ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Seeing light in a new light: Scientists create never-before-seen form of matter
• Engineers build computer using carbon nanotube technology
• 'Jekyll and Hyde' star morphs from radio to X-ray pulsar and back again
• Tiny antennas let long light waves see in infrared
• Fetching faces and friendly foxes
• Sheep mucosa shows the way to more effective medicine for neurological diseases
• With carbon nanotubes, a path to flexible, low-cost sensors: Potential applications range from air-quality monitors to electronic skin
• Turning plastic bags into high-tech materials
• New genus of electric fish discovered in 'lost world' of South America
• Tweets reveal news readership patterns around the world
• The 'in-law effect': Male fruit flies sleep around but females keep it in the family
• 'Microbial clock' may help determine time of death
• Tattoo tributes, mobile memorials and virtual visitations: Grieving in the 21st century

Seeing light in a new light: Scientists create never-before-seen form of matter Posted: 25 Sep 2013 10:23 AM PDT Scientists have managed to coax photons into binding together to form molecules -- a state of matter that, until recently, had been purely theoretical.

Engineers build computer using carbon nanotube technology Posted: 25 Sep 2013 10:23 AM PDT Silicon chips could soon hit physical limits preventing them from getting smaller and faster. Carbon nanotube technology has been seen as a potential successor. But so far no one's been able to put all the pieces together. Stanford's CNT computer is therefore an important proof of principle. And while this is a bare-bones device, the processes used to create the world's first CNT computer are designed to scale.

'Jekyll and Hyde' star morphs from radio to X-ray pulsar and back again Posted: 25 Sep 2013 10:22 AM PDT Astronomers have uncovered the strange case of a neutron star with the peculiar ability to transform from a radio pulsar into an X-ray pulsar and back again. This star's capricious behavior appears to be fueled by a nearby companion star and may give new insights into the birth of millisecond pulsars.

Tiny antennas let long light waves see in infrared Posted: 25 Sep 2013 10:06 AM PDT Researchers have developed arrays of tiny nano-antennas that can enable sensing of molecules that resonate in the infrared spectrum. The semiconductor antenna arrays allow long-wavelength light to strongly interact with nano-scale substances, so the arrays could enhance the detection of small volumes of materials.

Fetching faces and friendly foxes Posted: 25 Sep 2013 08:25 AM PDT 'What is beautiful is good' -- but why? A recent article provides a compelling physiological explanation for the 'beauty stereotype' - why human beings are wired to favor the beautiful ones.

Sheep mucosa shows the way to more effective medicine for neurological diseases Posted: 25 Sep 2013 07:30 AM PDT New research shows how medicine for the brain can be absorbed through the nose. This paves the way to more effective treatment of neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and tumors in the brain.

With carbon nanotubes, a path to flexible, low-cost sensors: Potential applications range from air-quality monitors to electronic skin Posted: 25 Sep 2013 07:28 AM PDT Researchers are showing the way toward low-cost, industrial-scale manufacturing of a new family of electronic devices. A leading example is a gas sensor that could be integrated into food packaging to gauge freshness, or into compact wireless air-quality monitors. Flexible pressure and temperature sensors could be built into electronic skin. All these devices can be made with carbon nanotubes, sprayed like ink onto flexible plastic sheets or other substrates.

Turning plastic bags into high-tech materials Posted: 25 Sep 2013 07:26 AM PDT Researchers have developed a process for turning waste plastic bags into a high-tech nanomaterial. The innovative nanotechnology uses non-biodegradable plastic grocery bags to make 'carbon nanotube membranes' -- highly sophisticated and expensive materials with a variety of potential advanced applications including filtration, sensing, energy storage and a range of biomedical innovations.

New genus of electric fish discovered in 'lost world' of South America Posted: 25 Sep 2013 06:22 AM PDT A previously unknown genus of electric fish has been identified in a remote region of South America by team of international researchers. The Akawaio penak, a thin, eel-like electric fish, was discovered in the shallow, murky waters of the upper Mazaruni River is northern Guyana.

Tweets reveal news readership patterns around the world Posted: 25 Sep 2013 06:22 AM PDT In a new article, researchers used data collected from Twitter to study readers' news preferences across the globe and discovered that different countries have stronger preference towards different types of articles -- American and British readers are more drawn to opinion and world news, Spaniards to local and national news, Brazilians to sports and arts, and Germans to politics and economy.

The 'in-law effect': Male fruit flies sleep around but females keep it in the family Posted: 24 Sep 2013 04:36 PM PDT A study of mating preferences in fruit flies (Drosophila) has found that males and females respond to the sexual familiarity of potential mates in fundamentally different ways. While male fruit flies preferred to court an unknown female over their previous mate or her sisters, female fruit flies displayed a predilection for their 'brothers-in-law'.

'Microbial clock' may help determine time of death Posted: 24 Sep 2013 12:39 PM PDT An intriguing study may provide a powerful new tool in the quiver of forensic scientists attempting to determine the time of death in cases involving human corpses: A microbial clock.

Tattoo tributes, mobile memorials and virtual visitations: Grieving in the 21st century Posted: 24 Sep 2013 12:36 PM PDT "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" may be the traditional view when it comes to death. But "ashes to tattoos" is one unconventional way people have found to honor their dead, as mourning goes skin-deep, mobile, wearable and virtual this century. It's all part of denying the "messiness of the corpse" and "returning" the dead.

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