ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• NASA Voyager: 'Tsunami wave' still flies through interstellar space
• Cost of cloud brightening for cooler planet revealed
• Dental plaque reveals key plant in prehistoric Easter Island diet
• NASA's Fermi Mission brings deeper focus to thunderstorm gamma rays
• Reshaping the horse through millennia: Sequencing reveals genes selected by humans in domestication
• New algorithm a Christmas gift to 3-D printing, and the environment
• Far from powerless: Ant larvae cannibalize eggs, are influenced by relatedness, sex
• Virtual bodyswapping diminishes people's negative biases about others
• Linguistic methods uncover sophisticated meanings, monkey dialects
• Squid supplies blueprint for printable thermoplastics
• Do you speak cow? Researchers listen in on 'conversations' between calves and their mothers
• Show us how you play and it may tell us who you are
• Stretched-out solid exoplanets

NASA Voyager: 'Tsunami wave' still flies through interstellar space Posted: 15 Dec 2014 05:42 PM PST The Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced three shock waves. The most recent shock wave, first observed in February 2014, still appears to be going on. One wave, previously reported, helped researchers determine that Voyager 1 had entered interstellar space.

Cost of cloud brightening for cooler planet revealed Posted: 15 Dec 2014 05:30 PM PST Scientists have identified the most energy-efficient way to make clouds more reflective to the sun in a bid to combat climate change. Marine Cloud Brightening is a reversible geoengineering method proposed to mitigate rising global temperatures. It relies on propelling a fine mist of salt particles high into the atmosphere to increase the albedo of clouds -- the amount of sunlight they reflect back into space.

Dental plaque reveals key plant in prehistoric Easter Island diet Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:53 PM PST A student analyzing dental calculus from ancient teeth is helping resolve the question of what plant foods Easter Islanders relied on before European contact.

NASA's Fermi Mission brings deeper focus to thunderstorm gamma rays Posted: 15 Dec 2014 12:47 PM PST Each day, thunderstorms around the world produce about a thousand quick bursts of gamma rays, some of the highest-energy light naturally found on Earth. By merging records of events seen by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope with data from ground-based radar and lightning detectors, scientists have completed the most detailed analysis to date of the types of thunderstorms involved.

Reshaping the horse through millennia: Sequencing reveals genes selected by humans in domestication Posted: 15 Dec 2014 12:46 PM PST Whole genome sequencing of modern and ancient horses unveils the genes that have been selected by humans in the process of domestication through the last 5,500 years, but also reveals the cost of this domestication. An international research group reports that a significant part of the genetic variation in modern domesticated horses could be attributed to interbreeding with the descendants of a now extinct population of wild horses. This population was distinct from the only surviving wild horse population.

New algorithm a Christmas gift to 3-D printing, and the environment Posted: 15 Dec 2014 11:09 AM PST A computer science professor reveals how to print a 3-D Christmas tree efficiently and with zero material waste, using the world's first algorithm for automatically decomposing a 3-D object into what are called pyramidal parts.

Far from powerless: Ant larvae cannibalize eggs, are influenced by relatedness, sex Posted: 15 Dec 2014 11:08 AM PST By exploring the evolutionary causes and consequences of selfish larvae behavior, a new study sheds new light on the evolutionary constraints of competition in social insect colonies, and demonstrates how in complex societies, even the youngest individuals are potential players in social conflict.

Virtual bodyswapping diminishes people's negative biases about others Posted: 15 Dec 2014 09:30 AM PST Researchers explain how they have used the brain's ability to bring together information from different senses to make white people feel that they were inhabiting black bodies and adults feel like they had children's bodies. The results of such virtual bodyswapping experiments are remarkable and have important implications for approaching phenomena such as race and gender discrimination.

Linguistic methods uncover sophisticated meanings, monkey dialects Posted: 15 Dec 2014 08:48 AM PST The same species of monkeys located in separate geographic regions use their alarm calls differently to warn of approaching predators, a linguistic analysis by a team of scientists reveals. The study reveals that monkey calls have a more sophisticated structure than was commonly thought.

Squid supplies blueprint for printable thermoplastics Posted: 15 Dec 2014 08:45 AM PST Squid, what is it good for? You can eat it and you can make ink or dye from it, and now a team of researchers is using it to make a thermoplastic that can be used in 3-D printing.

