ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• 'Spooky action' builds a wormhole between 'entangled' quantum particles
• Tongue-drive wheelchair works better than sip-and-puff system
• Hubble traces subtle signals of water on hazy worlds
• Manufacturing new gut to treat GI diseases
• Unlikely collaboration leads to discovery of 'gender-bending' plant
• Our pupils adjust as we imagine bright and dark scenes
• New evidence suggests Neanderthals organized their living spaces
• Face to face with Sweden's social robot
• Division of labor in the test tube: Bacteria grow faster if they feed each other
• The secret beauty of the World Wide Web
• Living desert underground: In perpetual darkness of limestone cave, surprisingly diverse ecosystem of microbes
• Goals affect feelings of pride, shame after success, failure
• Mice can inherit learned sensitivity to a smell

'Spooky action' builds a wormhole between 'entangled' quantum particles Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:15 PM PST New research indicates a phenomenon known as "quantum entanglement" might be intrinsically linked with wormholes, hypothetical features of space-time that could link one part of the universe with another.

Tongue-drive wheelchair works better than sip-and-puff system Posted: 03 Dec 2013 11:18 AM PST After a diving accident left Jason DiSanto paralyzed from the neck down in 2009, he had to learn how to navigate life from a powered wheelchair, which he controls with a sip-and-puff system. Users sip or puff air into a straw mounted on their wheelchair to execute four basic commands that drive the chair. But results from a new clinical study offer hope that sip-and-puff users like DiSanto could gain a higher level of independence than offered by this common assistive technology. Researchers found that people with tetraplegia can maneuver a wheelchair better with the Tongue Drive System than with the sip-and-puff system.

Hubble traces subtle signals of water on hazy worlds Posted: 03 Dec 2013 10:38 AM PST Using the powerful eye of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets. The presence of atmospheric water was reported previously on a few exoplanets orbiting stars beyond our solar system, but this is the first study to conclusively measure and compare the profiles and intensities of these signatures on multiple worlds.

Manufacturing new gut to treat GI diseases Posted: 03 Dec 2013 08:22 AM PST Researchers grow extensive numbers of intestinal stem cells, then coax them to develop into different types of mature intestinal cells.

Unlikely collaboration leads to discovery of 'gender-bending' plant Posted: 03 Dec 2013 08:22 AM PST Biologists have discovered and described a new species of wild eggplant, found in Australia's Lost City. The plant is curiously described as "gender bending," coming from the fact that the females actually pretend to be male by producing pollen.

Our pupils adjust as we imagine bright and dark scenes Posted: 03 Dec 2013 06:16 AM PST Conjuring up a visual image in the mind -- like a sunny day or a night sky -- has a corresponding effect on the size of our pupils, as if we were actually seeing the image.

New evidence suggests Neanderthals organized their living spaces Posted: 03 Dec 2013 06:16 AM PST Scientists have found that Neanderthals organized their living spaces in ways that would be familiar to modern humans, a discovery that once again shows similarities between these two close cousins.

Face to face with Sweden's social robot Posted: 03 Dec 2013 06:15 AM PST Human interaction with robots is about to get a little more personal. Meet "Furhat," the face of tomorrow's interactive technology.

Division of labor in the test tube: Bacteria grow faster if they feed each other Posted: 03 Dec 2013 06:14 AM PST The division of labor is more efficient than a struggle through life without help from others -- this is also true for microorganisms. Researchers came to this conclusion when they performed experiments with microbes. The scientists worked with bacteria that were deficient in the production of a certain amino acid and therefore depended on a partner to provide the missing nutrient.

The secret beauty of the World Wide Web Posted: 03 Dec 2013 06:07 AM PST From a distance, these newly created visualizations look likes stars exploding, fireworks or simply striking patterns -- but what you're actually looking at are the hidden dimensions of the World Wide Web.

Living desert underground: In perpetual darkness of limestone cave, surprisingly diverse ecosystem of microbes Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:22 PM PST Researchers have discovered a surprisingly diverse ecosystem of microbes in a limestone cave near Tucson, Arizona, eking out a living from not much more than drip water, rock and air. The discovery not only expands our understanding of how microbes manage to colonize every niche on the planet but also could lead to applications ranging from environmental cleanup solutions to drug development.

Goals affect feelings of pride, shame after success, failure Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:48 AM PST When the St. Louis Cardinals lost the World Series, just how much shame did the players feel? According to researchers, a person's goals at the outset of a competence-based task, such as a sporting event, can influence how much shame or pride he or she feels upon completion of the task.

Mice can inherit learned sensitivity to a smell Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:15 AM PST A surprising example of apparent inheritance of an experience: Researchers found that when a mouse is trained to become afraid of a certain odor, his or her pups will be more sensitive to that odor, even though the pups have never encountered it.

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