ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

---

• Sea urchin's teeth inspire new design for space exploration device
• World's tiniest engine small enough to enter living cells
• Although boiling, water does shape Martian terrain
• Endangered venomous mammal predates dinosaurs' extinction, study confirms
• 'Adaptive protein crystal' could form new kind of protective material
• How DNA can take on the properties of sand or toothpaste
• Three potentially habitable worlds found around nearby ultracool dwarf star
• No males needed: All-female salamanders regrow tails 36 percent faster
• New tech uses hardware, software to train dogs more efficiently

Sea urchin's teeth inspire new design for space exploration device Posted: 02 May 2016 01:11 PM PDT The sea urchin's intricate mouth and teeth are the model for a claw-like device developed by a team of engineers and marine biologists to sample sediments on other planets, such as Mars.

World's tiniest engine small enough to enter living cells Posted: 02 May 2016 01:11 PM PDT Researchers have built a nano-engine that could form the basis for future applications in nano-robotics, including robots small enough to enter living cells.

Although boiling, water does shape Martian terrain Posted: 02 May 2016 10:15 AM PDT At present, liquid water on Mars only exists in small quantities as a boiling liquid, and only during the warmest time of day in summer. Its role has therefore been considered insignificant until now. However scientists have now shown that even though water that emerges onto the surface of Mars immediately begins to boil, it creates an unstable, turbulent flow that can eject sediment and cause dry avalanches. The flow of small amounts of a boiling liquid therefore significantly alters the surface.

Endangered venomous mammal predates dinosaurs' extinction, study confirms Posted: 02 May 2016 10:15 AM PDT Biologists have completely sequenced the mitochondrial genome for the Hispaniolan solenodon, filling in the last major branch of placental mammals on the tree of life. The study confirmed that the venomous mammal diverged from all other living mammals 78 million years ago, long before an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.

'Adaptive protein crystal' could form new kind of protective material Posted: 02 May 2016 10:10 AM PDT Chemists have created an 'adaptive protein crystal' with a counterintuitive and potentially useful property: When stretched in one direction, the material thickens in the perpendicular direction, rather than thinning as familiar materials do. And when squeezed in one dimension, it shrinks in the other rather than expanding, and gets denser in the process.

How DNA can take on the properties of sand or toothpaste Posted: 02 May 2016 10:10 AM PDT When does DNA behave like sand or toothpaste? When the genetic material is so densely packed within a virus, it can behave like grains of sand or toothpaste in a tube.That's essentially what biophysicists discovered when they began closely examining the physical properties of DNA jammed inside viruses.

Three potentially habitable worlds found around nearby ultracool dwarf star Posted: 02 May 2016 08:14 AM PDT Astronomers have discovered three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star.

No males needed: All-female salamanders regrow tails 36 percent faster Posted: 02 May 2016 08:12 AM PDT The lady salamander that shuns male companionship may reap important benefits. For instance, when a predator snaps off her tail .New research compared an all-female population of mole salamanders to a related heterosexual species and found they grew their tails back 36 percent faster. The unisexual salamanders (part of the Ambystoma genus) contain DNA of up to five species and reproduce primarily by cloning themselves.

New tech uses hardware, software to train dogs more efficiently Posted: 02 May 2016 06:37 AM PDT Researchers have developed and used a customized suite of technologies that allows a computer to train a dog autonomously, with the computer effectively responding to the dog based on the dog's body language

You are subscribed to email updates from Strange & Offbeat News -- ScienceDaily. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States