Do you speak cow? Researchers listen in on 'conversations' between calves and their mothers Posted: 15 Dec 2014 07:16 AM PST Researchers have been eavesdropping on 'conversations' between calves and their mothers — measuring the process of how cows communicate using detailed acoustic analysis for the first time.

Show us how you play and it may tell us who you are Posted: 15 Dec 2014 06:43 AM PST The way in which toys are handled and combined with one another during object play can tell use a lot about the cognitive underpinnings of the actors. An international team of scientists studied parrot species, as well as crow species, with the same set of toys and found out that the birds willingly brought objects into complex spatial relationships: behaviors that occur in only a few species of primates.

Stretched-out solid exoplanets Posted: 15 Dec 2014 05:44 AM PST Astronomers could soon be able to find rocky planets stretched out by the gravity of the stars they orbit. Since the first discovery in 1993, more than 1800 planets have been found in orbit around stars other than our Sun. These 'exoplanets' are incredibly diverse, with some gaseous like Jupiter and some mostly rocky like the Earth. The worlds also orbit their stars at very different distances, from less than a million km to nearly 100 billion km away.

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• Political leanings and time spent sitting around: Left wing 'armchair socialists' more physically active than political centrists
• Study supports the theory that men are idiots
• What's on your surgeon's playlist?

Political leanings and time spent sitting around: Left wing 'armchair socialists' more physically active than political centrists Posted: 11 Dec 2014 06:00 PM PST Left wing 'armchair socialists' are more physically active than people whose beliefs straddle the center of the political spectrum, suggesting that the term 'armchair socialist' is a bit of a misnomer, reveals actual published research. In a bid to find out if armchair socialists really do spend a lot of time sitting down, and talking rather than doing, the researchers analysed responses to the 2005 Eurobarometer survey, carried out on behalf of the European Commission.

Study supports the theory that men are idiots Posted: 11 Dec 2014 06:00 PM PST The theory that men are idiots and often do stupid things is backed up by new evidence. The findings are actually based on an analyses of sex differences in idiotic behavior. Worthy candidates of idiocy include a man stealing a ride home by hitching a shopping trolley to the back of a train, only to be dragged two miles to his death before the train was able to stop; and the terrorist who posted a letter bomb with insufficient postage stamps and who, on its return, unthinkingly opened his own letter.

What's on your surgeon's playlist? Posted: 11 Dec 2014 06:00 PM PST Music and medicine are deeply connected. But is operating to music a good idea? And, if so, what kind of music should theatre staff be listening to?

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• How bird eggs get their bling
• Worms' mental GPS helps them find food
• Sharing that crowded holiday flight with countless hitchhiking dust mites

How bird eggs get their bling Posted: 12 Dec 2014 04:02 PM PST Splashy blue and green hues pop from under the glassy finish of the Tinamou species' (bird relatives of ostriches, rheas and emus) eggs. Pigments covered by a thin, smooth cuticle reveal the mystery behind these curious shells, researchers discovered. The finding could lead to the development of glossy new coatings for ceramics and floors, potentially enhancing their aesthetic qualities and durability.

Worms' mental GPS helps them find food Posted: 10 Dec 2014 01:21 PM PST A theory to explain how animals gather information and switch attention has been devised by scientists who have developed a mathematical theory -- based on roundworm foraging -- that predicts how animals decide to switch from localized to very broad searching. This new theory could begin to explain animal behavior in a more unified way, laying the groundwork for general rules of behavior that could help us understand complex or erratic attention-related behaviors, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even let us predict how extraterrestrials might behave.

Sharing that crowded holiday flight with countless hitchhiking dust mites Posted: 10 Dec 2014 11:08 AM PST As if holiday travel isn't stressful enough. Now researchers say we're likely sharing that already overcrowded airline cabin with countless tiny creatures including house dust mites.

