ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Northern Lights process like untangling twisted strands of spaghetti?
• Skeleton key: Diverse complex networks have similar skeletons
• Monkey lip smacks provide new insights into the evolution of human speech
• Equality or hierarchy? Built-in hierachy leads to greater productivity and fewer conflicts
• Anthropologists find American heads are getting larger

Northern Lights process like untangling twisted strands of spaghetti? Posted: 01 Jun 2012 08:15 PM PDT Scientists have reached a milestone in describing how the northern lights work by way of a process called "magnetic reconnection." The process is best imagined as untangling twisted strands of spaghetti.

Skeleton key: Diverse complex networks have similar skeletons Posted: 01 Jun 2012 08:15 PM PDT Researchers have discovered that very different complex networks -- ranging from global air traffic to neural networks -- share very similar backbones. By stripping each network down to its essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton and these skeletons share common features, much like vertebrates do. The findings could be particularly useful in understanding how something -- a disease, a rumor or information -- spreads across a network.

Monkey lip smacks provide new insights into the evolution of human speech Posted: 31 May 2012 10:56 AM PDT Scientists have traditionally sought the evolutionary origins of human speech in primate vocalizations. But unlike these primate calls, human speech is produced using movements of the tongue, lips and jaw. Speech is also learned, while primate vocalizations are mostly innately structured. New research supports the idea that human speech evolved less from vocalizations than from communicative facial gestures.

Equality or hierarchy? Built-in hierachy leads to greater productivity and fewer conflicts Posted: 30 May 2012 12:23 PM PDT Despite our inclination to believe equality within a team or group is important, new research suggests that a built-in hierarchy leads to fewer group conflicts and higher productivity. Teams in which everyone has high power are likely to experience elevated levels of conflict, reduced role differentiations, less coordination and integration, and poorer productivity than teams with a broader distribution of power and status.

Anthropologists find American heads are getting larger Posted: 30 May 2012 08:58 AM PDT Forensic anthropologists examined 1,500 skulls dating back to the mid-1800s through the mid-1980s. They noticed US skulls have become larger, taller and narrower as seen from the front and faces have become significantly narrower and higher.

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