ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Try, try again? Study says no: Trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language, neuroscientists find
• Parents rank their obese children as 'very healthy'
• New research links bad diet to loss of smell
• Seals forage at offshore wind farms
• Science and art bring back to life 300-million-year-old specimens of a primitive reptile-like vertebrate
• Mysterious dance of dwarf galaxies may force a cosmic rethink
• Children as young as three recognize 'cuteness' in faces of people, animals
• Fecal transplants let packrats eat poison
• Healing the heart with fat? 18-HEPE might help, study suggests
• Fair cake cutting gets its own algorithm

Try, try again? Study says no: Trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language, neuroscientists find Posted: 21 Jul 2014 11:22 AM PDT Neuroscientists find that trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language. When it comes to learning languages, adults and children have different strengths. Adults excel at absorbing the vocabulary needed to navigate a grocery store or order food in a restaurant, but children have an uncanny ability to pick up on subtle nuances of language, sometimes speaking a second language like a native speaker within months. Brain structure plays an important role in this "sensitive period" for learning language, which is believed to end around adolescence.

Parents rank their obese children as 'very healthy' Posted: 21 Jul 2014 11:21 AM PDT Parents of obese children often do not recognize the potentially serious health consequences of childhood weight gain or the importance of daily physical activity in helping their child reach a healthy weight, a study shows. "Parents have a hard time changing their child's dietary and physical activity behaviors," said the study's lead author. "Our study tells us what factors may be associated with a parent's motivation to help their child become more healthy."

New research links bad diet to loss of smell Posted: 21 Jul 2014 09:39 AM PDT Could stuffing yourself full of high-fat foods cause you to lose your sense of smell? A new study by neuroscientists says so, and it has researchers taking a closer look at how our diets could impact a whole range of human functions that were not traditionally considered when examining the impact of obesity.

Seals forage at offshore wind farms Posted: 21 Jul 2014 09:38 AM PDT By using sophisticated GPS tracking to monitor seals' every movement, researchers have shown for the first time that some individual seals are repeatedly drawn to offshore wind farms and pipelines. Those human-made structures probably serve as artificial reefs and attractive hunting grounds, according to a study.

Science and art bring back to life 300-million-year-old specimens of a primitive reptile-like vertebrate Posted: 21 Jul 2014 09:37 AM PDT Paleontologists have recreated the cranial structure of a 308-million-year-old lizard-like vertebrate that could be the earliest example of a reptile and explain the origin of all vertebrates that belong to reptiles, birds and mammals.

Mysterious dance of dwarf galaxies may force a cosmic rethink Posted: 21 Jul 2014 07:04 AM PDT The discovery that many small galaxies throughout the universe do not 'swarm' around larger ones like bees do but 'dance' in orderly disc-shaped orbits is a challenge to our understanding of how the universe formed and evolved. The researchers believe the answer may be hidden in some currently unknown physical process that governs how gas flows in the universe, although, as yet, there is no obvious mechanism that can guide dwarf galaxies into narrow planes.

Children as young as three recognize 'cuteness' in faces of people, animals Posted: 21 Jul 2014 07:01 AM PDT Children as young as three are able to recognize the same 'cute' infantile facial features in humans and animals which encourage caregiving behavior in adults, new research has shown. A study investigating whether youngsters can identify baby-like characteristics – a set of traits known as the 'baby schema' – across different species has revealed for the first time that even pre-school children rate puppies, kittens and babies as cuter than their adult counterparts.

Fecal transplants let packrats eat poison Posted: 21 Jul 2014 07:00 AM PDT Woodrats lost their ability to eat toxic creosote bushes after antibiotics killed their gut microbes. Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with microbes from creosote-eaters, biologists found.

Healing the heart with fat? 18-HEPE might help, study suggests Posted: 21 Jul 2014 06:59 AM PDT Too much dietary fat is bad for the heart, but the right kind of fat keeps the heart healthy, according to a new paper. Scientists in Japan have shown that mice engineered to produce their own EPA are protected against heart disease and have improved cardiac function. One particular EPA metabolite, called 18-hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acid (18-HEPE), was required for this protection.

