex synthetic materials, including new polymers and medicines.

Shooting lightning out of the sky Posted: 24 Sep 2015 09:40 AM PDT A team of researchers has demonstrated new techniques that bring lasers as lighting rods closer to reality. When a powerful laser beam shoots through the air, it ionizes the molecules, leaving a thin trail of hot, ionized particles in its wake. Because this stream of plasma conducts electricity, it could be used to channel away a potentially damaging lightning bolt. The researchers found ways to make the length of such a plasma channel reach more than 10 times longer -- a necessary advance for using the channel to redirect a lightning strike.

Shrapnel from an exploded star Posted: 24 Sep 2015 07:44 AM PDT Astronomers are comparing new images of the Veil Nebula, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in April 2015 with Hubble images taken in 1997, to study how the nebula has expanded since it was photographed over 18 years ago. The supernova that created the Veil Nebula would have been briefly visible to our very distant ancestors thousands of years ago as a bright "new star" in the northern sky.

Too big for its boots: Black hole is 30 times expected size Posted: 24 Sep 2015 05:36 AM PDT The central supermassive black hole of a recently discovered galaxy has been found to be far larger than should be possible, according to current theories of galactic evolution. New work shows that the black hole is much more massive than it should be, compared to the mass of the galaxy around it.

A new study predicts a quantum Goldilocks effect Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:22 PM PDT By studying a system that couples matter and light together, like the universe itself, researchers have now found that crossing a quantum phase transition at intermediate speeds generates the richest, most complex structure. Such structure resembles 'defects' in an otherwise smooth and empty space.

Total lunar eclipse will bring big red Moon to early morning sky Posted: 23 Sep 2015 07:34 AM PDT People across the western hemisphere may be surprised to see a rust-colored Moon in the sky on 28 September. Early that morning (the evening of the 27 September for observers in North and South America) will be this year's second total eclipse of the Moon. From the UK, this will be the first total lunar eclipse visible since 2008, and the last one visible in its entirety until 2019.

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