ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Black hole birth captured: Biggest, brightest to happen in at least 20 years
• The era of neutrino astronomy has begun
• Two Y genes can replace the entire Y chromosome for assisted reproduction in mice
• Monster gamma-ray burst in our cosmic neighborhood
• Genetic defect keeps verbal cues from hitting the mark: Gene found in human speech problems affects singing, not learning in songbirds
• The company you keep shapes what you learn, study in locusts suggests
• Power boosting self-cleaning solar panels
• Captive breeding for thousands of years has impaired olfactory functions in silkmoths
• Infant galaxies merging near 'cosmic dawn'
• Playing computer games together makes brains feel and think alike
• Amazon drones: The latest weapon in combatting climate change
• Who are you looking at? Why women recognise more faces than men
• Amount of iron in blood can be measured using mobile phone
• See a Honda, buy a Mountain Dew? What happens when consumers fast-forward through commercials?
• Higher emotional intelligence leads to better decision-making

Black hole birth captured: Biggest, brightest to happen in at least 20 years Posted: 21 Nov 2013 11:23 AM PST Intelligent telescopes designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory got a front row seat recently for an unusual birth. "This was the burst of the century," said James Wren, one of the scientists involved in the discovery. "It's the biggest, brightest one to happen in at least 20 years, and maybe even longer than that."

The era of neutrino astronomy has begun Posted: 21 Nov 2013 11:22 AM PST Astrophysicists using a telescope embedded in Antarctic ice have detected the mysterious phenomena known as cosmic neutrinos -- nearly massless particles streaming to Earth at the speed of light from outside our solar system, striking in a powerful burst of energy. Researchers now will try to detect the cosmic neutrinos' source.

Two Y genes can replace the entire Y chromosome for assisted reproduction in mice Posted: 21 Nov 2013 11:22 AM PST Live mouse offspring can be generated with assisted reproduction using germ cells from males with the Y chromosome contribution limited to only two genes: the testis determinant factor Sry and the spermatogonial proliferation factor Eif2s3y.

Monster gamma-ray burst in our cosmic neighborhood Posted: 21 Nov 2013 11:22 AM PST Gamma-ray bursts are violent bursts of gamma radiation associated with exploding massive stars. For the first time ever, researchers have observed an unusually powerful gamma-ray burst in the relatively nearby universe -- a monster gamma-ray burst.

Genetic defect keeps verbal cues from hitting the mark: Gene found in human speech problems affects singing, not learning in songbirds Posted: 21 Nov 2013 09:59 AM PST A genetic defect that profoundly affects speech in humans also disrupts the ability of songbirds to sing effective courtship tunes. This defect in a gene called FoxP2 renders the brain circuitry insensitive to feel-good chemicals that serve as a reward for speaking the correct syllable or hitting the right note, a recent study shows.

The company you keep shapes what you learn, study in locusts suggests Posted: 21 Nov 2013 09:58 AM PST A team of scientists has shown how the environment shapes learning and memory by training locusts like Pavlov's dog to associate different smells with reward or punishment.

Power boosting self-cleaning solar panels Posted: 21 Nov 2013 08:18 AM PST High-power, self-cleaning solar panels might be coming soon to a roof near you. There are two obvious problems with photovoltaic cells, solar panels. First, they are very shiny and so a lot of the incident sunlight is simply reflected back into the sky rather than being converted into electricity. Secondly, they get dirty with dust and debris caught on the wind and residues left behind by rain and birds. Now, new research suggests that it might be possible to add a nanoscopic relief pattern to the surface of solar cells that makes them non-reflective significantly boosting efficiency and at the same time making them highly non-stick and self-cleaning.

Captive breeding for thousands of years has impaired olfactory functions in silkmoths Posted: 21 Nov 2013 07:38 AM PST Domesticated silkmoths Bombyx mori have a much more limited perception of environmental odors compared to their wild relatives. A new study on silkmoths revealed that the insects' ability to perceive environmental odours has been reduced after about 5000 years of domestication by humans. Scientists compared olfactory functions in Bombyx mori and in their wild ancestors. Perception of the pheromone bombykol, however, remained highly sensitive in domesticated males.

Infant galaxies merging near 'cosmic dawn' Posted: 21 Nov 2013 07:36 AM PST Astronomers using the combined power of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a far-flung trio of primitive galaxies nestled inside an enormous blob of primordial gas nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth.

Playing computer games together makes brains feel and think alike Posted: 21 Nov 2013 06:14 AM PST Scientists have discovered that playing computer games can bring players' emotional responses and brain activity into unison. By measuring the activity of facial muscles and imaging the brain while gaming, the group found out that people go through similar emotions and display matching brainwaves.

Amazon drones: The latest weapon in combatting climate change Posted: 21 Nov 2013 06:12 AM PST A flying, insect-like robot will give an unprecedented look at Peru's tropical cloud forest, one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and a key indicator of global climate change.

Who are you looking at? Why women recognise more faces than men Posted: 20 Nov 2013 05:13 AM PST Numerous studies have reported that women outperform men when it comes to face recognition faces, but most have focused on assessing innate biases in favor of race, gender, and age. Now a major literature review concludes that, in the majority of tests, women are better at face recognition than men, irrespective of all other factors.

Amount of iron in blood can be measured using mobile phone Posted: 20 Nov 2013 05:12 AM PST Researchers have developed a smart material which changes color based on the amount of iron in a fluid, whether it be water, wine or blood serum. Afterwards, if the result is photographed with a digital camera such as those on mobile phones, the concentration of this metal can be quantified without the need for chemical analysis. Soon, it could be possible to find out whether a person has a blood iron deficiency or overload with a mere pinch of the finger and a mobile phone.

See a Honda, buy a Mountain Dew? What happens when consumers fast-forward through commercials? Posted: 19 Nov 2013 04:39 PM PST Consumers are bombarded with advertising throughout the course of any given day, often to the point where they rarely devote any conscious attention to processing the brand information. According to a new study, this is not necessarily bad news for companies.

Higher emotional intelligence leads to better decision-making Posted: 19 Nov 2013 12:30 PM PST The anxiety people feel making investment decisions may have more to do with the traffic they dealt with earlier than the potential consequences they face with the investment, but not if the decision-maker has high emotional intelligence a recent study suggests.

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