ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Why you'd better never have to ask the way when visiting the Northern Territory in Australia
• Surface tension can sort droplets for biomedical applications
• Scientists create new thin material that mimics cell membranes
• Electron spin control: Levitated nanodiamond is research gem
• X marks the spot at the center of the Milky Way galaxy
• Minimalist swimming microrobots
• House-hunting ants know how to take the hassle out of moving
• Scientists develop plastic flexible magnetic memory device
• New detector overcomes key challenge in using light for wireless communications
• Is schizophrenia a disorder of the immune system?
• Weird quantum effects stretch across hundreds of miles
• Scientists predict academic acheivement from DNA alone
• Ridiculously cute mouse lemurs hold key to Madagascar's past

Why you'd better never have to ask the way when visiting the Northern Territory in Australia Posted: 19 Jul 2016 02:34 PM PDT Rather than using abstract directionals, speakers of Murrinhpatha make reference to locations of interest using named landmarks, demonstratives and pointing. And because pointing is necessary for direction giving, people of the region point a great deal.

Surface tension can sort droplets for biomedical applications Posted: 19 Jul 2016 12:22 PM PDT Scientists have engineered a simple and inexpensive device that can sort droplets of liquid based solely on the liquids' varying surface tensions.

Scientists create new thin material that mimics cell membranes Posted: 19 Jul 2016 11:47 AM PDT Materials scientists have created a new material that performs like a cell membrane found in nature. Such a material has long been sought for applications as varied as water purification and drug delivery. The material can assemble itself into a sheet thinner but stabler than a soap bubble, the researchers report.

Electron spin control: Levitated nanodiamond is research gem Posted: 19 Jul 2016 09:42 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated how to control the 'electron spin' of a nanodiamond while it is levitated with lasers in a vacuum, an advance that could find applications in quantum information processing, sensors and studies into the fundamental physics of quantum mechanics.

X marks the spot at the center of the Milky Way galaxy Posted: 19 Jul 2016 09:30 AM PDT Two astronomers -- with the help of Twitter--have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that an enormous X-shaped structure made of stars lies within the central bulge of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Minimalist swimming microrobots Posted: 19 Jul 2016 09:30 AM PDT When scaling down robots to the micrometer scale for tiny tasks such as incising tissue and puncturing retinal veins, minimalism is key. To make smaller, simpler microrobots, researchers have developed a fabrication method which utilizes the minimum geometric requirements for fluid motion -- consisting of just two conjoined microparticles coated with bits of magnetic debris.

House-hunting ants know how to take the hassle out of moving Posted: 19 Jul 2016 08:02 AM PDT Ants employ a few simple and flexible rules to ensure that moving a colony to a new nest does not end in chaos, especially if this is done over some distance. A new study indicates that when it comes to giving directions, ants have it down to a fine art.

Scientists develop plastic flexible magnetic memory device Posted: 19 Jul 2016 07:54 AM PDT Scientists have successfully embedded a powerful magnetic memory chip on a flexible plastic material. This malleable memory chip hails a breakthrough in the flexible electronics revolution, and brings researchers a step closer towards making flexible, wearable electronics a reality in the near future.

New detector overcomes key challenge in using light for wireless communications Posted: 19 Jul 2016 07:54 AM PDT In an advance that could one day make light-based wireless communications ubiquitous, researchers have demonstrated a conceptually new approach for detecting optical communication signals traveling through the air.

Is schizophrenia a disorder of the immune system? Posted: 19 Jul 2016 06:42 AM PDT Using data from the largest ever genetic study of schizophrenia, researchers have shed light on the role of the immune system.

Weird quantum effects stretch across hundreds of miles Posted: 19 Jul 2016 06:16 AM PDT Scientists have discovered strange quantum effects hold, even over hundreds of miles. In longest test of quantum mechanics, researchers find neutrinos, traveling over 450 miles at close to speed of light, have no single identity.

Scientists predict academic acheivement from DNA alone Posted: 19 Jul 2016 06:16 AM PDT Scientists have used a new genetic scoring technique to predict academic achievement from DNA alone. This is the strongest prediction from DNA of a behavioral measure to date.

Ridiculously cute mouse lemurs hold key to Madagascar's past Posted: 18 Jul 2016 01:09 PM PDT Scientists studied mouse lemur DNA to determine how Madagascar's landscape changed over time -- since the lemurs are forest-dependent, changes in their DNA show how Madagascar's forests changed thousands of years ago. The study indicates that Madagascar's habitats were changing long before humans arrived on the island.

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