Fair cake cutting gets its own algorithm Posted: 16 Jul 2014 01:58 PM PDT A mathematician and a political scientist have announced an algorithm by which they show how to optimally share cake between two people efficiently, in equal pieces and in such a way that no one feels robbed.

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• New technique maps life's effects on our DNA: Powerful single-cell technique to study environmental effects on DNA
• Oceans vital for possibility for alien life
• Astronauts to test free-flying 'housekeeper' robots
• Preventing foodborne illness naturally: With cinnamon
• 'Obesity paradox': Cardiovascular mortality lowest among overweight patients
• Reduced range of facial expression indicates serious heart/lung disease

New technique maps life's effects on our DNA: Powerful single-cell technique to study environmental effects on DNA Posted: 20 Jul 2014 05:43 PM PDT Researchers have developed a powerful new single-cell technique to help investigate how the environment affects our development and the traits we inherit from our parents.

Oceans vital for possibility for alien life Posted: 20 Jul 2014 05:34 PM PDT Researchers have made an important step in the race to discover whether other planets could develop and sustain life. New research shows the vital role of oceans in moderating climate on Earth-like planets Until now, computer simulations of habitable climates on Earth-like planets have focused on their atmospheres. But the presence of oceans is vital for optimal climate stability and habitability.

Astronauts to test free-flying 'housekeeper' robots Posted: 20 Jul 2014 08:16 AM PDT Inspired by science fiction, three bowling ball-size free-flying Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) have been flying inside the International Space Station since 2006. These satellites provide a test bed for development and research, each having its own power, propulsion, computer, navigation equipment, and physical and electrical connections for hardware and sensors for various experiments.

Preventing foodborne illness naturally: With cinnamon Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:51 AM PDT Cinnamomum cassia oil was shown to be effective as a natural antibacterial agent against several strains of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, known to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as 'non-O157 STEC'. The study results add to a body of knowledge that will help improve food safety and reduce or eliminate cases of food poisoning and related deaths.

'Obesity paradox': Cardiovascular mortality lowest among overweight patients Posted: 16 Jul 2014 10:16 AM PDT High body mass index is associated with multiple cardiovascular diseases. However, emerging data suggest that there is an 'obesity paradox,' that being overweight may actually protect patients from cardiovascular mortality. Investigators have now confirmed that the risk of total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and myocardial infarction is highest among underweight patients, while cardiovascular mortality is lowest among overweight patients, according to two reports.

Reduced range of facial expression indicates serious heart/lung disease Posted: 14 Jul 2014 06:36 PM PDT Patients with serious heart and lung conditions don't have the normal range of facial expressions, particularly the ability to register surprise in response to emotional cues, finds preliminary research. This finding could be used to help busy emergency care doctors decide whom to prioritize for treatment, and gauge who really needs often costly and invasive tests, suggest the researchers.

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• It's go time for LUX-Zeplin dark matter experiment
• Getting a grip on robotic grasp: New wrist-mounted device augments the human hand with two robotic fingers
• Revealed: The mystery behind starling flocks
• Nature's strongest glue comes unstuck
• Choosing cheese: Research identifies microbial communities in cheese
• Molecular 'eat now' signal makes cells devour dying neighbors

It's go time for LUX-Zeplin dark matter experiment Posted: 18 Jul 2014 10:15 AM PDT From the physics labs at Yale University to the bottom of a played-out gold mine in South Dakota, a new generation of dark matter experiments is ready to commence. The go-ahead has been given to the Large Underground Xenon-Zeplin, a key experiment in the hunt for dark matter, the invisible substance that may make up much of the universe.

Getting a grip on robotic grasp: New wrist-mounted device augments the human hand with two robotic fingers Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:57 AM PDT Twisting a screwdriver, removing a bottle cap, and peeling a banana are just a few simple tasks that are tricky to pull off single-handedly. Now a new wrist-mounted robot can provide a helping hand -- or rather, fingers. Researchers have developed a robot that enhances the grasping motion of the human hand.

