ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Traffic jams lend insight into emperor penguin huddle
• Spurred by food allergies, two esophagus conditions stump doctors
• 'Superbugs' found breeding in sewage plants
• Ultrafast heating of water: This pot boils faster than you can watch it
• Mothers see their youngest as shorter than they are
• Loudspeaker is first-ever 3-D-printed consumer electronic
• Life's not a squeeze for pregnant women
• Green innovator: Turning chicken feathers and plant fiber into eco-leather, bio-based circuit boards
• How healthy is Santa Claus?
• Health spending more efficient for men than women
• Hormones in the crosshairs
• Worms and hot baths: Novel approaches to treating autism
• East Antarctica is sliding sideways: Ice loss on West Antarctica affecting mantle flow below

Traffic jams lend insight into emperor penguin huddle Posted: 16 Dec 2013 05:40 PM PST Emperor penguins maintain the tight huddle that protects them from the harsh conditions of an Antarctic winter with stop-and-go movements like cars in a traffic jam, a new study has shown.

Spurred by food allergies, two esophagus conditions stump doctors Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:50 PM PST Researchers found that two on-the-rise esophagus conditions are so similar that even a biopsy is not enough to distinguish one disease from the other.

'Superbugs' found breeding in sewage plants Posted: 16 Dec 2013 11:28 AM PST Tests at wastewater treatment plants in China revealed antibiotic-resistant bacteria were not only escaping purification but also breeding and spreading their dangerous cargo.

Ultrafast heating of water: This pot boils faster than you can watch it Posted: 16 Dec 2013 11:26 AM PST Scientists have devised a novel way to boil water in less than a trillionth of a second. The theoretical concept, which has not yet been demonstrated in practice, could heat a small amount of water by as much as 600 degrees Celsius in just half a picosecond (a trillionth of a second). This would make the technique the fastest water-heating method on Earth.

Mothers see their youngest as shorter than they are Posted: 16 Dec 2013 11:25 AM PST Many parents say when their second child is born that their first child suddenly appears to have grown overnight. Now, researchers have an explanation: until the birth of the new child, those parents were subject to a "baby illusion," routinely misperceiving their youngest child as smaller (and younger) than he or she really was.

Loudspeaker is first-ever 3-D-printed consumer electronic Posted: 16 Dec 2013 11:22 AM PST Researchers have 3-D printed a working loudspeaker, seamlessly integrating the plastic, conductive and magnetic parts, and ready for use almost as soon as it comes out of the printer.

Life's not a squeeze for pregnant women Posted: 16 Dec 2013 06:53 AM PST Despite their changed body size, pregnant women are just as good as other people at judging whether they are able to fit through openings, such as doorways, or not. This is thanks to a process called perceptual-motor recalibration that helps people to adjust their spatial awareness of their environment based on changes in their body's size and abilities. This research is the first to report such perceptual recalibration in response to actual growth rather than on the experimentally induced manipulation of body size.

Green innovator: Turning chicken feathers and plant fiber into eco-leather, bio-based circuit boards Posted: 16 Dec 2013 06:46 AM PST A scientist is turning materials like chicken feathers, vegetable oil, and plant fiber into such green innovations as eco-leather and bio-based circuit boards.

How healthy is Santa Claus? Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:30 AM PST Children around the world look to Santa Claus as a model of good behavior. But can this sleigh-riding bearer of goodies also be a model good health habits for adults?

Health spending more efficient for men than women Posted: 12 Dec 2013 03:34 PM PST Health care spending is a large – and ever increasing - portion of government budgets. Improving its efficiency has therefore become critically important. In the first-ever study to estimate health spending efficiency by gender across 27 industrialized nations, researchers discovered significant disparities within countries, with stronger gains in life expectancy for men than for women in nearly every nation.

Hormones in the crosshairs Posted: 12 Dec 2013 07:02 AM PST When it comes to hunting, anthropologists and evolutionary scientists have long wondered -- and debated -- what, exactly, is the motivating factor behind hunting. Do men take down game for the purpose of feeding their families, or is there an element of showmanship and the hope of gaining access to healthier, more fertile mates?

Worms and hot baths: Novel approaches to treating autism Posted: 12 Dec 2013 07:00 AM PST Two unusual treatment approaches may have beneficial effects on the symptoms of autism in children and adults. Using a hot bath to raise body temperature and thereby mimic the effects of infection, or using worm eggs to stimulate the production of immunoregulatory factors in the gut to diminish inflammatory signals, both attenuated symptoms of autism. These findings support the idea that disruption of systems in the body that control inflammation may contribute to the disorder.

East Antarctica is sliding sideways: Ice loss on West Antarctica affecting mantle flow below Posted: 11 Dec 2013 10:24 AM PST It's official: East Antarctica is pushing West Antarctica around. Now that West Antarctica is losing weight -- that is, billions of tons of ice per year -- its softer mantle rock is being nudged westward by the harder mantle beneath East Antarctica. This movement is important for understanding current ice loss on the continent, and predicting future ice loss.

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