ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Ripples in fabric of space-time? Hundreds of undiscovered black holes
• Picky ants maintain color polymorphism of bugs they work with
• Reconciling dwarf galaxies with dark matter
• Atomic scale pipes available on demand and by design
• Team of robots learns to work together, without colliding
• Crab from the Chinese pet market turns out to be a new species of a new genus
• Expanding when it shouldn't: New material with exceptional negative compressibility
• Hubble discovers rare fossil relic of early Milky Way
• Fish 'biowaste' converted to piezoelectric energy harvesters

Ripples in fabric of space-time? Hundreds of undiscovered black holes Posted: 07 Sep 2016 06:51 PM PDT Computer simulations of a spherical collection of stars known as 'NGC 6101' reveal that it contains hundreds of black holes, until now thought impossible. Recent observations already found black hole candidates in similar systems, with this research enabling astrophysicists to map black holes in other clusters. These systems could be the cradle of gravitational wave emission, 'ripples' in the fabric of space-time.

Picky ants maintain color polymorphism of bugs they work with Posted: 07 Sep 2016 11:31 AM PDT Researchers have found that ants have a particular preference for aphid colonies with certain colors, which could be why these bugs are able to keep their colors across generations.

Reconciling dwarf galaxies with dark matter Posted: 07 Sep 2016 10:51 AM PDT Dwarf galaxies are enigmas wrapped in riddles. Although they are the smallest galaxies, they represent some of the biggest mysteries about our universe. While many dwarf galaxies surround our own Milky Way, there seem to be far too few of them compared with standard cosmological models, which raises a lot of questions about the nature of dark matter and its role in galaxy formation. New theoretical modeling work offers the most accurate predictions to date about the dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way's neighborhood.

Atomic scale pipes available on demand and by design Posted: 07 Sep 2016 10:51 AM PDT Researchers have discovered how to create the smallest ever water and gas pipes that are only one atom in size.

Team of robots learns to work together, without colliding Posted: 07 Sep 2016 09:53 AM PDT When you have too many robots together, they get so focused on not colliding with each other that they eventually just stop moving. Georgia Tech's new algorithms are different: they allow any number of robots to move within inches of each other, without colliding, to complete their task -- swapping locations on his lab floor. The roboticists are the first researchers to create such minimally invasive safety algorithms.

Crab from the Chinese pet market turns out to be a new species of a new genus Posted: 07 Sep 2016 09:53 AM PDT Shimmering carapaces make crabs attractive to pet owners. To answer the growing demand, fishermen collect and trade crustaceans, often not knowing what exactly they have handed over to their clients. Luckily for science and nature alike, however, the authors of a new article have spotted such a crab and recognized its peculiarities to prove it as a new species and even a new genus from southern China.

Expanding when it shouldn't: New material with exceptional negative compressibility Posted: 07 Sep 2016 08:37 AM PDT Our intuition tells us that a sample of material compressed uniformly from all sides should reduce its dimensions. Only a few materials subjected to hydrostatic compression exhibit the opposite behavior, expanding slightly in one or two directions. A new material has now been discovered with exceptionally high negative compressibility and a previously unknown mechanism responsible for it.

Hubble discovers rare fossil relic of early Milky Way Posted: 07 Sep 2016 08:23 AM PDT A fossilized remnant of the early Milky Way harboring stars of hugely different ages has been revealed by an international team of astronomers. This stellar system resembles a globular cluster, but is like no other cluster known. It contains stars remarkably similar to the most ancient stars in the Milky Way and bridges the gap in understanding between our galaxy's past and its present.

Fish 'biowaste' converted to piezoelectric energy harvesters Posted: 06 Sep 2016 10:10 AM PDT Large quantities of fish are consumed in India on a daily basis, which generates a huge amount of fish 'biowaste' materials. In an attempt to do something positive with this biowaste, a team of researchers explored recycling the fish byproducts into an energy harvester for self-powered electronics.

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