ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Plumbing the secrets of tissue paper
• African bird shows signs of evil stepdad behavior
• BPA can disrupt painted turtles' brain development could be a population health concern
• '4-D printing' a new dimension for additive manufacturing
• Silicon nanoparticles trained to juggle light
• Analog DNA circuit does math in a test tube
• Battery you can swallow could enable future ingestible medical devices

Plumbing the secrets of tissue paper Posted: 24 Aug 2016 08:09 AM PDT Tissue manufacturers are now much closer to producing the perfect paper, thanks to new research.

African bird shows signs of evil stepdad behavior Posted: 24 Aug 2016 05:43 AM PDT An African desert-dwelling male bird favors his biological sons and alienates his stepsons, suggests new research. The species is the southern pied babbler, a black and white bird found in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Previous work on the southern pied babbler has shown negative outcomes for birds who live alone for longer periods, including a decreased likelihood of attaining dominance in another group and increased weight loss.

BPA can disrupt painted turtles' brain development could be a population health concern Posted: 23 Aug 2016 01:56 PM PDT Often, aquatic environments such as rivers and streams become reservoirs for BPA, affecting turtle habitats. Last year, a team of researchers determined that BPA can disrupt sexual function in painted turtles. Now, the team has shown that BPA also can induce behavioral changes in turtles, reprogramming male turtle brains to show behavior common in females. Researchers worry this could lead to population declines in painted turtles.

'4-D printing' a new dimension for additive manufacturing Posted: 23 Aug 2016 11:18 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated the 3-D printing of shape-shifting structures that can fold or unfold to reshape themselves when exposed to heat or electricity, an approach also known as '4-D printing.' The micro-architected structures, including boxes, conductive devices, and a stent, were fabricated from a conductive, environmentally responsive 'smart' ink.

Silicon nanoparticles trained to juggle light Posted: 23 Aug 2016 09:54 AM PDT Silicon nanoparticles based devices would allow to transmit, reflect, or scatter incident light in a specified direction, depending on its intensity. They could be integrated into microchips that would enable ultrafast all-optical signal processing in optical communication lines and the next generation optical computers.

Analog DNA circuit does math in a test tube Posted: 23 Aug 2016 09:53 AM PDT Researchers have created strands of synthetic DNA that, when mixed together in a test tube in the right concentrations, form an analog circuit that can add, subtract and multiply as the molecules form and break bonds. While most DNA circuits are digital, their device performs calculations in an analog fashion by measuring the varying concentrations of specific DNA molecules directly, without requiring special circuitry to convert them to zeroes and ones first.

Battery you can swallow could enable future ingestible medical devices Posted: 23 Aug 2016 05:32 AM PDT Non-toxic, edible batteries could one day power ingestible devices for diagnosing and treating disease. One team reports new progress toward that goal with their batteries made with melanin pigments, naturally found in the skin, hair and eyes.

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