Revealed: The mystery behind starling flocks Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:56 AM PDT The mystery behind the movements of flocking starlings could be explained by the areas of light and dark created as they fly, new research suggests. The research found that flocking starlings aim to maintain an optimum density at which they can gather data on their surroundings. This occurs when they can see light through the flock at many angles, a state known as marginal opacity. The subsequent pattern of light and dark, formed as the birds attempt to achieve the necessary density, is what provides vital information to individual birds within the flock.

Nature's strongest glue comes unstuck Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:54 AM PDT Over a 150 years since it was first described by Darwin, scientists are finally uncovering the secrets behind the super strength of barnacle glue. Still far better than anything we have been able to develop synthetically, barnacle glue -- or cement -- sticks to any surface, under any conditions. But exactly how this superglue of superglues works has remained a mystery -- until now.

Choosing cheese: Research identifies microbial communities in cheese Posted: 17 Jul 2014 03:05 PM PDT After studying 137 varieties of cheese collected in 10 different countries, researchers have been able to identify three general types of microbial communities that live on cheese, opening the door to using each as a 'model' community for the study of whether and how various microbes and fungi compete or cooperate as they form communities, what molecules may be involved in the process and what mechanisms may be involved.

Molecular 'eat now' signal makes cells devour dying neighbors Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:13 AM PDT A Pac-Man-style power pellet that gets normally mild-mannered cells to gobble up their undesirable neighbors has been developed by researchers. The development may point the way to therapies that enlist patients' own cells to better fend off infection and even cancer, the researchers say.

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• Lunar pits could shelter astronauts, reveal details of how 'man in the moon' formed
• Scientists experimentally re-create conditions deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter and many exo-planets
• When is a molecule a molecule? Scientists watch fast electron jumps in exploding molecules
• Study led by indigenous people uncovers grizzly bear 'highway' in coastal British Columbia
• Earth-like soils on Mars? Ancient fossilized soils potentially found deep inside impact crater suggest microbial life
• Scientists track gene activity when honey bees do and don't eat honey: Significant differences depending on diet
• Is the universe a bubble? Let's check: Making the multiverse hypothesis testable
• Eye movements reveal difference between love and lust
• Anti-tank missile detector joins fight against malaria
• Danish DNA could be key to happiness
• Squid skin protein could improve biomedical technologies, study shows

Lunar pits could shelter astronauts, reveal details of how 'man in the moon' formed Posted: 17 Jul 2014 03:04 PM PDT While the moon's surface is battered by millions of craters, it also has over 200 holes -- steep-walled pits that in some cases might lead to caves that future astronauts could explore and use for shelter, according to new observations.

Scientists experimentally re-create conditions deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter and many exo-planets Posted: 17 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT Using the largest laser in the world, scientists for the first time have experimentally re-created the conditions that exist deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter, Uranus and many of the planets recently discovered outside our solar system.

When is a molecule a molecule? Scientists watch fast electron jumps in exploding molecules Posted: 17 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT Using ultra-short X-ray flashes, an international team of researchers watched electrons jumping between the fragments of exploding molecules. The study reveals up to what distance charge transfer between the molecular fragments can occur, marking the limit of the molecular regime. Such mechanisms play a role in numerous chemical processes, including photosynthesis.

Study led by indigenous people uncovers grizzly bear 'highway' in coastal British Columbia Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:50 AM PDT A novel, First Nations-led research collaboration has revealed a previously undocumented grizzly bear aggregation in coastal British Columbia, one of the most southerly aggregations of salmon-feeding grizzlies in North America. Using non-invasive DNA analysis, the authors describe a grizzly bear 'highway,' identifying nearly 60 individual bears, many who travelled hundreds of miles from surrounding areas to feed on autumn-spawning salmon in the Koeye River.

Earth-like soils on Mars? Ancient fossilized soils potentially found deep inside impact crater suggest microbial life Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:50 AM PDT Soil deep in a crater dating to some 3.7 billion years ago contains evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, says a geologist based on images and data captured by the rover Curiosity.

