ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Scientists develop worm EEG to test the effects of drugs
• Baby's life saved with groundbreaking 3-D printed device that restored his breathing
• Top 10 new species of 2012
• Innovation could bring flexible solar cells, transistors, displays
• Mosquito behavior may be immune response, not parasite manipulation
• Forecast for Saturn's moon Titan: Wild weather could be ahead
• Making chaos visible: As chaos celebrates its 50th birthday, biophysicist Christian Herbst develops a new method to visualize it
• Norway spruce genome sequenced: Largest ever to be mapped
• How immune system peacefully co-exists with 'good' bacteria
• Footwear's (carbon) footprint: Bulk of shoes' carbon footprint comes from manufacturing processes
• Vast methane-based ecosystem uncovered
• Drought makes Borneo's trees flower at the same time
• Polymer breakthrough inspired by trees and ancient celtic knots
• Big Data, for better or worse: 90% of world's data generated over last two years
• Bird's playlist could signal mental strengths and weaknesses

Scientists develop worm EEG to test the effects of drugs Posted: 22 May 2013 03:01 PM PDT Scientists have developed a device which records the brain activity of worms to help test the effects of drugs. NeuroChip is a microfluidic electrophysiological device, which can trap the microscopic worm Caenorhadbitis elegans and record the activity of discrete neural circuits in its 'brain' - a worm equivalent of the EEG.

Baby's life saved with groundbreaking 3-D printed device that restored his breathing Posted: 22 May 2013 03:01 PM PDT A bioresorbable splint has been created and used for first time at the University of Michigan, where doctors implanted the device in an infant and stopped a life-threatening condition called tracheobronchomalacia.

Top 10 new species of 2012 Posted: 22 May 2013 01:39 PM PDT An amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach, a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge and the smallest vertebrate on Earth are just three of the newly discovered top 10 species selected by a global committee of taxonomists.

Innovation could bring flexible solar cells, transistors, displays Posted: 22 May 2013 11:20 AM PDT Researchers have created a new type of transparent electrode that might find uses in solar cells, flexible displays for computers and consumer electronics and future "optoelectronic" circuits for sensors and information processing.

Mosquito behavior may be immune response, not parasite manipulation Posted: 22 May 2013 11:20 AM PDT Malaria-carrying mosquitoes appear to be manipulated by the parasites they carry, but this manipulation may simply be part of the mosquitoes' immune response, according to entomologists.

Forecast for Saturn's moon Titan: Wild weather could be ahead Posted: 22 May 2013 10:32 AM PDT Saturn's moon Titan might be in for some wild weather as it heads into its spring and summer, if two new models are correct. Scientists think that as the seasons change in Titan's northern hemisphere, waves could ripple across the moon's hydrocarbon seas, and hurricanes could begin to swirl over these areas, too. The model predicting waves tries to explain data from the moon obtained so far by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Both models help mission team members plan when and where to look for unusual atmospheric disturbances as Titan summer approaches.

Making chaos visible: As chaos celebrates its 50th birthday, biophysicist Christian Herbst develops a new method to visualize it Posted: 22 May 2013 10:12 AM PDT Exactly 50 years after the US-American meteorologist Edward Lorenz discovered chaos (remember the "butterfly effect?") the topic is still as fascinating as ever. A new visualization technique helps to make chaos visible to the naked eye. The method allows for the intuitive interpretation of chaotic or nearly chaotic phenomena, and thus makes the fascinating world of chaos theory more accessible to the scientific community.

Norway spruce genome sequenced: Largest ever to be mapped Posted: 22 May 2013 10:10 AM PDT Scientists have mapped the gene sequence of Norway spruce (the Christmas tree) -- a species with huge economic and ecological importance -- and that is the largest genome to have ever been mapped. The genome is complex and seven times larger than that of humans.

How immune system peacefully co-exists with 'good' bacteria Posted: 22 May 2013 10:09 AM PDT The human gut is loaded with helpful bacteria microbes, yet the immune system seemingly turns a blind eye. Now, researchers know how this friendly truce is kept intact. Innate lymphoid cells directly limit the response by inflammatory T cells to commensal bacteria in the gut of mice. Loss of this ILC function effectively puts the immune system on an extended war footing against the commensal bacteria a condition observed in multiple chronic inflammatory diseases.

Footwear's (carbon) footprint: Bulk of shoes' carbon footprint comes from manufacturing processes Posted: 22 May 2013 09:31 AM PDT A typical pair of running shoes generates 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to keeping a 100-watt light bulb on for one week, according to a new lifecycle assessment.

Vast methane-based ecosystem uncovered Posted: 22 May 2013 09:30 AM PDT A marine research expedition has led to the discovery of perhaps the world's largest methane cold seep. The seep lies deep in the western North Atlantic Ocean, far from the life-sustaining energy of the sun. Mussels blanketing the the seep rely on bacteria that use the methane to make energy. The process, known as chemosynthesis, forms the basis for life in the harsh environment and could help scientists better understand how organisms can survive under these types of extreme conditions.

Drought makes Borneo's trees flower at the same time Posted: 22 May 2013 05:53 AM PDT Tropical plants flower at supra-annual irregular intervals. In addition, mass flowering is typical for the tropical forests in Borneo and elsewhere, where hundreds of different plant timber species from the Dipterocarpaceae family flower synchronously. This phenomenon is all the more puzzling because both temperature and day length are relatively constant all year round due to geographical proximity to the equator.

Polymer breakthrough inspired by trees and ancient celtic knots Posted: 22 May 2013 05:53 AM PDT A new slow-motion method of controlling the synthesis of polymers, which takes inspiration from both trees and Celtic knots, opens up new possibilities in areas including medical devices, drug delivery, elastics and adhesives.

Big Data, for better or worse: 90% of world's data generated over last two years Posted: 22 May 2013 05:52 AM PDT A full 90 percent of all the data in the world has been generated over the last two years. Internet-based companies are awash with data that can be grouped and utilized. Is this a good thing?

Bird's playlist could signal mental strengths and weaknesses Posted: 21 May 2013 04:41 PM PDT Having the biggest playlist doesn't make a male songbird the brainiest of the bunch, a new study shows. In a series of problem-solving tests with the birds, researchers found that the male song sparrows that sang the most songs learned to solve food-finding puzzles more slowly than the birds singing fewer songs. The results are the first to show that a larger song repertoire links to cognitive deficits in other mental processes.

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