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• Nuclear fragments could help uncover the origins of life-supporting planets
• Swarms of Pluto-size objects kick up dust around adolescent Sun-like star
• Basic rules for construction with a type of origami
• Chickens and turkeys 'closer to dinosaur ancestors' than other birds
• Tooth loss in birds occurred about 116 million years ago
• Human DNA shows traces of 40 million-year battle for survival between primate and pathogen
• 3-d maps of folded genome: Catalog of 10,000 loops reveals new form of genetic regulation
• Scientists develop solar observatory for use on suborbital manned space missions
• Researchers detect possible signal from dark matter
• Story of bizarre deep-sea bone worm takes unexpected twist: Evolutionary reversal previously unseen in animal kingdom
• The Jaws effect: Biting review finds shark policy based on movie myths

Nuclear fragments could help uncover the origins of life-supporting planets Posted: 11 Dec 2014 06:00 PM PST New research describes how recreating isotopes that occur when a star explodes, can help physicists understand where life-supporting elements may be found in space.

Swarms of Pluto-size objects kick up dust around adolescent Sun-like star Posted: 11 Dec 2014 01:25 PM PST Astronomers may have detected the dusty hallmarks of an entire family of Pluto-size objects swarming around an adolescent version of our own Sun. By making detailed observations of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the star known as HD 107146, the astronomers detected an unexpected increase in the concentration of millimeter-size dust grains in the disk's outer reaches. This surprising increase, which begins remarkably far -- about 13 billion kilometers -- from the host star, may be the result of Pluto-size planetesimals stirring up the region, causing smaller objects to collide and blast themselves apart.

Basic rules for construction with a type of origami Posted: 11 Dec 2014 11:26 AM PST Origami is capable of turning a simple sheet of paper into a pretty paper crane, but the principles behind it can be applied to making a microfluidic device or for storing a satellite's solar panel in a rocket's cargo bay. Researchers are turning kirigami, a related art form that allows the paper to be cut, into a technique that can be applied equally to structures on those vastly divergent length scales.

Chickens and turkeys 'closer to dinosaur ancestors' than other birds Posted: 11 Dec 2014 11:26 AM PST New research suggests that chickens and turkeys have experienced fewer gross genomic changes than other birds as they evolved from their dinosaur ancestor.

Tooth loss in birds occurred about 116 million years ago Posted: 11 Dec 2014 11:21 AM PST A question that has intrigued biologists is: Were teeth lost in the common ancestor of all living birds or convergently in two or more independent lineages of birds? A research team used the degraded remnants of tooth genes in birds to determine that teeth were lost in the common ancestor of all living birds more than 100 million years ago.

Human DNA shows traces of 40 million-year battle for survival between primate and pathogen Posted: 11 Dec 2014 11:18 AM PST Examination of DNA from 21 primate species – from squirrel monkeys to humans – exposes an evolutionary war against infectious bacteria over iron that circulates in the host's bloodstream. Supported by experimental evidence, these findings demonstrate the vital importance of an increasingly appreciated defensive strategy called nutritional immunity.

3-d maps of folded genome: Catalog of 10,000 loops reveals new form of genetic regulation Posted: 11 Dec 2014 09:44 AM PST  In a triumph for cell biology, researchers have assembled the first high-resolution, 3D maps of entire folded genomes and found a structural basis for gene regulation -- a kind of "genomic origami" that allows the same genome to produce different types of cells.

Scientists develop solar observatory for use on suborbital manned space missions Posted: 11 Dec 2014 08:55 AM PST Scientists are preparing to unveil a new, miniature portable solar observatory for use onboard a commercial, manned suborbital spacecraft.

Researchers detect possible signal from dark matter Posted: 11 Dec 2014 08:55 AM PST Scientists have picked up an atypical photon emission in X-rays coming from space, and say it could be evidence for the existence of a particle of dark matter. If confirmed, it could open up new perspectives in cosmology.

Story of bizarre deep-sea bone worm takes unexpected twist: Evolutionary reversal previously unseen in animal kingdom Posted: 11 Dec 2014 07:18 AM PST The saga of the Osedax "bone-eating" worms began 12 years ago, with the first discovery of these deep-sea creatures that feast on the bones of dead animals. The Osedax story grew even stranger when researchers found that the large female worms contained harems of tiny dwarf males.

The Jaws effect: Biting review finds shark policy based on movie myths Posted: 11 Dec 2014 06:06 AM PST The film "Jaws" has heavily influenced Western Australia's stance on sharks, a review of over a decade of state government policy has found.

