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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News


An inside look at carnivorous plants

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 03:26 PM PDT

A pitcher plant's work seems simple: Their tube-shaped leaves catch and hold rainwater, which drowns the ants, beetles, and flies that stumble in. But the rainwater inside a pitcher plant is not just a malevolent dunking pool. It also hosts a complex system of aquatic life, including wriggling mosquito, flesh fly, and midge larvae; mites; rotifers; copepods; nematodes; and multicellular algae.

Total buzz kill: Metals in flowers may play role in bumblebee decline

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 12:24 PM PDT

Beekeepers and researchers nationally are reporting growing evidence that a powerful new class of pesticides may be killing off bumblebees. Now, research points toward another potential cause: metal pollution from aluminum and nickel. A new study finds that bumblebees are at risk of ingesting toxic amounts of metals like aluminum and nickel found in flowers growing in soil that has been contaminated by exhaust from vehicles, industrial machinery, and farming equipment.

Switching to a power stroke enables a tiny but important marine crustacean to survive

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 09:48 AM PDT

To escape from the jaws and claws of predators in cold, viscous water, marine copepods switch from a wave-like swimming stroke to big power strokes, a behavior that has now been revealed thanks to 3-D high-speed digital holography.

Symbiotic bacteria program circadian-like rhythms in squid using light and chemicals

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 06:16 AM PDT

Glowing bacteria inside squid use light and chemical signals to control circadian-like rhythms in the animals, according to a new study. The results of the study show that, in addition to acting as a built-in lamp, the bacteria also control when the squid expresses a gene that entrains, or synchronizes, circadian rhythms in animals.

New clues in the search to rediscover the mysterious Maya Blue formula

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 06:11 AM PDT

The recipe and process for preparing Maya Blue, a highly-resistant pigment used for centuries in Mesoamerica, were lost. We know that the ingredients are a plant dye, indigo, and a type of clay known as palygorskite, but scientists do not know how they were 'cooked' and combined together. Now, a team of chemists has come up with a new hypothesis about how it was prepared.

Monkey study reveals why middle managers suffer the most stress

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 06:11 AM PDT

A study observing monkeys has found that those in the middle hierarchy suffer the most social stress. Their work suggests that the source of this stress is social conflict and may help explain studies in humans that have found that middle managers suffer the most stress at work.

Greater recognition of face blindness needed, experts say

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 06:11 AM PDT

Imagine not being able to recognise your own child at nursery or even pick out your own face from a line-up of photos.

Plastic film is the future of 3-D on-the-go

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 06:07 AM PDT

Ditch the 3-D glasses. Thanks to a simple plastic filter, mobile device users can now view unprecedented, distortion-free, brilliant 3-D content with the naked eye. This latest innovation from TP and IMRE is the first ever glasses-free 3-D accessory that can display content in both portrait and landscape mode, and measures less than 0.1 mm in thickness.Mobile device users will soon be able to view brilliant 3-D content with the naked eye with a nano-engineered screen protector that turns ordinary mobile screens into 3-D displays. The unique plastic film can also potentially be used as next generation security tokens employed by banks and corporations.

Geckos keep firm grip in wet natural habitat

Posted: 01 Apr 2013 03:15 PM PDT

Geckos' ability to stick to trees and leaves during rainforest downpours has fascinated scientists for decades, leading a group of researchers to solve the mystery.

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