ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Evolution depends on rare chance events, 'molecular time travel' experiments show
• New manufacturing methods for 'soft' machines, robots
• Fish-eating spiders discovered in all parts of the world
• Making smartphones smarter with see-through sensors: Pack more apps into new real estate, the display glass itself
• Maybe birds can have it all: Dazzling colors and pretty songs
• Familiar yet strange: Water's 'split personality' revealed by computer model
• Scientists take first dip into water's mysterious 'no-man's land'
• Blocking brain's 'internal marijuana' may trigger early Alzheimer's deficits, study shows
• Evolutionary biology: Why cattle, pigs only have two toes
• Collecting light with artificial moth eyes: Producing hydrogen with sunlight
• Horizontal levitation: The ultimate solution to particle separation
• Animals conceal sickness symptoms in certain social situations
• Spanish slug: Busting an invasion myth

Evolution depends on rare chance events, 'molecular time travel' experiments show Posted: 18 Jun 2014 07:05 PM PDT Historians can only speculate on what might have been, but a team of evolutionary biologists studying ancient proteins has turned speculation into experiment. They resurrected an ancient ancestor of an important human protein as it existed hundreds of millions of years ago and then used biochemical methods to generate and characterize a huge number of alternative histories that could have ensued from that ancient starting point.

New manufacturing methods for 'soft' machines, robots Posted: 18 Jun 2014 03:46 PM PDT Researchers have developed a technique that might be used to produce 'soft machines' made of elastic materials and liquid metals for potential applications in robotics, medical devices and consumer electronics. Such an elastic technology could make possible robots that have sensory skin and stretchable garments that people might wear to interact with computers or for therapeutic purposes.

Fish-eating spiders discovered in all parts of the world Posted: 18 Jun 2014 03:46 PM PDT Spiders are traditionally viewed as predators of insects. Zoologists from Switzerland and Australia have now published a study that shows: spiders all over the world also prey on fish.

Making smartphones smarter with see-through sensors: Pack more apps into new real estate, the display glass itself Posted: 18 Jun 2014 01:51 PM PDT Researchers have developed a new laser-writing technique that embeds smartphone display glass with layer-upon-layer of see-through sensors -- enabling applications like temperature sensors and biomedical monitors to be manufactured directly into the display. The work is the first laser-based light-guided system that is efficient enough for commercial use.

Maybe birds can have it all: Dazzling colors and pretty songs Posted: 18 Jun 2014 11:26 AM PDT A study of one of the world's largest and most colorful bird families has dispelled a long-held notion, first proposed by Charles Darwin, that animals are limited in their options to evolve showiness. "Animals have limited resources, and they have to spend those in order to develop showy plumage or precision singing that help them attract mates and defend territories," said the paper's lead author. "So it seems to make sense that you can't have both. But our study took a more detailed look and suggests that actually, some species can."

Familiar yet strange: Water's 'split personality' revealed by computer model Posted: 18 Jun 2014 11:00 AM PDT Using computer models, researchers found that as water freezes it takes on a sort of split personality wherein, at very cold temperatures and above a certain pressure, it may spontaneously split into two liquid forms. Finding this dual nature could lead to a better understanding of how water behaves in high-altitude clouds, which could improve the predictive ability of current weather and climate models.

Scientists take first dip into water's mysterious 'no-man's land' Posted: 18 Jun 2014 11:00 AM PDT Scientists have made the first structural observations of liquid water at temperatures down to minus 51 degrees Fahrenheit, within an elusive 'no-man's land' where water's strange properties are super-amplified.

Blocking brain's 'internal marijuana' may trigger early Alzheimer's deficits, study shows Posted: 18 Jun 2014 10:19 AM PDT A new study has implicated the blocking of endocannabinoids -- signaling substances that are the brain's internal versions of the psychoactive chemicals in marijuana and hashish -- in the early pathology of Alzheimer's disease.

Evolutionary biology: Why cattle, pigs only have two toes Posted: 18 Jun 2014 10:19 AM PDT During evolutionary diversification of vertebrate limbs, the number of toes in even-toed ungulates such as cattle and pigs was reduced and transformed into paired hooves. Scientists have identified a gene regulatory switch that was key to evolutionary adaption of limbs in ungulates. The study provides insights into the molecular history of evolution.

Collecting light with artificial moth eyes: Producing hydrogen with sunlight Posted: 18 Jun 2014 09:21 AM PDT All over the world researchers are investigating solar cells which imitate plant photosynthesis, using sunlight and water to create synthetic fuels such as hydrogen. Researchers have developed such a photoelectrochemical cell, recreating a moth's eye to drastically increase its light collecting efficiency. The cell is made of cheap raw materials – iron and tungsten oxide.

Horizontal levitation: The ultimate solution to particle separation Posted: 18 Jun 2014 07:05 AM PDT Separating particles from the liquid they are in can now be done with a new concept. Magnetic separators exploit the difference in magnetic properties between minerals, for example when separating magnetite from quartz. But this exercise becomes considerably more complex when the particles are not magnetic. In the wake of previous particle levitation experiments under high-power magnetic fields, a new study reveals that particles are deflected away from the magnet's round-shaped bore center in a horizontal direction.

Animals conceal sickness symptoms in certain social situations Posted: 18 Jun 2014 04:19 AM PDT Animals have the ability to conceal their sickness in certain social situations. According to a new review, when given the opportunity to mate or in the presence of their young, sick animals will behave as though they were healthy. The research has implications for our understanding of the spread of infectious diseases.

Spanish slug: Busting an invasion myth Posted: 18 Jun 2014 04:19 AM PDT Spanish slugs (Arion lusitanicus) are one of the most common slug species in Central Europe. The animals sometimes nicknamed "killer slugs" are known to do their fair share of damage in fields and gardens. The slug was thought to have originated in Southern Europe. However researchers have now found out that the prime example of an invasive species is originally from Central Europe and thus no "immigrant" after all.

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