ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

---

• Get touchy feely with plants: Gently rubbing them with your fingers can make them less susceptible to disease
• Functioning 'mechanical gears' seen in nature for first time
• Decades on, bacterium's discovery feted as paragon of basic science
• Tracking criminal movement using math
• Twitter analysis can help gamblers beat the spread on NFL games
• A microb's trick for staying young
• Dali gets a health check: Using medical devices to diagnose art
• Genetics of how and why fish swim in schools: Research sheds light on complex social behavior
• Hate the sound of your voice? Not really
• Dogs' behavior could help design social robots
• Guinness record: World’s thinnest glass is just two atoms thick
• Everyday sadists take pleasure in others' pain
• Pea-shooter for molecules: Molecules pass through nanotubes at size-dependent speeds
• Could life have survived a fall to Earth?
• Dreaming still possible even when the mind is blank
• Orangutans plan their future route and communicate it to others
• Stem cell transplants may be a novel treatment for schizophrenia

Get touchy feely with plants: Gently rubbing them with your fingers can make them less susceptible to disease Posted: 12 Sep 2013 05:30 PM PDT Forget talking to plants to help them grow, gently rubbing them with your fingers can make them less susceptible to disease, a new article reveals. Gently rubbing the leaves of thale cress plants (Arabidsopsis thaliana) between thumb and forefinger activates an innate defense mechanism, scientists report. Within minutes, biochemical changes occur, causing the plant to become more resistant to Botrytis cinerea, the fungus that causes grey mould.

Functioning 'mechanical gears' seen in nature for first time Posted: 12 Sep 2013 11:36 AM PDT Previously believed to be only human-made, a natural example of a functioning gear mechanism has been discovered in a common insect -- showing that evolution developed interlocking cogs long before we did. In Issus, the skeleton is used to solve a complex problem that the brain and nervous system can't, one of the researchers said.

Decades on, bacterium's discovery feted as paragon of basic science Posted: 12 Sep 2013 11:33 AM PDT Over time, the esoteric and sometimes downright strange quests of science have proven easy targets for politicians and others looking for perceived examples of waste in government — and a cheap headline.

Tracking criminal movement using math Posted: 12 Sep 2013 10:21 AM PDT A mathematical model has been developed that analyzes criminal movement in terms of a Lévy flight, a pattern in which criminals tend to move locally as well as in large leaps to other areas.

Twitter analysis can help gamblers beat the spread on NFL games Posted: 12 Sep 2013 10:21 AM PDT Analyses of Twitter feeds have been used to track flu epidemics, predict stock market changes and do political polling, and now it may also help gamblers beat the spread for National Football League games.

A microb's trick for staying young Posted: 12 Sep 2013 10:20 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a microbe that stays forever young by rejuvenating every time it reproduces.

Dali gets a health check: Using medical devices to diagnose art Posted: 12 Sep 2013 10:18 AM PDT Scientists and conservators have developed a new method to diagnose painting canvases from the back, without disturbing a single fibre, to see if they can withstand the stress of handling and travel.

Genetics of how and why fish swim in schools: Research sheds light on complex social behavior Posted: 12 Sep 2013 10:17 AM PDT How and why fish swim in schools has long fascinated biologists looking for clues to understand the complexities of social behavior. A new study may help provide some insight.

Hate the sound of your voice? Not really Posted: 12 Sep 2013 08:27 AM PDT A new study finds people unknowingly find their own pre-recorded voice more attractive than others do.

Dogs' behavior could help design social robots Posted: 12 Sep 2013 07:48 AM PDT Designers of social robots, take note. Bring your dog to the lab next time you test a prototype, and watch how your pet interacts with it. You might just learn a thing or two that could help you fine-tune future designs. So says researchers who found that 'man's best friend' reacts sociably to robots that behave socially towards them, even if the devices look nothing like a human.

Guinness record: World’s thinnest glass is just two atoms thick Posted: 12 Sep 2013 06:52 AM PDT At just a molecule thick, it's a new record: The world's thinnest sheet of glass, a serendipitous discovery by scientists in the U.S. and Germany, is recorded for posterity in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Everyday sadists take pleasure in others' pain Posted: 12 Sep 2013 06:37 AM PDT Most of the time, we try to avoid inflicting pain on others -- when we do hurt someone, we typically experience guilt, remorse, or other feelings of distress. But for some, cruelty can be pleasurable, even exciting. According to new research, this kind of everyday sadism is real and more common than we might think.

Pea-shooter for molecules: Molecules pass through nanotubes at size-dependent speeds Posted: 12 Sep 2013 06:37 AM PDT Researchers find that tiny molecules passing through nanotubes can be propelled or slowed depending on their size.

Could life have survived a fall to Earth? Posted: 12 Sep 2013 06:27 AM PDT It sounds like science fiction, but the theory of panspermia, in which life can naturally transfer between planets, is considered a serious hypothesis by planetary scientists. The suggestion that life did not originate on Earth but came from elsewhere in the universe (for instance, Mars), is one possible variant of panspermia. Planets and moons were heavily bombarded by meteorites when the Solar System was young, throwing lots of material back into space. Meteorites made of Mars rock are occasionally found on Earth to this day, so it is quite plausible that simple life forms like yeasts or bacteria could have been carried on them.

Dreaming still possible even when the mind is blank Posted: 11 Sep 2013 06:19 PM PDT Researchers have outlined case studies of patients with Auto-Activation Deficit who reported dreams when awakened from REM sleep – even when they demonstrated a mental blank during the daytime. This paper proves that even patients with Auto-Activation Disorder have the ability to dream and that it is the "bottom-up" process that causes the dream state.

Orangutans plan their future route and communicate it to others Posted: 11 Sep 2013 03:46 PM PDT Male orangutans plan their travel route up to one day in advance and communicate it to other members of their species. In order to attract females and repel male rivals, they call in the direction in which they are going to travel. Anthropologists have found that not only captive, but also wild-living orangutans make use of their planning ability.

Stem cell transplants may be a novel treatment for schizophrenia Posted: 09 Sep 2013 12:29 PM PDT Researchers have discovered that transplanting stem cells into the rat brain -- into a center called the hippocampus -- restored functions that are abnormal in schizophrenia.

You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Strange Science News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610