ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Venus may have been habitable, NASA climate modeling suggests
• In a race for Cheetos, magpies win, but crows steal
• Orangutan able to guess a taste without sampling it, just like us
• Paraplegics regain some feeling, movement after using brain-machine interfaces
• Believe it or not: Exercise does more good if you believe it will
• Unearthed: The cannibal sharks of a forgotten age
• Reducing the harms of alcohol through weaker beer
• Mars gullies likely not formed by liquid water
• Recording selfies while brushing teeth can improve oral health care skills
• Earth interacted with supernova remnants for 1 million years
• The hunt for war treasure in the Philippines has hidden meanings
• Unraveling the jaw-dropping goblin shark
• Ultracold atoms in a 'Rydberg-dress'

Venus may have been habitable, NASA climate modeling suggests Posted: 11 Aug 2016 09:04 AM PDT Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to two billion years of its early history, according to NASA computer modeling of the planet's ancient climate.

In a race for Cheetos, magpies win, but crows steal Posted: 11 Aug 2016 07:11 AM PDT In urban neighborhoods, magpies often nest near their cousin corvid species, crows. Nesting near a bigger bird affords them some extra defense against predators. But do they pay a food penalty? To find out, ecologists presented the birds with a set of Cheetos challenges.

Orangutan able to guess a taste without sampling it, just like us Posted: 11 Aug 2016 07:10 AM PDT Without having tasted a new juice mix before, an orangutan in a Swedish zoo has enough sense to know whether it will taste nice or not based on how he recombined relevant memories from the past. Only humans were thought to have this ability of affective forecasting, in which prior experiences are used to conjure up mental pictures about totally new situations.

Paraplegics regain some feeling, movement after using brain-machine interfaces Posted: 11 Aug 2016 07:10 AM PDT Eight people who have spent years paralyzed from spinal cord injuries have regained partial sensation and muscle control in their lower limbs after training with brain-controlled robotics, according to a new study.

Believe it or not: Exercise does more good if you believe it will Posted: 11 Aug 2016 06:00 AM PDT People benefit more from exercise when they believe it will have a positive effect, new research indicates. A psychologist and his team have conducted a study demonstrating that test subjects derive more psychological as well as neurophysiological benefits from exercise if they already have positive mindsets about sports. Moreover, the team provided evidence that test subjects can be positively or negatively influenced in this regard before engaging in the exercise.

Unearthed: The cannibal sharks of a forgotten age Posted: 11 Aug 2016 05:56 AM PDT Scientists have discovered incredible fossil evidence that a 300-million-year-old shark, which mildly resembled a modern-day bull shark, cannibalized its babies.

Reducing the harms of alcohol through weaker beer Posted: 10 Aug 2016 07:37 PM PDT Could a small drop in the alcohol content of beer or other drinks reduce the harmful effects of alcohol in society at large? A new review, which explores the evidence, suggests this approach may be worth pursuing.

Mars gullies likely not formed by liquid water Posted: 10 Aug 2016 02:44 PM PDT New findings using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show that gullies on modern Mars are most likely not being formed by flowing liquid water. This new evidence will allow researchers to further narrow theories as to the mechanisms behind the formation of gullies on Mars, and help reveal more details about Mars' recent geologic processes.

Recording selfies while brushing teeth can improve oral health care skills Posted: 10 Aug 2016 11:37 AM PDT Recording smart phone video 'selfies' of tooth-brushing can help people learn to improve their oral health care techniques, according to a new study.

Earth interacted with supernova remnants for 1 million years Posted: 10 Aug 2016 07:44 AM PDT Physicists have succeeded in detecting a time-resolved supernova signal in the Earth's microfossil record. As the group shows, the supernova signal was first detectable at a time starting about 2.7 million years ago. According to the researcher's analyses, our solar system spent one million years to transit trough the remnants of a supernova.

The hunt for war treasure in the Philippines has hidden meanings Posted: 10 Aug 2016 07:42 AM PDT Many believe that enormous quantities of gold lie buried somewhere in the Philippines. According to a popular account, Japanese soldiers used the Philippines as a base to hide treasures they had plundered from regions under their control during World War II. At the close of the war, the treasure was left behind in several hiding places.

Unraveling the jaw-dropping goblin shark Posted: 10 Aug 2016 07:40 AM PDT Scientists have revealed goblin sharks' 'slingshot feeding' mechanism, which involves high-speed protrusion of their jaws. Goblin sharks have revealed a remarkable biting mechanism, named 'slingshot feeding,' which involves high-speed manipulation of the species' highly protrusible jaws.

Ultracold atoms in a 'Rydberg-dress' Posted: 10 Aug 2016 05:58 AM PDT Scientists have developed a novel technique to let atoms interact over large distances.

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