ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Lifelike, cost-effective robotic hand can disable IEDs
• 'Electronic nose' prototype developed: Device has applications in agriculture, industry, homeland security and the military
• Brain's code for pronouncing vowels uncovered
• Footprints of cretaceous dinosaur found at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
• Halo of neutrinos alters physics of exploding stars
• Intense bursts of star formation drive fierce galactic winds
• Sun's plasma loops recreated in the lab to help understand solar physics
• Patient suffers severe amnesia but musical memory remains intact
• Big picture of the universe confirmed, WiggleZ survey of more than 200,000 galaxies shows
• In your future: More healthful foods to nourish the non-human you
• Recovering Baltic cod is lacking food

Lifelike, cost-effective robotic hand can disable IEDs Posted: 21 Aug 2012 07:20 PM PDT Researchers have developed a cost-effective robotic hand that can be used in disarming improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

'Electronic nose' prototype developed: Device has applications in agriculture, industry, homeland security and the military Posted: 21 Aug 2012 01:25 PM PDT Research has led to the development of an "electronic nose" prototype that can detect small quantities of harmful airborne substances.

Brain's code for pronouncing vowels uncovered Posted: 21 Aug 2012 11:36 AM PDT Scientists have unraveled how our brain cells encode the pronunciation of individual vowels in speech. The discovery could lead to new technology that verbalizes the unspoken words of people paralyzed by injury or disease.

Footprints of cretaceous dinosaur found at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Posted: 21 Aug 2012 09:03 AM PDT About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC 3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. Here on the part of the Earth where NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center would eventually be built, a plant-eating dinosaur sensed predators nearby and quickened its pace, leaving a deep imprint in the Cretaceous mud.

Halo of neutrinos alters physics of exploding stars Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:44 AM PDT Sparse halos of neutrinos within the hearts of exploding stars exert a previously unrecognized influence on the physics of the explosion and may alter which elements can be forged by these violent events.

Intense bursts of star formation drive fierce galactic winds Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:44 AM PDT Fierce galactic winds powered by an intense burst of star formation may blow gas right out of massive galaxies, shutting down their ability to make new stars.

Sun's plasma loops recreated in the lab to help understand solar physics Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:44 AM PDT In orbit around Earth is a wide range of satellites that we rely on for everything from television feeds to GPS navigation. Although these spacecraft soar high above storms on Earth, they are still vulnerable to weather from the sun. Large solar flares can cause widespread damage, which is why researchers are working to learn more about the possible precursors to solar flares called plasma loops by recreating them in the lab.

Patient suffers severe amnesia but musical memory remains intact Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:40 AM PDT Scientists have examined a professional cellist who suffered from encephalitis caused by a herpes virus. As a result of the inflammation, the patient developed serious disturbances in memory. Both his memory for the past (retrograde amnesia), as well as the acquisition of new information (anterograde amnesia) were affected. Whereas the patient was unable to recount any events from his private or professional life, or remember any of his friends or relatives, he retained a completely intact musical memory.

Big picture of the universe confirmed, WiggleZ survey of more than 200,000 galaxies shows Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:40 AM PDT We know that stars group together to form galaxies, galaxies clump to make clusters and clusters gather to create structures known as superclusters. At what scale though, if at all, does this Russian doll-like structure stop? Scientists have been debating this very question for decades because clustering on large scales would be in conflict with our 'standard model' of cosmology. The current model is based on Einstein's equations assuming everything is smooth on the largest scales. If matter were instead clumpy on very large scales, then the entire model would need to be rethought.

In your future: More healthful foods to nourish the non-human you Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:38 AM PDT The focus of nutrition for good health is quietly shifting to include consumption of food ingredients specifically designed to nourish the non-human cells that comprise 80 percent of the cells in the typical person, an authority on the topic says.

Recovering Baltic cod is lacking food Posted: 20 Aug 2012 06:36 AM PDT The eastern Baltic cod stock has recently started to recover, after two decades of severe depletion, however with unexpected side-effects. While the numbers of cod are increasing, the biomass of sprat and herring, a major prey for adult cod, is at a historic low in the main distribution area of cod. Consequently, the cod are having a hard time finding enough to eat.

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