ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Planet ‘devoured in secret’ by its own sun
• Ah, that new car smell: NASA technology protects spacecraft from outgassed molecular contaminants
• Failed explosions explain most peculiar supernovae
• After 121 years, identification of 'grave robber' fossil solves a paleontological enigma
• Evidence of a 'mid-life crisis' in great apes
• Super-efficient solar-energy technology: ‘Solar steam’ so effective it can make steam from icy cold water
• Human brain, Internet, and cosmology: Similar laws at work?
• Invisibility cloaking to shield floating objects from waves
• Sound bullets in water
• Owls' ability to fly in acoustic stealth provides clues to mitigating conventional aircraft noise
• Mosquitos fail at flight in heavy fog, though heavy rain doesn't faze them
• BaBar experiment confirms time asymmetry: Time's quantum arrow has a preferred direction, new analysis shows

Planet ‘devoured in secret’ by its own sun Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:31 PM PST A planet roughly 1.4 times the size of Jupiter is being consumed by its own star behind a shroud thanks to a magnesium veil absorbing all of certain light wavelengths, according to new observations. WASP-12 b, originally spotted in 2008, is a gas giant planet orbiting extremely close to its parent star. The distance between the star and planet is so small that the planet completes an orbit of its star in just over one Earth day. This proximity has "boiled off" a superheated gas cloud roughly three times the radius of Jupiter which feeds the star.

Ah, that new car smell: NASA technology protects spacecraft from outgassed molecular contaminants Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:37 PM PST Outgassing -- the physical process that creates that oh-so-alluring new car smell -- isn't healthy for humans and, as it turns out, not particularly wholesome for sensitive satellite instruments, either. But a team of NASA engineers has created a new way to protect those instruments from its ill effects.

Failed explosions explain most peculiar supernovae Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:32 PM PST Supercomputer simulations have revealed that a type of oddly dim, exploding star is probably a class of duds—one that could nonetheless throw new light on the mysterious nature of dark energy.

After 121 years, identification of 'grave robber' fossil solves a paleontological enigma Posted: 19 Nov 2012 12:13 PM PST Researchers have resolved the evolutionary relationships of Necrolestes patagonensis, a paleontological riddle for more than 100 years. Researchers have correctly placed the strange 16-million-year-old Necrolestes in the mammal evolutionary tree, unexpectedly moving forward the endpoint for the fossil's evolutionary lineage by 45 million years and showing that this family of mammals survived the extinction event that marked the end of the Age of Dinosaurs.

Evidence of a 'mid-life crisis' in great apes Posted: 19 Nov 2012 12:13 PM PST Chimpanzees and orangutans can experience a mid-life crisis just like humans, a study suggests.

Super-efficient solar-energy technology: ‘Solar steam’ so effective it can make steam from icy cold water Posted: 19 Nov 2012 11:06 AM PST Scientists have unveiled a revolutionary new technology that uses nanoparticles to convert solar energy directly into steam. The new "solar steam" method is so effective it can even produce steam from icy cold water. The technology's inventors said they expect it will first be used in sanitation and water-purification applications in the developing world.

Human brain, Internet, and cosmology: Similar laws at work? Posted: 19 Nov 2012 11:05 AM PST The structure of the universe and the laws that govern its growth may be more similar than previously thought to the structure and growth of the human brain and other complex networks, such as the Internet or a social network of trust relationships between people, according to a new article.

Invisibility cloaking to shield floating objects from waves Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:45 AM PST A new approach to invisibility cloaking may one day be used at sea to shield floating objects – such as oil rigs and ships – from rough waves. Unlike most other cloaking techniques that rely on transformation optics, this one is based on the influence of the ocean floor's topography on the various "layers" of ocean water. At the American Physical Society's (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting, being held November 18-20, 2012, in San Diego, Calif., Reza Alam, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, will describe how the variation of density in ocean water can be used to cloak floating objects against incident surface waves.

Sound bullets in water Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:45 AM PST Sound waves are commonly used in applications ranging from ultrasound imaging to hyperthermia therapy, in which high temperatures are induced, for example, in tumors to destroy them. In 2010, researchers developed a nonlinear acoustic lens that can focus high-amplitude pressure pulses into compact "sound bullets." In that initial work, the scientists demonstrated how sound bullets form in solids. Now, they have done themselves one better, creating a device that can form and control those bullets in water.

Owls' ability to fly in acoustic stealth provides clues to mitigating conventional aircraft noise Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:45 AM PST Owls have the uncanny ability to fly silently, relying on specialized plumage to reduce noise so they can hunt in acoustic stealth. Researchers are studying the owl's wing structure to better understand how it mitigates noise so they can apply that information to the design of conventional aircraft.

Mosquitos fail at flight in heavy fog, though heavy rain doesn't faze them Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:45 AM PST Mosquitos have the remarkable ability to fly in clear skies as well as in rain, shrugging off impacts from raindrops more than 50 times their body mass. But just like modern aircraft, mosquitos also are grounded when the fog thickens.

BaBar experiment confirms time asymmetry: Time's quantum arrow has a preferred direction, new analysis shows Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:46 AM PST Digging through nearly 10 years of data from billions of BaBar particle collisions, researchers found that certain particle types change into one another much more often in one way than they do in the other, a violation of time reversal symmetry and confirmation that some subatomic processes have a preferred direction of time.

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