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• First images of historic San Francisco shipwreck, SS City of Rio de Janeiro
• Oldest horned dinosaur species in North America found in Montana: Hooked beak, sharply pointed cheeks distinguishes neoceratopsian species
• Fungus-growing ants selectively cultivate their crops
• Dragonflies on the hunt display complex choreography
• Honeybee hive sealant promotes hair growth in mice
• Phenomenal fossil and detailed analysis reveal details about enigmatic fossil mammals
• With experience, people can tell bears apart
• Laughing gas shows promise for severe depression, pilot study suggests
• Abandoned wells can be 'super-emitters' of greenhouse gas

First images of historic San Francisco shipwreck, SS City of Rio de Janeiro Posted: 10 Dec 2014 02:17 PM PST Researchers released 3-D sonar maps and images of an immigrant steamship lost more than 100 years ago in what many consider the worst maritime disaster in San Francisco history. On Feb. 22, 1901, in a dense morning fog, the SS City of Rio de Janeiro struck jagged rocks near the present site of the Golden Gate Bridge and sank almost immediately, killing 128 of the 210 passengers and crew aboard the ship.

Oldest horned dinosaur species in North America found in Montana: Hooked beak, sharply pointed cheeks distinguishes neoceratopsian species Posted: 10 Dec 2014 11:08 AM PST Scientists have named the first definite horned dinosaur species from the Early Cretaceous in North America. The limited fossil record for neoceratopsian--or horned dinosaurs--from the Early Cretaceous in North America restricts scientists' ability to reconstruct the early evolution of this group.

Fungus-growing ants selectively cultivate their crops Posted: 10 Dec 2014 10:13 AM PST Ever since agriculture evolved ca 10,000 years ago, plants have been artificially selected to become the fast growing and highly productive varieties we know today. However, humans were not the first to see merit in cultivating their own food, as ants have been doing this for 50 million years.

Dragonflies on the hunt display complex choreography Posted: 10 Dec 2014 10:10 AM PST The dragonfly is a swift and efficient hunter. Once it spots its prey, it takes about half a second to swoop beneath an unsuspecting insect and snatch it from the air. Researchers have used motion-capture technology to reveal new insight into the sophisticated information processing and acrobatic skills of dragonflies on the hunt.

Honeybee hive sealant promotes hair growth in mice Posted: 10 Dec 2014 08:43 AM PST Hair loss can be devastating for the millions of men and women who experience it. Now scientists are reporting that a substance from honeybee hives might contain clues for developing a potential new therapy. They found that the material, called propolis, encouraged hair growth in mice.

Phenomenal fossil and detailed analysis reveal details about enigmatic fossil mammals Posted: 10 Dec 2014 08:43 AM PST Mammals that lived during the time of the dinosaurs are often portrayed as innocuous, small-bodied creatures, scurrying under the feet of the huge reptiles. In reality, this wasn't the case, and a new fossil from Madagascar further underscores this point, revealing fascinating perspectives on the growing diversity of Mesozoic mammals.

With experience, people can tell bears apart Posted: 10 Dec 2014 07:00 AM PST Studying the social interaction of bears through the use of camera traps and visual observations requires that humans be able to tell individuals apart. A study done using volunteers to study the vulnerable Andean bear indicates that people can learn to identify individual bears, given a little practice.

Laughing gas shows promise for severe depression, pilot study suggests Posted: 10 Dec 2014 04:41 AM PST Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, has shown early promise as a potential treatment for severe depression in patients whose symptoms don't respond to standard therapies. The pilot study is believed to be the first research in which patients with depression were given laughing gas.

Abandoned wells can be 'super-emitters' of greenhouse gas Posted: 09 Dec 2014 09:04 AM PST Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown, and possibly substantial, source of the greenhouse gas methane to Earth's atmosphere. After testing a sample of abandoned oil and natural gas wells in northwestern Pennsylvania, the researchers found that many of the old wells leaked substantial quantities of methane. Because there are many abandoned wells nationwide, the researchers believe the overall contribution of leaking wells could be significant.

