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Monday, May 19, 2014

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News


Windshield washer fluid a source of Legionnaires: Found in most school buses

Posted: 18 May 2014 01:44 PM PDT

A form of bacteria responsible for respiratory illness, including the deadly pneumonia known as Legionnaire's disease, may be able to grow in windshield washer fluid and was isolated from nearly 75 percent of school buses tested in one district in Arizona, according to new research.

Scientists discover how to turn light into matter after 80-year quest

Posted: 18 May 2014 01:42 PM PDT

Physicists have discovered how to create matter from light -- a feat thought impossible when the idea was first theorized 80 years ago. In just one day over several cups of coffee in a tiny office, three physicists worked out a relatively simple way to physically prove a theory first devised by scientists Breit and Wheeler in 1934. Breit and Wheeler suggested that it should be possible to turn light into matter by smashing together only two particles of light (photons), to create an electron and a positron -- the simplest method of turning light into matter ever predicted. The calculation was found to be theoretically sound, but Breit and Wheeler said that they never expected anybody to physically demonstrate their prediction.

Scientists create synthetic duplicates of spiders' super-sticky, silk 'attachment discs'

Posted: 16 May 2014 05:33 PM PDT

Researchers are again spinning inspiration from spider silk -- this time to create more efficient and stronger commercial and biomedical adhesives that could, for example, potentially attach tendons to bones or bind fractures. The scientists created synthetic duplicates of the super-sticky, silk "attachment discs" that spiders use to attach their webs to surfaces.

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