ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Stopping cold: Scientists turn off the ability to feel cold
• Picky eater fish clean up seaweeds from coral reefs
• 'Get off my lawn:' Song sparrows escalate territorial threats
• Scientists create automated 'time machine' to reconstruct ancient languages
• A new 'virtual moderator' helps reach consensus in troubled negotiations
• Biological connections in microelectronics
• Cognitive scientists advance the art of magic with a study of Penn & Teller’s 'cups and balls' illusion
• Invisible tool enables new quantum experiments
• World's oldest-known wild bird hatches another chick

Stopping cold: Scientists turn off the ability to feel cold Posted: 12 Feb 2013 02:21 PM PST Neuroscientists have isolated chills at a cellular level, identifying the sensory network of neurons in the skin that relays the sensation of cold.

Picky eater fish clean up seaweeds from coral reefs Posted: 12 Feb 2013 12:44 PM PST Using underwater video cameras to record fish feeding on South Pacific coral reefs, scientists have found that herbivorous fish can be picky eaters – a trait that could spell trouble for endangered reef systems.

'Get off my lawn:' Song sparrows escalate territorial threats Posted: 12 Feb 2013 10:19 AM PST Territorial song sparrows use increasingly threatening signals to ward off trespassing rivals. First an early warning that matches the intruder's song, then wing waving -- a bird's version of "flipping the bird" -- as the dispute heats up, and finally, if all other signals have failed, attack.

Scientists create automated 'time machine' to reconstruct ancient languages Posted: 12 Feb 2013 08:20 AM PST Ancient languages hold a treasure trove of information about the culture, politics and commerce of millennia past. Yet, reconstructing them to reveal clues into human history can require decades of painstaking work. Now, scientists have created an automated "time machine," of sorts, that will greatly accelerate and improve the process of reconstructing hundreds of ancestral languages.

A new 'virtual moderator' helps reach consensus in troubled negotiations Posted: 12 Feb 2013 07:05 AM PST Researchers have designed a new fuzzy ontology-based system to help making decisions in our daily lives.

Biological connections in microelectronics Posted: 12 Feb 2013 07:04 AM PST Miniaturization of electronic components is reaching a physical limit. While the solution of three dimensional assembly has the advantage of reducing bulk, the manufacture of electrical connections in these new products remains a technological challenge. Biologists and physicists have developed a system of self-assembled connections using actin filaments for 3-D microelectronic structures. Once the actin filaments become conductors, they join the various components of a system together.

Cognitive scientists advance the art of magic with a study of Penn & Teller’s 'cups and balls' illusion Posted: 12 Feb 2013 04:54 AM PST Cognitive brain researchers have studied a magic trick filmed in magician duo Penn & Teller's theater in Las Vegas, to illuminate the neuroscience of illusion. Their results advance our understanding of how observers can be misdirected and will aid magicians as they work to improve their art.

Invisible tool enables new quantum experiments Posted: 11 Feb 2013 08:10 AM PST Physicists have now succeeded in constructing a novel matter wave interferometer which enables new quantum studies with a broad class of particles, including atoms, molecules and nanoparticles. These lumps of matter are exposed to three pulsed laser light gratings which are invisible to the human eye, exist only for a billionth of a second and never simultaneously.

World's oldest-known wild bird hatches another chick Posted: 04 Feb 2013 08:11 AM PST A Laysan albatross known as "Wisdom" -- believed to be at least 62 years old -- has hatched a chick on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge for the sixth consecutive year.

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