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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News


Electricity from the nose: Engineers make power from human respiration

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:46 PM PDT

The same piezoelectric effect that ignites your gas grill with the push of a button could one day power sensors in your body via the respiration in your nose.

Virtual reality worm-tracking challenge leads to new tool for brain research

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 03:04 PM PDT

Using new optical equipment, researchers put roundworms into a world of virtual reality, monitored both their behavior and brain activity and gained unexpected information on how the organism's brain operates as it moves.

Raw sewage: Home to millions of undescribed viruses

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 03:04 PM PDT

Biologists have described only a few thousand different viruses so far, but a new study reveals a vast world of unseen viral diversity that exists right under our noses. A new article explores ordinary raw sewage and finds that it is home to thousands of novel, undiscovered viruses, some of which could relate to human health.

Engineers build smart petri dish: Device can be used for medical diagnostics, imaging cell growth continuously

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 12:18 PM PDT

The cameras in our cell phones have dramatically changed the way we share the special moments in our lives, making photographs instantly available to friends and family. Now, the imaging sensor chips that form the heart of these built-in cameras are helping engineers transform the way cell cultures are imaged by serving as the platform for a "smart" petri dish.

A robot brain implanted in a rodent

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 10:24 AM PDT

With new cutting-edge technology aimed at providing amputees with robotic limbs, a researcher has successfully implanted a robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage, restoring its capacity for movement.

Child abuse in boobies: Study documents 'cycle of violence' in birds

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 10:24 AM PDT

For one species of seabird in the Galapagos, the child abuse "cycle of violence" found in humans plays out in the wild. The new study of Nazca boobies provides the first evidence from the animal world showing those who are abused when they are young often grow up to be abusers.

Fighting prejudice through imitation: Asking white people to mirror the movements of a black person lowers their levels of implicit prejudice

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 10:22 AM PDT

New research shows that you can reduce racial prejudice simply by having a person mimic the movements of a member of the race he or she is prejudiced against. The method may work by activating brain mechanisms that contribute to feelings of empathy.

Follow the odor and CO<sub>2</sub>: Flight patterns reveal how mosquitoes find hosts to transmit deadly diseases

Posted: 30 Sep 2011 12:30 PM PDT

Experiments performed by entomologists to study how female Aedes aegypti -- mosquitoes that transmit yellow fever and dengue -- respond to plumes of carbon dioxide and human odor demonstrate that puffs of exhaled carbon dioxide first attract these mosquitoes, which then proceed to follow a broad skin odor plume, eventually landing on a human host. Results from the study could clue scientists on how odors can be used in traps for intercepting host-seeking mosquitoes.

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