ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Winter season reverses outcome of fruit fly reproduction
• Army ants' 'living' bridges span collective intelligence, 'swarm' robotics
• A flounder's disappearing act explained
• Biologists induce flatworms to grow heads and brains of other species
• Complex humor is no laughing matter
• Republicans prefer politicians with deep voices
• Liquid acoustics half way to the earth's core
• Make mine a double-shot, zero-G espresso
• Bioart: An introduction
• Loss of mastodons aided domestication of pumpkins, squash
• Ancient viral molecules essential for human development
• The anti-icing tricks of penguins

Winter season reverses outcome of fruit fly reproduction Posted: 24 Nov 2015 11:36 AM PST Male fruit flies could find their chances of fathering offspring radically reduced if they are last in the queue to mate with promiscuous females before winter arrives, according to new research.

Army ants' 'living' bridges span collective intelligence, 'swarm' robotics Posted: 24 Nov 2015 11:35 AM PST Researchers report for the first time that the 'living' bridges army ants of the species Eciton hamatum build with their bodies are more sophisticated than scientists knew. The ants automatically assemble with a level of collective intelligence that could provide new insights into animal behavior and even help in the development of intuitive robots that can cooperate as a group.

A flounder's disappearing act explained Posted: 24 Nov 2015 09:26 AM PST Simply oscillating its fins is all a flounder, a flat fish, needs to do to resuspend sand and quickly disappear beneath it to hide. By discovering the physics at play, researchers are hoping to provide a new flounder-inspired solution to a common technological challenge: the resuspension of granular material within a fluid.

Biologists induce flatworms to grow heads and brains of other species Posted: 24 Nov 2015 08:30 AM PST Biologists have succeeded in inducing one species of flatworm to grow heads and brains characteristic of another species of flatworm without altering genomic sequence. The work reveals physiological circuits as a new kind of epigenetics -- information existing outside of genomic sequence -- that determines large-scale anatomy.

Complex humor is no laughing matter Posted: 24 Nov 2015 08:21 AM PST Since the earliest times, laughter and humor have performed important functions in human interaction. Jokes give us control over laughter and are therefore a way to elicit these positive effects intentionally. In order to comprehend why some jokes are perceived as funny and others are not, researchers investigated the cognitive mechanism underlying laughter and humor.

Republicans prefer politicians with deep voices Posted: 24 Nov 2015 08:21 AM PST Masculine features are important assets for conservative politicians, while it is more important for their liberal counterparts to have gentle features, according to two recent scientific articles. This suggests that physical features have a larger impact on voter preferences than previously thought and that different physical features appeal to different voter segments.

Liquid acoustics half way to the earth's core Posted: 24 Nov 2015 05:15 AM PST Scientists have succeeded in measuring the speed of sound in mixtures of liquid iron and carbon in extreme conditions, allowing limits to be set on the composition of the Earth's core.

Make mine a double-shot, zero-G espresso Posted: 23 Nov 2015 05:59 PM PST Last year Italy sent an espresso machine up to the ISS, and this inspired a team of researchers to study the related strange fluids phenomena in low gravity, such as espresso crema formation and containment of potentially hazardous drinks within a spacecraft. To do this, the researchers designed a cup that exploits surface tension as opposed to gravity.

Bioart: An introduction Posted: 23 Nov 2015 05:36 PM PST Bioart ranges from bacterial manipulation to glowing rabbits, cellular sculptures, and -- in the case of artist Nina Sellars -- documentation of an ear prosthetic that was implanted onto fellow artist Stelarc's arm. In the pursuit of creating art, practitioners have generated tools and techniques that have aided researchers, while sometimes crossing into controversy, such as by releasing invasive species into the environment, blurring the lines between art and biology, and challenging scientific thinking.

Loss of mastodons aided domestication of pumpkins, squash Posted: 23 Nov 2015 05:28 PM PST If Pleistocene megafauna -- mastodons, mammoths, giant sloths and others -- had not become extinct, humans might not be eating pumpkin pie and squash for the holidays, according to an international team of anthropologists.

Ancient viral molecules essential for human development Posted: 23 Nov 2015 05:25 PM PST Genetic material from ancient viral infections is critical to human development, according to researchers.

The anti-icing tricks of penguins Posted: 23 Nov 2015 07:38 AM PST Antarctic penguins live in a bitterly cold place, where the air temperature can drop to -40 degrees Celsius and the winds can hurtle at speeds of 40 meters per second. Although these birds routinely hop in and out of the water in sub-freezing temperatures, they manage to keep ice from coating their feathers. Now researchers have examined penguin feathers in extreme detail and think they know the penguins' anti-icing trick: a combination of nanostructures and a special oil make Antarctic penguin feathers ultra-water-repelling, or superhydrophobic.

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