ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

---

• Toward clothes that fix their own rips
• DNA dominoes on a chip
• 1967 solar storm nearly took US to brink of war
• Researchers immobilize underwater bubbles
• Dreaming also occurs during non rapid eye movement sleep
• Stem cells of worms, humans more similar than expected
• Psychologist's magic makes a non-existent object disappear
• Study demonstrates rapid decline in male dog fertility, with potential link to environmental contaminants
• Watch a tiny space rocket work
• Nature, not nurture, defines cricket social networks
• Navigating the human genome with Sequins

Toward clothes that fix their own rips Posted: 10 Aug 2016 08:38 AM PDT Ripped pants or a torn shirt usually means a trip to the tailor or a garbage can is in one's future. But scientists could be closing in on a new solution. They report a fabric coating made of squid proteins that allows rips in cotton, linen and wool to 'heal' themselves.

DNA dominoes on a chip Posted: 09 Aug 2016 11:52 AM PDT Normally, individual molecules of genetic material repel each other. However, when space is limited DNA molecules must be packed together more tightly. This case arises in sperm, cell nuclei and the protein shells of viruses. An international team of physicists has now succeeded in artificially recreating this so-called DNA condensation on a biochip.

1967 solar storm nearly took US to brink of war Posted: 09 Aug 2016 11:51 AM PDT A solar storm that jammed radar and radio communications at the height of the Cold War could have led to a disastrous military conflict if not for the US Air Force's budding efforts to monitor the sun's activity, a new study finds.

Researchers immobilize underwater bubbles Posted: 09 Aug 2016 11:35 AM PDT Controlling bubbles is a difficult process and one that many of us experienced in a simplistic form as young children wielding a bubble wand, trying to create bigger bubbles without popping them. A research team has turned child's play into serious business.

Dreaming also occurs during non rapid eye movement sleep Posted: 09 Aug 2016 09:18 AM PDT Measurements demonstrated that the brain activity of people who dream during NREM sleep, compared to people who do not dream in NREM sleep, is closer to brain activity of awake people.

Stem cells of worms, humans more similar than expected Posted: 09 Aug 2016 09:14 AM PDT The transient form of genetic information, the RNA, is processed in a similar manner in the cells of both organisms. These mechanisms seem to be at work throughout the whole animal kingdom. Scientists have shown this in a genome-wide study on flatworms.

Psychologist's magic makes a non-existent object disappear Posted: 09 Aug 2016 09:14 AM PDT Experimental psychologists have developed their own magic trick to explore human perception. 32 percent of people were convinced by a magician that they'd just seen an object disappear, even though there was no object, evidence of the power of expectation in overriding our senses.

Study demonstrates rapid decline in male dog fertility, with potential link to environmental contaminants Posted: 09 Aug 2016 06:51 AM PDT The fertility of dogs may have suffered a sharp decline over the past three decades, a new study has found. The research found that sperm quality in a population of stud dogs studied over a 26-year period had fallen significantly.

Watch a tiny space rocket work Posted: 08 Aug 2016 12:19 PM PDT Moving a nanosatellite around in space takes only a tiny amount of thrust. Engineers teamed up, put a nanoscale rocket under a microscope, and watched what happened.

Nature, not nurture, defines cricket social networks Posted: 08 Aug 2016 09:04 AM PDT The social lives of crickets are similar generation to generation, even though the insects can't learn directly from their mum and dad.

Navigating the human genome with Sequins Posted: 08 Aug 2016 08:56 AM PDT Australian genomics researchers have announced the development of Sequins -- synthetic 'mirror' DNA sequences that reflect the human genome. This intuitive new technology, which can be used to better map and analyze complexity within the genome, is freely available to the academic research community.

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