ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• A life well spent: Consume now (in case you die early)
• 'Onion' vesicles for drug delivery developed
• Bacteria help explain why stress, fear trigger heart attacks
• Male dwarf spiders make sure offspring is their own
• How 'living roofs' help build better cities
• Coral, human cells linked in death
• Does 'free will' stem from brain noise?
• Nanoparticle thin films that self-assemble in one minute
• Dark side of the moon: 55-year-old mystery solved

A life well spent: Consume now (in case you die early) Posted: 10 Jun 2014 09:20 AM PDT An early death constitutes a serious loss that should imply compensation to the deceased person. But how – when the person is dead? A team of economists argues that a 'life well spent' might entail consuming more and working less earlier in life. They construct a mathematical model to measure the economic losses associated with an early death.

'Onion' vesicles for drug delivery developed Posted: 10 Jun 2014 08:27 AM PDT A certain kind of dendrimer, a molecule that features tree-like branches, offers a simple way of creating vesicles and tailoring their diameter and thickness, researchers report. Moreover, these dendrimer-based vesicles self-assemble with concentric layers of membranes, much like an onion.

Bacteria help explain why stress, fear trigger heart attacks Posted: 10 Jun 2014 07:20 AM PDT The axiom that stress, emotional shock, or overexertion may trigger heart attacks in vulnerable people may now be explainable, researchers say. Hormones released during these events appear to cause bacterial biofilms on arterial walls to disperse, allowing plaque deposits to rupture into the bloodstream, according to research.

Male dwarf spiders make sure offspring is their own Posted: 10 Jun 2014 07:18 AM PDT Chastity belts were not first thought out in mediaeval times -- members of many animal groups have evolved similar mechanical safeguards to ensure their paternity. Male dwarf spiders, for instance, use mating plugs to block off the genital tract of the female they have just mated with. The larger and older the plug, the better the chances are that other males will not make deposits in a female's sperm storage organ.

How 'living roofs' help build better cities Posted: 09 Jun 2014 05:50 PM PDT With more people moving into cities, architects need tools to make good decisions about green roofs. An architectural researcher said with weather extremes becoming unpredictable, vegetated roofs build resilience into a changing world.

Coral, human cells linked in death Posted: 09 Jun 2014 01:17 PM PDT Humans and corals are about as different from one another as living creatures get, but a new finding reveals that in one important way, they are more similar than anyone ever realized. A biologist has discovered they share the same biomechanical pathway responsible for triggering cellular self-destruction. The finding has implications for biologists, conservationists and medical researchers.

Does 'free will' stem from brain noise? Posted: 09 Jun 2014 12:35 PM PDT Our ability to make choices -- and sometimes mistakes -- might arise from random fluctuations in the brain's background electrical noise, according to a recent study. New research shows how arbitrary states in the brain can influence apparently voluntary decisions.

Nanoparticle thin films that self-assemble in one minute Posted: 09 Jun 2014 11:09 AM PDT A technique whereby self-assembling nanoparticle arrays can form a highly ordered thin film over macroscopic distances in one minute has been designed by scientists. Nanoparticles function as artificial atoms with unique optical, electrical and mechanical properties. If nanoparticles can be induced to self-assemble into complex structures and hierarchical patterns, similar to what nature does with proteins, it would enable mass-production of devices a thousand times smaller those used in today's microtechnology.

Dark side of the moon: 55-year-old mystery solved Posted: 09 Jun 2014 09:20 AM PDT The Man in the Moon appeared when meteoroids struck the Earth-facing side of the moon creating large flat seas of basalt that we see as dark areas called maria. But no "face" exists on farside of the moon and now, astrophysicists think they know why. This mystery is called the Lunar Farside Highlands Problem and dates back to 1959, when the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 transmitted the first images of the "dark" side of the moon back to Earth.

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