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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News


Melody modulates choir members' heart rate

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 05:01 PM PDT

When people sing in a choir their heart beats are synchronized, so that the pulse of choir members tends to increase and decrease in unison.

Glimpse into the future of acidic oceans shows ecosystems transformed

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 02:10 PM PDT

In the waters surrounding Castello Aragonese, a 14th century castle off the coast of Italy, volcanic vents naturally release bubbles of carbon dioxide gas, creating different levels of acidity among the marine-animal and plant communities there. These gradients of acidity gave scientists a glimpse of what a future marked by increasingly acidic ocean waters could look like, and how the creatures and plants living in those environments may react to it.

In baseball, bigger still better: Elite pitchers continue to be taller and thus throw faster

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 01:19 PM PDT

What unites golf, baseball and hockey is the "falling forward" motion involved, whether it is a pitcher's arm or golfer's swing. Basically, the larger and taller the athlete, the more force he or she can bring to bear as his or her mass falls forward. A new theory predicts that elite pitchers will continue to be taller and thus throw faster and seems also to apply to athletes who compete in golf, hockey and boxing.

Corals cozy up with bacterial buddies

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 12:10 PM PDT

Corals may let certain bacteria get under their skin, according to a new study. The study offers the first direct evidence that Stylophora pistillata, a species of reef-building coral found throughout the Indian and west Pacific Oceans, harbors bacterial denizens deep within its tissues.

How well can you see with your ears? Device offers new alternative to blind people

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 08:51 AM PDT

A device that trains the brain to turn sounds into images could be used as an alternative to invasive treatment for blind and partially-sighted people, researchers have found.

Robot mom would beat robot butler in popularity contest

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 08:49 AM PDT

If you tickle a robot, it may not laugh, but you may still consider it humanlike -- depending on its role in your life, reports an international group of researchers.

Moths talk about sex in many ways

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 08:49 AM PDT

Originally moths developed ears so that they could hear their worst enemy, the bat, but now moths also use their ears to communicate about sex in a great number of different ways.

Exposure to stress even before conception causes genetic changes to offspring

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 08:44 AM PDT

A female's exposure to distress even before she conceives causes changes in the expression of a gene linked to the stress mechanism in the body — in the ovum and later in the brains of the offspring from when they are born, according to a new study on rats.

Zombies offer key to understanding how crowds evacuate

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:32 AM PDT

Zombies might not be the most obvious candidates to use when researching how crowds evacuate buildings, but they have proved a key factor in a new study into crowd behaviour.

Earthworms could help scientists 'dig' into past climates

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:29 AM PDT

A team of UK researchers believes earthworms could provide a window into past climates, allowing scientists to piece together the prevailing weather conditions thousands of years ago.

Detection of single photons via quantum entanglement

Posted: 08 Jul 2013 07:29 AM PDT

Almost 200 years ago, Bavarian physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer discovered dark lines in the sun's spectrum. It was later discovered that these spectral lines can be used to infer the chemical composition and temperature of the sun's atmosphere. Today we are able to gain information about diverse objects through light measurements in a similar way. Because often very little light needs to be detected for this, physicists are looking for ever more sensitive spectroscopy methods. In extreme cases, also single particles of light (photons) need to be measured reliably, which is technically challenging.

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