ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Synthetic stool can cure C. difficile infection, study suggests
• Cheating slime mold gets the upper hand
• Australia's stampeding dinosaurs take a dip: Largely tracks of swimming rather than running animals
• Testing Einstein's famous equation E=mc2 in outer space
• Oscillating gel gives synthetic materials the ability to 'speak': Material rebuilds itself through chemical communication
• Global warming beneficial to ratsnakes
• Icing on a lake: Blocks of hydrocarbon ice might decorate surface of lakes and seas on Saturn's moon Titan
• New biochip technology uses tiny whirlpools to corral microbes
• Genetic matchmaking saves endangered frogs
• An underground airport, tube-travelling pigeons and giant locusts: Cultural research into London Underground
• Females tagged in wasp mating game
• Parasitic worms may help treat diseases associated with obesity
• Space sailing soon: A one-kilometer-long electric sail tether produced
• Physics students disprove children's author Roald Dahl's peach calculation
• Keeping to your New Year resolutions with PiFace

Synthetic stool can cure C. difficile infection, study suggests Posted: 08 Jan 2013 05:16 PM PST A newly developed synthetic "poop" can cure nasty gastrointestinal infections caused by Clostridium difficile, a toxin-producing bacterium, a new study suggests.

Cheating slime mold gets the upper hand Posted: 08 Jan 2013 05:15 PM PST A  'cheater' mutation (chtB) in Dictyostelium discoideum, a free living slime mould able to co-operate as social organism when food is scarce, allows the cheater strain to exploit its social partner, finds a new study. The mutation ensures that when mixed with 'normal' Dictyostelium  more than the fair share of cheaters become spores, dispersing to a new environment, and avoiding dying as stalk cells.

Australia's stampeding dinosaurs take a dip: Largely tracks of swimming rather than running animals Posted: 08 Jan 2013 04:02 PM PST Queensland paleontologists have discovered that the world's only recorded dinosaur stampede is largely made up of the tracks of swimming rather than running animals.

Testing Einstein's famous equation E=mc2 in outer space Posted: 08 Jan 2013 01:22 PM PST A team of physicists have stirred the physics community with an intriguing idea yet to be tested experimentally: The world's most iconic equation, Albert Einstein's E=mc2, may be correct or not depending on where you are in space.

Oscillating gel gives synthetic materials the ability to 'speak': Material rebuilds itself through chemical communication Posted: 08 Jan 2013 01:16 PM PST Self-moving gels can give synthetic materials the ability to "act alive" and mimic primitive biological communication, scientists have found. In a new paper, researchers demonstrate that a synthetic system can reconfigure itself through a combination of chemical communication and interaction with light.

Global warming beneficial to ratsnakes Posted: 08 Jan 2013 10:20 AM PST Speculation about how animals will respond to climate change due to global warming led researchers to conduct a study of ratsnakes at three different latitudes -- Ontario, Illinois, and Texas. His findings suggest that ratsnakes will be able to adapt to the higher temperatures by becoming more active at night.

Icing on a lake: Blocks of hydrocarbon ice might decorate surface of lakes and seas on Saturn's moon Titan Posted: 08 Jan 2013 09:36 AM PST It's not exactly icing on a cake, but it could be icing on a lake. A new paper by scientists on NASA's Cassini mission finds that blocks of hydrocarbon ice might decorate the surface of existing lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbon on Saturn's moon Titan. The presence of ice floes might explain some of the mixed readings Cassini has seen in the reflectivity of the surfaces of lakes on Titan.

New biochip technology uses tiny whirlpools to corral microbes Posted: 08 Jan 2013 09:29 AM PST Researchers have demonstrated a new technology that combines a laser and electric fields to create tiny centrifuge-like whirlpools to separate particles and microbes by size, a potential lab-on-a-chip system for medicine and research.

Genetic matchmaking saves endangered frogs Posted: 08 Jan 2013 09:29 AM PST What if Noah got it wrong? What if he paired a male and a female animal thinking they were the same species, and then discovered they were not the same and could not produce offspring? As researchers from the Smithsonian's Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project race to save frogs from a devastating disease by breeding them in captivity, a genetic test averts mating mix-ups.

An underground airport, tube-travelling pigeons and giant locusts: Cultural research into London Underground Posted: 08 Jan 2013 09:27 AM PST Did you know that the London Underground once planned to build its own airport? Or that the creators of the first Underground line originally intended that it would terminate in Paris? Or that pigeons regularly get on at Hammersmith and get off at Ladbroke Grove?

Females tagged in wasp mating game Posted: 08 Jan 2013 08:24 AM PST The flick of an antenna may be how a male wasp lays claim to his harem, according to new research. A team of biologists found that when a male targeted a female, he would approach from her from the left side, and once in range, uses the tip of his antenna to tap her antenna.

Parasitic worms may help treat diseases associated with obesity Posted: 08 Jan 2013 08:24 AM PST On the list of undesirable medical conditions, a parasitic worm infection surely ranks fairly high. But parasites are not all bad, according to new research. A study demonstrates that once inside a host, many parasitic worms secrete a sugar-based anti-inflammatory molecule that might actually help treat metabolic disorders associated with obesity.

Space sailing soon: A one-kilometer-long electric sail tether produced Posted: 08 Jan 2013 05:41 AM PST An electric sail (ESAIL) produces propulsion power for a spacecraft by utilizing the solar wind. The sail features electrically charged long and thin metal tethers that interact with the solar wind. Using ultrasonic welding,engineers successfully produced a 1 km long ESAIL tether.

Physics students disprove children's author Roald Dahl's peach calculation Posted: 08 Jan 2013 05:41 AM PST Four students have calculated that it would take 2,425,907 seagulls, rather than the 501 described in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, to airlift the giant peach across the Atlantic Ocean.

Keeping to your New Year resolutions with PiFace Posted: 08 Jan 2013 05:41 AM PST After a festive period of excess, a January diet is one of the most common New Year resolutions for many people. Sticking to it, however, is harder, with temptation around every corner and inside every cupboard. Now scientists have come up with a unique deterrent -- a talking, tweeting chicken guarding your cupboards to shame hungry dieters into abstaining. The chicken, which not only barks out orders to sneaky snackers, but even tweets that person's Twitter account to publicly shame them if they stray, uses a Raspberry Pi -- a tiny, single-board computer.

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