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• Being lower in pecking order improves female tit birds' memory: Rare case in nature in which female has better cognitive ability
• Toxic fruits hold the key to reproductive success, for fruit flies
• Turning biological cells to stone improves cancer, stem cell research
• What quails can teach us about the gait of dinosaurs
• Ancient balloon-shaped animal fossil sheds light on Earth's ancient seas

Being lower in pecking order improves female tit birds' memory: Rare case in nature in which female has better cognitive ability Posted: 09 Dec 2014 09:00 AM PST Scientists have found a rare case in nature in which the female of a species has the better cognitive ability. When it comes to remembering where a tasty titbit was left, female great tit birds are miles ahead of their male counterparts. This ability might have evolved because the females come second when there's food to be shared.

Toxic fruits hold the key to reproductive success, for fruit flies Posted: 09 Dec 2014 07:12 AM PST Scientists have now discovered why the fruit fly Drosophila sechellia is adapted to the toxic fruits of the morinda tree. Drosophila sechellia females carry a mutation in a gene that inhibits egg production. The flies have very low levels of L-DOPA, a precursor of the hormone dopamine, which controls fertility; interestingly, large amounts of L-DOPA are contained in morinda fruits.

Turning biological cells to stone improves cancer, stem cell research Posted: 09 Dec 2014 06:19 AM PST Near-perfect replications of human and animal cells enables improved study of certain cancers and stem cells, as well as the creation of complex durable objects without machinery, scientists report. A new technique to transmute living cells into more permanent materials that defy decay and can endure high-powered probes is widening research opportunities for biologists who are developing cancer treatments, tracking stem cell evolution or even trying to understand how spiders vary the quality of the silk they spin.

What quails can teach us about the gait of dinosaurs Posted: 09 Dec 2014 05:17 AM PST Motion scientists and zoologists have completed the first detailed analysis of the bipedal gait of quails. The scientists analyzed the effect the birds posture has on the movement of their legs and on their stability when they walk.

Ancient balloon-shaped animal fossil sheds light on Earth's ancient seas Posted: 09 Dec 2014 05:16 AM PST A rare 520-million-year-old fossil shaped like a 'squashed bird's nest' that will help to shed new light on life within Earth's ancient seas has been discovered in China by an international research team. The fossil is of a probable 'chancelloriid', a group of bizarre, balloon-shaped animals with an outer skeleton of defensive spines.

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• Hummingbird's hover surprisingly easy to hack
• Saturn's largest moon is a windy place: Titan dune puzzle solved
• Complex mineralogy on the Red Planet: First X-ray diffraction measurements on Mars
• Two-headed salamander tadpole discovered

Hummingbird's hover surprisingly easy to hack Posted: 08 Dec 2014 12:25 PM PST Hummingbirds' remarkable ability to hover in place is highly contingent on the tiny bird having a completely stationary visual field, according to new research.

Saturn's largest moon is a windy place: Titan dune puzzle solved Posted: 08 Dec 2014 11:44 AM PST Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a peculiar place. Unlike any other moon, it has a dense atmosphere. It has rivers and lakes made up of components of natural gas, such as ethane and methane. It also has windswept dunes that are hundreds of yards high, more than a mile wide and hundreds of miles long -- despite data suggesting the body to have only light breezes. Winds on Titan must blow faster than previously thought to move sand. The discovery may explain how the dunes were formed.

Complex mineralogy on the Red Planet: First X-ray diffraction measurements on Mars Posted: 08 Dec 2014 07:54 AM PST In 2012 the Mars Science Laboratory landed in the fascinating Gale crater. The Gale crater is of such great interest because of the 5.5 km high mountain of layered materials in the middle. This material tells an intricate story of the history of Mars, perhaps spanning much of the existence of this mysterious planet. CheMin is one of ten instruments on or inside Curiosity, all designed to provide detailed information on the rocks, soils and atmosphere. CheMin is actually a miniaturized X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence (XRD/XRF) instrument.

Two-headed salamander tadpole discovered Posted: 08 Dec 2014 06:31 AM PST Researchers have found a salamander tadpole which has two heads. Researchers noted that while they had observed an incidence of deformity, especially among the limbs of salamanders, in the past such cases of two heads were more rare. The reason for this deformity is unknown, but the chief theories are pollution of water sources, changes in radiation and the influence of a small population.

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