ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Fossil arthropod went on the hunt for its prey
• Water splitter runs on an ordinary AAA battery
• Spectacular supernova's mysteries revealed
• When it comes to how pizza looks, cheese matters
• From dandruff to deep sea vents, an ecologically hyper-diverse fungus
• Songbirds: Juveniles delay departure, make frequent stopovers during first migration
• Future Phones to Use Blood, Speech to Monitor HIV, Stress, Nutrition

Fossil arthropod went on the hunt for its prey Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT A new species of carnivorous crustacean has been identified, which roamed the seas 435 million years ago, grasping its prey with spiny limbs before devouring it.

Water splitter runs on an ordinary AAA battery Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:40 AM PDT Although touted as zero-emissions vehicles, most fuel cell vehicle run on hydrogen made from natural gas. Now scientists have developed a low-cost, emissions-free device that uses an ordinary AAA battery to produce hydrogen by water electrolysis. Unlike other water splitters that use precious-metal catalysts, the electrodes in this device are made of inexpensive and abundant nickel and iron.

Spectacular supernova's mysteries revealed Posted: 22 Aug 2014 05:39 AM PDT Astronomers are delving into the mystery of what caused a spectacular supernova in a galaxy 11 million light years away, seen earlier this year. The supernova, a giant explosion of a star and the closest one to the Earth in decades, was discovered earlier this year by chance. These phenomena are extremely important to study because they provide key information about our universe, including how it is expanding and how galaxies evolve.

When it comes to how pizza looks, cheese matters Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:38 PM PDT Most consumers have an idea what they want their pizza slice to look like. Golden cheese with that dark toasted-cheese color scattered in distinct blistery patches across the surface with a bit of oil glistening in the valleys. A new study evaluated the pizza baking performance of different cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar, colby, Edam, Emmental, Gruyere, and provolone) in conjunction with a new quantifiable evaluation technique to see how their composition and functional differences affected browning and blistering.

From dandruff to deep sea vents, an ecologically hyper-diverse fungus Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:14 AM PDT A ubiquitous skin fungus linked to dandruff, eczema and other itchy, flaky maladies in humans has now been tracked to even further global reaches -- including Hawaiian coral reefs and the extreme environments of arctic soils and deep sea vents. The study considers the diversity, ecology, and distribution of the fungi of the genus Malassezia in light of new insights gained from screening environmental sequencing datasets from around the world.

Songbirds: Juveniles delay departure, make frequent stopovers during first migration Posted: 20 Aug 2014 01:47 PM PDT Juvenile songbirds on spring migration travel from overwintering sites in the tropics to breeding destinations thousands of kilometres away with no prior experience to guide them. Now, a new study has tracked these 'student pilots' on their first long-haul flight and found significant differences between the timing of juvenile migration and that of experienced adults.

Future Phones to Use Blood, Speech to Monitor HIV, Stress, Nutrition Posted: 19 Aug 2014 09:59 AM PDT A new program aims to deploy three phone devices that can have an immediate impact on personal healthcare: a Stress-Phone for long term stress management, a Nutri-Phone for nutritional awareness and a Hema-Phone for monitoring viral loading in HIV positive patients.

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