Scientists track gene activity when honey bees do and don't eat honey: Significant differences depending on diet Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:48 AM PDT Many beekeepers feed their honey bees sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup when times are lean inside the hive. This practice has come under scrutiny, however, in response to colony collapse disorder, the massive -- and as yet not fully explained -- annual die-off of honey bees in the U.S. and Europe. Some suspect that inadequate nutrition plays a role in honey bee declines. Scientists took a broad look at changes in gene activity in response to diet in the Western honey bee, and found significant differences occur depending on what the bees eat.

Is the universe a bubble? Let's check: Making the multiverse hypothesis testable Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:48 AM PDT Scientists are working to bring the multiverse hypothesis, which to some sounds like a fanciful tale, firmly into the realm of testable science. Never mind the Big Bang; in the beginning was the vacuum. The vacuum simmered with energy (variously called dark energy, vacuum energy, the inflation field, or the Higgs field). Like water in a pot, this high energy began to evaporate -- bubbles formed.

Eye movements reveal difference between love and lust Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:45 AM PDT A new study suggests the difference between love and lust might be in the eyes. Specifically, where your date looks at you could indicate whether love or lust is in the cards. The new study found that eye patterns concentrate on a stranger's face if the viewer sees that person as a potential partner in romantic love, but the viewer gazes more at the other person's body if he or she is feeling sexual desire.

Anti-tank missile detector joins fight against malaria Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:51 AM PDT State-of-the-art military hardware could soon fight malaria, one of the most deadly diseases on the planet. Researchers have used an anti-tank Javelin missile detector, more commonly used in warfare to detect the enemy, in a new test to rapidly identify malaria parasites in blood. The technique is based on Fourier Transform Infrared (FITR) spectroscopy, which provides information on how molecules vibrate.

Danish DNA could be key to happiness Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:48 AM PDT Genetics could be the key to explaining nation's levels of happiness, according to new research. Economists have found the closer a nation is to the genetic makeup of Denmark, the happier that country is. The research could help to solve the puzzle of why a country like Denmark so regularly tops the world happiness rankings.

Squid skin protein could improve biomedical technologies, study shows Posted: 16 Jul 2014 11:13 AM PDT The common pencil squid may hold the key to a new generation of medical technologies that could communicate more directly with the human body. Materials science researchers have discovered that reflectin, a protein in the tentacled creature's skin, can conduct positive electrical charges, or protons, making it a promising material for building biologically inspired devices.

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• Are ants the answer to carbon dioxide sequestration?
• Humans walking on all fours is not backward evolution
• Tooth plaque provides unique insights into our prehistoric ancestors' diet
• Bubble wrap serves as sheet of tiny test tubes in resource-limited regions
• Hungry, invasive 'crazy worm' makes first appearance in Wisconsin, threatens forests
• What do Google searches tell us about our climate change fears?
• Self-assembling nanoparticle could improve MRI scanning for cancer diagnosis
• Glowing red in the big blue: Red fluorescence at great depths
• Using male mosquitoes to effectively sterilize females through a naturally occurring bacterium
• New mite species from a Caribbean mesophotic coral ecosystem named after J-Lo
• Beneath the surface: What zebrafish can tell us about anxiety

Are ants the answer to carbon dioxide sequestration? Posted: 16 Jul 2014 03:31 PM PDT A 25-year-long study provides the first quantitative measurement of in situ calcium-magnesium silicate mineral dissolution by ants, termites, tree roots, and bare ground. This study reveals that ants are one of the most powerful biological agents of mineral decay yet observed. It may be that an understanding of the geobiology of ant-mineral interactions might offer a line of research on how to "geoengineer" accelerated carbon dioxide consumption by Ca-Mg silicates.

Humans walking on all fours is not backward evolution Posted: 16 Jul 2014 12:11 PM PDT Five siblings in the family, who live in a remote corner of Turkey, walk exclusively on their hands and feet. Since they were discovered in 2005, scientists have debated the nature of their disability, with speculation they represent a backward stage of evolution. An anthropologist finds quadrupedal humans with Uner Tan Syndrome do not walk in the diagonal pattern characteristic of nonhuman primates such as apes and monkeys.

