ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Animals' microbial communities linked to their behavior
• More than just 'zoning out': Exploring the cognitive processes behind mind wandering
• Engineered flies spill secret of seizures
• Surprising solution to fly eye mystery
• Researchers ID unique geological 'sombrero' uplift in South America
• How bacteria communicate using quorum sensing: Could bacteria be manipulated to control infections?
• England World Cup wins and losses linked to 30 percent rise in domestic violence, study finds
• Eco-friendly optics: Spider silk's talents harnessed for use in biosensors, lasers, microchips
• Researchers create 'nanoflowers' for energy storage, solar cells
• Bouncing on Saturn's moon Titan
• Women use emoticons more than men in text messaging :-)
• The marshmallow study revisited: Delaying gratification depends as much on nurture as on nature
• Nearby super-Earth likely a diamond planet
• Soft-shelled turtles urinate through mouth
• Wild monkeys watch fights to exploit losers for grooming
• Close call: Bad weather drives up phone calls to our nearest and dearest

Animals' microbial communities linked to their behavior Posted: 11 Oct 2012 01:21 PM PDT New research is revealing surprising connections between animal microbiomes -- the communities of microbes that live inside animals' bodies -- and animal behavior. A new article reviews recent developments in this emerging research area and offers questions for future investigation.

More than just 'zoning out': Exploring the cognitive processes behind mind wandering Posted: 11 Oct 2012 01:21 PM PDT It happens innocently enough: One minute you're working on a report and the next minute you're thinking about how you need to do laundry. Mind wandering is frequent and common. And while it can be counterproductive, research suggests that mind wandering isn't necessarily a bad thing. New research explores mind wandering in various contexts, examining how it relates to cognitive processes involved in working memory and executive control.

Engineered flies spill secret of seizures Posted: 11 Oct 2012 12:16 PM PDT Scientists have observed the neurological mechanism behind temperature-dependent -- febrile -- seizures by genetically engineering fruit flies to harbor a mutation analogous to one that causes epileptic seizures in people. In addition to contributing the insight on epilepsy, their new study also highlights the first use of genetic engineering to swap a human genetic disease mutation into a directly analogous gene in a fly.

Surprising solution to fly eye mystery Posted: 11 Oct 2012 11:14 AM PDT Fly eyes have the fastest visual responses in the animal kingdom, but how they achieve this has long been an enigma. A new study shows that their rapid vision may be a result of their photoreceptors -- specialized cells found in the retina -- physically contracting in response to light.

Researchers ID unique geological 'sombrero' uplift in South America Posted: 11 Oct 2012 11:14 AM PDT Scientists have identified a geological oddity in the central Andes region, home to the largest active magma body in Earth's continental crust. They found that magma is forming a big blob in the middle of the crust, pushing up Earth's surface across an area 100 kilometers wide, while the surrounding area sinks, leading to a unique geological phenomenon the researchers have described as the "sombrero uplift."

How bacteria communicate using quorum sensing: Could bacteria be manipulated to control infections? Posted: 11 Oct 2012 11:14 AM PDT Researchers have examined the relatively new field in microbiology known as quorum sensing, a type of bacterial communication. Scientists say this fundamental research takes them steps closer to a different antibiotic-independent way of managing infections, and could one day lead to the ability to manipulate bacterial conditions in order to cause cell populations of dangerous pathogens to collapse.

England World Cup wins and losses linked to 30 percent rise in domestic violence, study finds Posted: 11 Oct 2012 09:44 AM PDT Domestic violence rates rose by an average of 30 percent each time England won or lost their games during the 2010 World Cup, but draws had little impact on the statistics, according to a new study.

Eco-friendly optics: Spider silk's talents harnessed for use in biosensors, lasers, microchips Posted: 11 Oct 2012 09:40 AM PDT Spiders use their silk to catch lunch. Now physicists are using it to catch light. New research shows that natural silk could be an eco-friendly alternative to more traditional ways of manipulating light, such as through glass or plastic fiber optic cables.

Researchers create 'nanoflowers' for energy storage, solar cells Posted: 11 Oct 2012 09:40 AM PDT Researchers have created flower-like structures out of germanium sulfide (GeS) -- a semiconductor material -- that have extremely thin petals with an enormous surface area. The GeS flower holds promise for next-generation energy storage devices and solar cells.

Bouncing on Saturn's moon Titan Posted: 11 Oct 2012 09:37 AM PDT ESA's Huygens probe bounced, slid and wobbled its way to rest in the 10 seconds after touching down on Saturn's moon, Titan, in January 2005, a new analysis reveals. The findings provide novel insight into the nature of the moon's surface.

Women use emoticons more than men in text messaging :-) Posted: 11 Oct 2012 07:23 AM PDT Women are twice as likely as men to use emoticons in text messages, according to a new study.

The marshmallow study revisited: Delaying gratification depends as much on nurture as on nature Posted: 11 Oct 2012 06:06 AM PDT For the past four decades, the "marshmallow test" has served as a classic experimental measure of children's self-control: will a preschooler eat one of the fluffy white confections now or hold out for two later? Now a new study demonstrates that being able to delay gratification is influenced as much by the environment as by innate ability.

Nearby super-Earth likely a diamond planet Posted: 11 Oct 2012 06:06 AM PDT New research suggests that a rocky planet twice Earth's size orbiting a nearby star is a diamond planet. The planet -- called 55 Cancri e -- has a radius twice Earth's, and a mass eight times greater, making it a "super-Earth." It is one of five planets orbiting a sun-like star, 55 Cancri, that is located 40 light years from Earth yet visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Cancer. The planet orbits at hyper speed -- its year lasts just 18 hours, in contrast to Earth's 365 days. It is also blazingly hot, with a temperature of about 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers said, a far cry from a habitable world.

Soft-shelled turtles urinate through mouth Posted: 11 Oct 2012 06:06 AM PDT Turtles spend most of their lives in water, but why do these air breathing animals immerse their heads in puddles for hours at a time when their watery homes dry up? Researchers have discovered that the animals have to rinse their mouths with water in order to excrete urea: the animals are effectively urinating through their mouths.

Wild monkeys watch fights to exploit losers for grooming Posted: 11 Oct 2012 05:52 AM PDT Wild macaques who are bystanders to fights within their group exploit the losers for grooming favors, new research has shown. The findings reveal previously unknown details about the important function observing others' aggressive behavior serves in primate society, and may even help to explain why humans often hold a fascination with watching fights.

Close call: Bad weather drives up phone calls to our nearest and dearest Posted: 10 Oct 2012 02:21 PM PDT Who we call and how long we speak to them changes with the weather, according to new research by experts in the UK. Analysing the call patterns of 1.3 million mobile phone users, the team found that in 'uncomfortable' weather -- such as very hot, humid, wet or cold weather -- call length increased but the number of people we made contact with went down.

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