ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• New study takes the shine off magpie folklore
• Do gut bacteria rule our minds? In an ecosystem within us, microbes evolved to sway food choices
• The beetle's white album: Beetle shells could inspire brighter, whiter coatings and materials
• Blood-sucking parasitic eyeworm a culprit to 2010 quail decline, researchers believe

New study takes the shine off magpie folklore Posted: 15 Aug 2014 04:59 PM PDT Magpies are not attracted to shiny objects and don't routinely steal small trinkets such as jewelry, according to a new study. In European culture, it is widely accepted that magpies (Pica pica) are the pilferers of the bird kingdom, unconditionally attracted to sparkly things and prone to pinching them for their nests, almost as a compulsion.

Do gut bacteria rule our minds? In an ecosystem within us, microbes evolved to sway food choices Posted: 15 Aug 2014 04:22 PM PDT It sounds like science fiction, but it seems that bacteria within us -- which outnumber our own cells about 100-fold -- may very well be affecting both our cravings and moods to get us to eat what they want, and often are driving us toward obesity.

The beetle's white album: Beetle shells could inspire brighter, whiter coatings and materials Posted: 15 Aug 2014 07:22 AM PDT The physical properties of the ultra-white scales on certain species of beetle could be used to make whiter paper, plastics and paints, while using far less material than is used in current manufacturing methods.

Blood-sucking parasitic eyeworm a culprit to 2010 quail decline, researchers believe Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:13 PM PDT In the summer of 2010, the Rolling Plains of West Texas expected a bumper crop of quail. By October, they nearly had vanished. The find out why, researchers necropsied hundreds of birds throughout a 19-million-acre area of land and discovered large numbers of parasitic eyeworms in many of the birds they sampled.

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