Tooth plaque provides unique insights into our prehistoric ancestors' diet Posted: 16 Jul 2014 11:10 AM PDT An international team of researchers has found new evidence that our prehistoric ancestors had a detailed understanding of plants long before the development of agriculture. By extracting chemical compounds and microfossils from dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) from ancient teeth, the researchers were able to provide an entirely new perspective on our ancestors' diets. Their research suggests that purple nut sedge (Cyperus rotundus) -- today regarded as a nuisance weed -- formed an important part of the prehistoric diet.

Bubble wrap serves as sheet of tiny test tubes in resource-limited regions Posted: 16 Jul 2014 08:27 AM PDT Popping the blisters on the bubble wrap might be the most enjoyable thing about moving. But now, scientists propose a more productive way to reuse the popular packing material -- as a sheet of small, test tube-like containers for medical and environmental samples. Their report shows that analyses can take place right in the bubbles.

Hungry, invasive 'crazy worm' makes first appearance in Wisconsin, threatens forests Posted: 16 Jul 2014 06:57 AM PDT Wisconsin's newest invasive species has done its best to stay underground, but the voracious, numerous and mysterious Asian crazy worm has emerged for the first time in the state on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

What do Google searches tell us about our climate change fears? Posted: 16 Jul 2014 06:07 AM PDT Political ideology and education levels affect when people search for climate information, research indicates. Republicans search the net for information about the weather, climate change and global warming during extremely hot or cold spells. Democrats Google these terms when they experience changes in the average temperatures. These are some of the surprising findings from a study that tracked how the temperature fluctuations and rainfall that Americans experience daily in their own cities make them scour the Internet in search of information about climate change and global warming.

Self-assembling nanoparticle could improve MRI scanning for cancer diagnosis Posted: 16 Jul 2014 06:07 AM PDT A new self-assembling nanoparticle has been developed that targets tumors, to help doctors diagnose cancer earlier. The new nanoparticle boosts the effectiveness of MRI scanning by specifically seeking out receptors that are found in cancerous cells. The nanoparticle is coated with a special protein that looks for specific signals given off by tumors. When it finds one, it begins to interact with the cancerous cells; this interaction strips off the protein coating, causing the nanoparticle to self-assemble into a much larger particle so that it is more visible on the scan.

Glowing red in the big blue: Red fluorescence at great depths Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:42 PM PDT Many fish species glow red and can see red light, even at depths where the red part of the sunlight spectrum has been absorbed by the water above. It was long assumed that red light did not play a role at depths of 10m or more. However, researchers have not only discovered and investigated the phenomenon of red fluorescence; they have now described a new detail which offers important clues to the function of glowing red.

Using male mosquitoes to effectively sterilize females through a naturally occurring bacterium Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:19 AM PDT A new company, created by scientists, uses a very unique approach to control a common pest that can carry dangerous diseases: using male mosquitoes to effectively sterilize females through a naturally occurring bacterium. "Most mosquito control companies use chemical pesticides which are sprayed out of trucks and planes, or maybe out of a backpack sprayer," one of the scientists said. "By using a natural bacterium called Wolbachia and the mosquitoes' innate ability to find mates, we are applying an approach which does not require chemicals."

New mite species from a Caribbean mesophotic coral ecosystem named after J-Lo Posted: 15 Jul 2014 07:45 AM PDT During a recent survey of organisms collected from Bajo de Sico, a mesophotic coral reef ecosystem in Mona Passage off Puerto Rico, one pontarachnid mite species new to science was discovered. The new species was named after the famous Puerto Rican singer Jennifer Lopez.

Beneath the surface: What zebrafish can tell us about anxiety Posted: 14 Jul 2014 12:23 PM PDT One researcher has focused how genetics influence responses to stimuli that can trigger anxiety, and he's using zebrafish -- a tropical member of the minnow family named for the black stripes on their bodies -- to do so. His research team examines how fish with tweaked genes respond to different triggers compared to unmodified fish. The work could someday lead to better, more nuanced medications for anxiety disorders.

