ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Biomedical uses for hydrogels explored
• The evolution of fins to limbs in the land invasion race
• Flipping fish adapt to land living
• Jump for your life: Bipedal rodents survive in the desert with a hop, a skip and a jump
• Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence research network launched
• Solitary lemurs avoid danger with a little help from the neighbors
• Radically better smarphones may be possible using system inspired by bird migration: Molecular chains hypersensitive to magnetic fields
• Octopus' blue blood allows them to rule the waves
• Seeing Sea stars: The missing link in eye evolution?
• Solar prominences put on strange and beautiful show in the Sun's sky
• Mysterious radio flashes may be farewell greetings from massive stars collapsing into black holes
• In bitter cold subglacial lake, surprising life goes on

Biomedical uses for hydrogels explored Posted: 05 Jul 2013 06:22 PM PDT Scientists are researching hydrogel, the gelatinous substance that, because of its toughness and plasticity, has several biomedical applications, including cartilage repair, implants for minimally invasive surgery and drug delivery.

The evolution of fins to limbs in the land invasion race Posted: 05 Jul 2013 06:22 PM PDT Why did animals with limbs win the race to invade land over those with fins? A new study comparing the forces acting on fins of mudskipper fish and on the forelimbs of tiger salamanders can now be used to analyze early fossils that spanned the water-to-land transition in tetrapod evolution, and further understand their capability to move on land.

Flipping fish adapt to land living Posted: 05 Jul 2013 06:22 PM PDT Researchers have found that the amphibious mangrove rivulus performs higher force jumps on land than some other fishes that end up on land. This new study shows that unlike the largemouth bass, which makes very few excursions on land, the mangrove rivulus, which can live out of water for extended periods, has a strong jumping technique on land to locate new food resources, avoid predators, escape poor water conditions and also to return to the water.

Jump for your life: Bipedal rodents survive in the desert with a hop, a skip and a jump Posted: 05 Jul 2013 06:22 PM PDT Researchers have found that bipedal desert rodents manage to compete with their quadrupedal counterparts by using a diverse set of jumps, hops and skips. A new study suggests that it is this unpredictable movement that allows the bipedal rodents to coexist in Old World deserts with quadrupedal rodents.

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence research network launched Posted: 05 Jul 2013 09:10 AM PDT A network has been launched to promote academic research in the UK relating to the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

Solitary lemurs avoid danger with a little help from the neighbors Posted: 05 Jul 2013 08:36 AM PDT An endangered species of Madagascan lemur uses the alarm calls of birds and other lemurs to warn it of the presence of predators, a new study has found. This is the first time this phenomenon has been observed in a solitary and nocturnal lemur species.

Radically better smarphones may be possible using system inspired by bird migration: Molecular chains hypersensitive to magnetic fields Posted: 05 Jul 2013 07:20 AM PDT Researchers have for the first time created perfect one-dimensional molecular wires of which the electrical conductivity can almost entirely be suppressed by a weak magnetic field at room temperature. The underlying mechanism is possibly closely related to the biological compass used by some migratory birds. This spectacular discovery may lead to radically new magnetic field sensors, for smartphones for example.

Octopus' blue blood allows them to rule the waves Posted: 05 Jul 2013 07:18 AM PDT Worldwide colonization by octopods is in their blood. They manage to survive temperature habitats ranging from as low as -1.8°C to more than 30°C due to their ability to keep supplying oxygen to their body tissues. A new study shows that a blue colored pigment, hemocyanin, in their blood, responsible for oxygen transport, crucially allows octopods to live in freezing temperatures.

Seeing Sea stars: The missing link in eye evolution? Posted: 05 Jul 2013 07:18 AM PDT A study has shown for the first time that sea stars (also known as starfish) use primitive eyes at the tip of their arms to visually navigate their environment. New research has shown that sea star eyes are image-forming and could be an essential stage in eye evolution.

Solar prominences put on strange and beautiful show in the Sun's sky Posted: 05 Jul 2013 07:16 AM PDT Cloud spotting seems to be growing in popularity as a hobby here on Earth. Now scientists studying the solar atmosphere are building their own collection of fascinating moving features that they've spotted in the Sun's sky.  The unusual solar prominences include a giant disc that rotates for several hours, feathery streamers as long as fifty Earths, a super-heated jet striking the top of a prominence and twisted ribbons flowing in opposite directions at a million kilometers per hour.

Mysterious radio flashes may be farewell greetings from massive stars collapsing into black holes Posted: 05 Jul 2013 07:16 AM PDT Mysterious bright radio flashes that appear for only a brief moment on the sky and do not repeat could be the final farewell greetings of a massive star collapsing into a black hole, astronomers argue.

In bitter cold subglacial lake, surprising life goes on Posted: 05 Jul 2013 07:14 AM PDT Lake Vostok, buried under a glacier in Antarctica, is so dark, deep and cold that scientists had considered it a possible model for other planets, a place where nothing could live. However, researchers have revealed a surprising variety of life forms living and reproducing in this most extreme of environments.

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