ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Practice makes perfect? Not so much, new research finds
• Human-like opponents lead to more aggression in video game players
• Do salamanders' immune systems hold the key to regeneration?
• Non-wetting fabric that drains sweat invented
• Ant study could help future robot teams work underground
• Opening doors to foldable electronics with inkjet-printed graphene
• Fossil brain teaser: New study reveals patterns of dinosaur brain development
• Earth's iron core is surprisingly weak
• Lovelorn frogs bag closest crooner
• Making ice-cream more nutritious with meat left-overs
• Echolocation: Blind people have the potential to use their 'inner bat' to locate objects, study finds
• Engineered microbes grow in the dark
• Bacteria use hydrogen, carbon dioxide to produce electricity

Practice makes perfect? Not so much, new research finds Posted: 20 May 2013 01:39 PM PDT Turns out, that old "practice makes perfect" adage may be overblown. New research finds that a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities, chess and music.

Human-like opponents lead to more aggression in video game players Posted: 20 May 2013 01:39 PM PDT Video games that pit players against human-looking characters may be more likely to provoke violent thoughts and words than games where monstrous creatures are the enemy, according to a new study.

Do salamanders' immune systems hold the key to regeneration? Posted: 20 May 2013 01:37 PM PDT Salamanders' immune systems are key to their remarkable ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have found. In new research, scientists have found that when immune cells known as macrophages were systemically removed, salamanders lost their ability to regenerate a limb and instead formed scar tissue.

Non-wetting fabric that drains sweat invented Posted: 20 May 2013 01:36 PM PDT Waterproof fabrics that whisk away sweat could be the latest application of microfluidic technology developed by bioengineers.

Ant study could help future robot teams work underground Posted: 20 May 2013 01:32 PM PDT Future teams of subterranean search and rescue robots may owe their success to the lowly fire ant, a much-despised insect whose painful bites and extensive networks of underground tunnels are all-too-familiar to people living in the southern United States.

Opening doors to foldable electronics with inkjet-printed graphene Posted: 20 May 2013 12:42 PM PDT Imagine a bendable tablet computer or an electronic newspaper that could fold to fit in a pocket. The technology for these devices may not be so far off, thanks to new research.

Fossil brain teaser: New study reveals patterns of dinosaur brain development Posted: 20 May 2013 08:40 AM PDT A new study sheds light on how the brain and inner ear developed in dinosaurs. Using high-resolution CT scanning and 3D computer imaging, it was possible to reconstruct and visualise the brain and inner ear of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki -- a small, plant-eating dinosaur, which lived 150 million years ago, in what is now Tanzania.

Earth's iron core is surprisingly weak Posted: 20 May 2013 06:54 AM PDT Researchers have used a diamond anvil cell to squeeze iron at pressures as high as 3 million times that felt at sea level to recreate conditions at the center of Earth. The findings could refine theories of how the planet and its core evolved.

Lovelorn frogs bag closest crooner Posted: 20 May 2013 06:51 AM PDT What lures a lady frog to her lover? Good looks, the sound of his voice, the size of his pad or none of the above? After weighing up their options, female strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) bag the closest crooner they can. This seemingly short-sighted strategy turns out to be the optimal mate choice strategy for these colorful frogs.

Making ice-cream more nutritious with meat left-overs Posted: 20 May 2013 06:48 AM PDT Most of the animal proteins found in the meat industry waste have, until now, been underutilized. The challenge is to transform such waste into food of higher functionality and added value.

Echolocation: Blind people have the potential to use their 'inner bat' to locate objects, study finds Posted: 20 May 2013 06:48 AM PDT New research shows that blind and visually impaired people have the potential to use echolocation, similar to that used by bats and dolphins, to determine the location of an object. The study examined how hearing, and particularly the hearing of echoes, could help blind people with spatial awareness and navigation.

Engineered microbes grow in the dark Posted: 19 May 2013 04:11 PM PDT Scientists have engineered a strain of photosynthetic cyanobacteria to grow without the need for light.

Bacteria use hydrogen, carbon dioxide to produce electricity Posted: 19 May 2013 04:11 PM PDT Researchers have engineered a strain of electricity-producing bacteria that can grow using hydrogen gas as its sole electron donor and carbon dioxide as its sole source of carbon.

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