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• Do women talk more than men? It's all about context
• For bees and flowers, tongue size matters
• Mutation stops worms from getting drunk
• Do daughters really cause divorce? Maybe not
• Mormon pioneer mortality rate calculated at 3.5 percent
• Protein's 'hands' enable bacteria to establish infection, research finds
• Does cat poop parasite play a role in curing cancer?
• Little too late: Pathogenic bacterium in 700-year-old skeleton identified
• Ötzi's non-human DNA: Opportunistic pathogen discovered in Iceman tissue biopsy
• Smallest Swiss cross: Made of 20 single atoms

Do women talk more than men? It's all about context Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT A new study has been able to tease out a more accurate picture of the talkative-woman stereotype we're so familiar with -- and they found that context plays a large role. Using so-​​called "sociometers" -- wearable devices roughly the size of smart­phones that col­lect real-​​time data about the user's social interactions -- the research team was able to tease out a more accu­rate pic­ture of the stereo­type.

For bees and flowers, tongue size matters Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT When it comes to bee tongues, length is proportional to the size of the bee, but heritage sets the proportion. Estimating this hard to measure trait helps scientists understand bee species' resiliency to change.

Mutation stops worms from getting drunk Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT Neuroscientists have generated mutant worms that do not get intoxicated by alcohol, a result that could lead to new drugs to treat the symptoms of people going through alcohol withdrawal. The scientists accomplished this feat by inserting a modified human alcohol target into the worms.

Do daughters really cause divorce? Maybe not Posted: 15 Jul 2014 01:59 PM PDT Couples with daughters are somewhat more likely to divorce than couples with sons. But do daughters really cause divorce, as some scholars have claimed? Maybe not. New research suggests a different potential explanation: the female survival advantage. Girls may be hardier than boys, even in the womb. And because they are more able to survive stressful pregnancies, more girl babies may be born into troubled marriages that are headed for divorce.

Mormon pioneer mortality rate calculated at 3.5 percent Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:28 AM PDT A team of statisticians and a historian have calculated the mortality rate of Mormon pioneers. The pioneer mortality rate of 3.5 percent was only slighly higher than national averages at the time. The data suggest the emigration was a success despite perceptions of widespread tragedy. This may come as a surprise to modern Mormon youth who've participated in handcart treks.

Protein's 'hands' enable bacteria to establish infection, research finds Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:27 AM PDT Biochemists have discovered how protein's 'hands' enable bacteria to establish infection. "These structures are like small hands on the surface of bacterial cells," said the study's principal investigator. "They make the bacteria capable of recognizing something and grabbing it from the environment. It's amazing that such a tiny molecule can do that." The research may help scientists develop targeted treatment and intervention methods.

Does cat poop parasite play a role in curing cancer? Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:55 AM PDT From the litter box to the laboratory, a microscopic organism native to cats shows promise in treating cancer. Researchers' mutated strain of T. gondii has been found to reprogram the natural power of the immune system to kill cells. Found worldwide, T. gondii affects about one-third of the world's population, 60 million of which are Americans.

Little too late: Pathogenic bacterium in 700-year-old skeleton identified Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:51 AM PDT Researchers have recovered a genome of the bacterium Brucella melitensis from a 700-year-old skeleton found in the ruins of a Medieval Italian village. Researchers used a technique called shotgun metagenomics to sequence DNA from a calcified nodule from the pelvic region of a middle-aged male skeleton excavated from the settlement of Geridu in Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy. Geridu is thought to have been abandoned in the late 14th century.

Ötzi's non-human DNA: Opportunistic pathogen discovered in Iceman tissue biopsy Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:50 AM PDT Ötzi's human genome was decoded from a hip bone sample taken from the 5,300 year old mummy. However the tiny sample weighing no more than 0.1 g provides so much more information. A team of scientists analyzed the non-human DNA in the sample. They found evidence for the presence of Treponema denticola, an opportunistic pathogen involved in the development of periodontal disease.

Smallest Swiss cross: Made of 20 single atoms Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:50 AM PDT The manipulation of atoms has reached a new level: Physicists were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully insulated surface at room temperature to form the smallest "Swiss cross", thus taking a big step towards next generation atomic-scale storage devices.

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