ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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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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