ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Built-in billboards: Male bluefin killifish signal different things with different fins
• Measuring on ice: Researchers create 'smart' ice skating blade
• Positive subliminal messages on aging improve physical functioning in elderly
• Heavy metal frost? A new look at a Venusian mystery
• Fish just want to have fun, according to a new study that finds even fish 'play'
• Brain activity provides evidence for internal 'calorie counter'
• Facetless crystals that mimic starfish shells could advance 3-D-printing pills
• Sexual preference for masculine men, feminine women is an urban habit
• Physicists build reversible laser tractor beam
• New antidepressant: Rapid agent restores pleasure-seeking ahead of other antidepressant action
• Cold sores increase risk of dementia, research suggests
• Viagra protects the heart beyond the bedroom, study finds
• Roman Gladiators ate a mostly vegetarian diet and drank a tonic of ashes after training
• Mummy remains refute antiquity of ankylosing spondylitis
• Lab-developed intestinal organoids form mature human tissue in mice
• Birth season affects your mood in later life, new research suggests
• Blinded by non-science: Trivial scientific information increases trust in products

Built-in billboards: Male bluefin killifish signal different things with different fins Posted: 20 Oct 2014 06:29 PM PDT They help fish swim, but fins also advertise a fish's social standing and health. In a new study, researchers report that for the male bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei), each colorful fin presents its own messages to other fish.

Measuring on ice: Researchers create 'smart' ice skating blade Posted: 20 Oct 2014 06:25 PM PDT An ice skating blade that informs figure skaters of the stresses they are imposing on their joints has been developed by a group of researchers in the US.

Positive subliminal messages on aging improve physical functioning in elderly Posted: 20 Oct 2014 11:52 AM PDT Older individuals who are subliminally exposed to positive stereotypes about aging showed improved physical functioning that can last for several weeks, a new study.

Heavy metal frost? A new look at a Venusian mystery Posted: 20 Oct 2014 10:39 AM PDT Venus is hiding something beneath its brilliant shroud of clouds: a first order mystery about the planet that researchers may be a little closer to solving because of a new re-analysis of twenty-year-old spacecraft data. Venus's surface can't be seen from orbit in visible light because of the planet's hot, dense, cloudy atmosphere. Instead, radar has been used by spacecraft to penetrate the clouds and map out the surface – both by reflecting radar off the surface to measure elevation and by looking at the radio emissions of the hot surface. The last spacecraft to map Venus in this way was Magellan, two decades ago.

Fish just want to have fun, according to a new study that finds even fish 'play' Posted: 20 Oct 2014 09:14 AM PDT Biologists have documented fish playing with a bottom-weighted thermometer and other objects. Play, like much of animals' psychology including emotions, motivations, perceptions and intellect, is part of their evolutionary history and not just random, meaningless behavior.

Brain activity provides evidence for internal 'calorie counter' Posted: 20 Oct 2014 07:55 AM PDT As you think about how a food will taste and whether it's nutritious, an internal calorie counter of sorts is also evaluating each food based on its caloric density, according to findings from a new neuroimaging study.

Facetless crystals that mimic starfish shells could advance 3-D-printing pills Posted: 20 Oct 2014 07:55 AM PDT In a design that mimics a hard-to-duplicate texture of starfish shells, engineers have made rounded crystals that have no facets.

Sexual preference for masculine men, feminine women is an urban habit Posted: 20 Oct 2014 07:53 AM PDT A groundbreaking new study suggests that, rather than being passed down through a long process of social and sexual selection, preferences for masculine men and feminine women is a relatively new habit that has only emerged in modern, urbanized societies.

Physicists build reversible laser tractor beam Posted: 20 Oct 2014 07:50 AM PDT Physicists have built a tractor beam that can repel and attract objects, using a hollow laser beam, bright around the edges and dark in its center. It is the first long-distance optical tractor beam, 100 times larger than previous ones.

New antidepressant: Rapid agent restores pleasure-seeking ahead of other antidepressant action Posted: 20 Oct 2014 07:50 AM PDT A drug being studied as a fast-acting mood-lifter restored pleasure-seeking behavior independent of -- and ahead of -- its other antidepressant effects. Within 40 minutes after a single infusion of ketamine, treatment-resistant depressed bipolar disorder patients experienced a reversal of a key symptom -- loss of interest in pleasurable activities -- which lasted up to 14 days. Brain scans traced the agent's action to boosted activity in areas at the front and deep in the right hemisphere of the brain.

Cold sores increase risk of dementia, research suggests Posted: 20 Oct 2014 07:49 AM PDT Infection with herpes simplex virus increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease, researchers claim. "Our results clearly show that there is a link between infections of herpes simplex virus and the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This also means that we have new opportunities to develop treatment forms to stop the disease," says one of the researchers behind the study.

Viagra protects the heart beyond the bedroom, study finds Posted: 20 Oct 2014 06:04 AM PDT Viagra could be used as a safe treatment for heart disease, finds new research. The study reveals that long-term daily treatment of Viagra can provide protection for the heart at different stages of heart disease, with few side effects.

Roman Gladiators ate a mostly vegetarian diet and drank a tonic of ashes after training Posted: 20 Oct 2014 06:00 AM PDT Roman gladiators ate a mostly vegetarian diet and drank ashes after training as a tonic. These are the findings of anthropological investigations carried out on bones of warriors found during excavations in the ancient city of Ephesos.

Mummy remains refute antiquity of ankylosing spondylitis Posted: 20 Oct 2014 06:00 AM PDT Ankylosing spondylitis is a systemic disease that causes inflammation in the spinal joints and was thought to have affected members of the ancient Egyptian royal families. Now a new study refutes that claim, finding instead a degenerative spinal condition called diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in royal Egyptian mummies from the 18th to early 20th Dynasties.

Lab-developed intestinal organoids form mature human tissue in mice Posted: 19 Oct 2014 12:18 PM PDT Researchers have successfully transplanted 'organoids' of functioning human intestinal tissue grown from pluripotent stem cells in a lab dish into mice -- creating an unprecedented model for studying diseases of the intestine. Scientists said that, through additional translational research, the findings could eventually lead to bioengineering personalized human intestinal tissue to treat gastrointestinal diseases.

Birth season affects your mood in later life, new research suggests Posted: 18 Oct 2014 05:54 PM PDT New research shows that the season you are born has a significant impact on your risk of developing mood disorders. People born at certain times of year may have a greater chance of developing certain types of affective temperaments, which in turn can lead to mood disorders.

Blinded by non-science: Trivial scientific information increases trust in products Posted: 17 Oct 2014 07:12 AM PDT Beware of trivial graphs and formulas, warns new research. The study found trivial graphs or formulas accompanying medical information can lead consumers to believe products are more effective.

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