ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• New 'T-ray' tech converts light to sound for weapons detection, medical imaging
• Fruit flies show mark of intelligence in thinking before they act, study suggests
• A glimpse into nature's looking glass -- to find the genetic code is reassigned: Stop codon varies widely
• Ancient DNA ends Australia's claim to kiwi origins
• First broadband wireless connection ... to the moon: Record-shattering Earth-to-Moon uplink
• Marriage of convenience with a fungus: Equal for all plants, or just some?
• More male bugs in a warmer world? Temperature influences gender of offspring in bugs
• Coffee bean roasting acoustics
• Better than polygraphs: Brain scanning for evidence
• Olive Oil Supplements May Protect against the Adverse Vascular Effects of Air Pollution

New 'T-ray' tech converts light to sound for weapons detection, medical imaging Posted: 22 May 2014 12:05 PM PDT A device that essentially listens for light waves could help open up the last frontier of the electromagnetic spectrum -- the terahertz range. So-called T-rays, which are light waves too long for human eyes to see, could help airport security guards find chemical and other weapons. They might let doctors image body tissues with less damage to healthy areas. And they could give astronomers new tools to study planets in other solar systems. Those are just a few possible applications.

Fruit flies show mark of intelligence in thinking before they act, study suggests Posted: 22 May 2014 11:14 AM PDT Fruit flies 'think' before they act, a study suggests. Neuroscientists showed that fruit flies take longer to make more difficult decisions. In experiments asking fruit flies to distinguish between ever closer concentrations of an odor, the researchers found that the flies don't act instinctively or impulsively. Instead they appear to accumulate information before committing to a choice.

A glimpse into nature's looking glass -- to find the genetic code is reassigned: Stop codon varies widely Posted: 22 May 2014 11:14 AM PDT It has long been assumed that there is only one 'canonical' genetic code, so each word means the same thing to every organism. Now, this paradigm has been challenged by the discovery of large numbers of exceptions from the canonical genetic code.

Ancient DNA ends Australia's claim to kiwi origins Posted: 22 May 2014 11:13 AM PDT Australia can no longer lay claim to the origins of the iconic New Zealand kiwi following new research showing the kiwi's closest relative is not the emu as was previously thought. Instead, the diminutive kiwi is most closely related to the extinct Madagascan elephant bird -- a 2-3 meter tall, 275 kg giant. And surprisingly, the study concluded, both of these flightless birds once flew.

First broadband wireless connection ... to the moon: Record-shattering Earth-to-Moon uplink Posted: 22 May 2014 07:49 AM PDT Scientists have prepared new details and the first comprehensive overview of the on-orbit performance of their record-shattering laser-based communication uplink between the moon and Earth, which beat the previous record transmission speed last fall by a factor of 4,800.

Marriage of convenience with a fungus: Equal for all plants, or just some? Posted: 22 May 2014 07:48 AM PDT Thanks to a fungus, the medicinal plant ribwort plantain gains a higher concentration of the defensive compound catalpol. The increase in catalpol gives the plant better protection against pests. In the study, the research team worked with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These are known to colonize the roots of land plants. The plants benefit from this because the fungus provides them with nutrients and minerals. However, are the impacts of this marriage of convenience with the fungus on plant chemistry equal for all plants? That is what the researchers wanted to find out.

More male bugs in a warmer world? Temperature influences gender of offspring in bugs Posted: 22 May 2014 04:33 AM PDT Whether an insect will have a male or female offspring depends on the weather, according to a new study. As in bees, wasps, and ants, the gender determination of Trichogramma parasitoids is called "haplodiploid," that is, fertilized eggs produce female offspring, while unfertilized eggs produce male offspring. The study found that when it was hot, females deliberately produced more males than at medium temperature -- at 34°C, the number of males produced increased by 80%.

Coffee bean roasting acoustics Posted: 21 May 2014 01:29 PM PDT People around the world are drawn to coffee's powerful allure -- for its beloved smell, and taste, and for the caffeine boost it provides. As you enjoy your coffee beverage, however, odds are good you're probably not thinking about the coffee bean roasting process behind it. But for some the love of coffee runs so deep that they go so far as to roast their own coffee beans.

Better than polygraphs: Brain scanning for evidence Posted: 20 May 2014 08:57 AM PDT If conventional lie detector machines, polygraphs, have been endlessly debunked and shown not to provide admissible nor even valid evidence, then the 21st Century tool of choice for reading the minds of witnesses and putative criminals may well be the brain scanner. More specifically, the kind of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that can seemingly probe our inner selves and reveal the flow of blood in the different regions of the brain that light up when we lie.

Olive Oil Supplements May Protect against the Adverse Vascular Effects of Air Pollution Posted: 19 May 2014 08:42 AM PDT Taking olive oil supplements may counteract some of the adverse cardiovascular effects of exposure to air pollution, according to a new study. "Our study suggests that use of olive oil supplements may protect against the adverse vascular effects of exposure to air pollution particles," said a researcher. "If these results are replicated in further studies, use of these supplements might offer a safe, low cost, and effective means of counteracting some of the health consequences of exposure to air pollution."

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