ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Ants build raft to escape flood, protect queen
• The musical brain: Novel study of jazz players shows common brain circuitry processes both music, language
• Smellizing — Imagining a Product's Smell — Increases Consumer Desire
• Brain signals move paralyzed limbs in new experiment
• Using holograms to improve electronic devices
• Making nanoelectronics last longer for medical devices, 'cyborgs'
• People tend to blame fate when faced with a hard decision
• The nose knows in asthma: Nasal tissue samples may advance personalized medicine for asthma
• Dreams, déjà vu and delusions caused by faulty 'reality testing,' research shows
• How stick insects honed friction to grip without sticking
• 'Gravity'-style space debris threat from giant satellite explored
• Deep freeze in the Great Lakes: Lakes nearly frozen completely for first time in 20 years
• Frequent flyers, bottle gourds crossed the ocean many times
• Nanodiamond-embedded contact lenses may improve glaucoma treatment
• Students invent 'aura' musical instrument using gloves
• Calico cats inspire X chromosome research
• Organic agriculture can pollute groundwater, research shows
• Sweet taste receptors act as sentinels in defense against upper airway bacterial infections

Ants build raft to escape flood, protect queen Posted: 19 Feb 2014 02:48 PM PST When facing a flood, ants build rafts and use both the buoyancy of the brood and the recovery ability of workers to minimize injury or death.

The musical brain: Novel study of jazz players shows common brain circuitry processes both music, language Posted: 19 Feb 2014 02:31 PM PST The brains of jazz musicians engrossed in spontaneous, improvisational musical conversation showed robust activation of brain areas traditionally associated with spoken language and syntax, which are used to interpret the structure of phrases and sentences. But this musical conversation shut down brain areas linked to semantics -- those that process the meaning of spoken language, according to results of a novel study.

Smellizing — Imagining a Product's Smell — Increases Consumer Desire Posted: 19 Feb 2014 01:03 PM PST Seeing is believing, but smellizing – a new term for prompting consumers to imagine the smell of a product – could be the next step toward more effective advertising. Researchers came to this conclusion through four studies of products most of us would like to smellize: cookies and cake. The researchers found that imagining what a tasty food smells like increases these types of responses only when the consumer also sees a picture of the advertised product.

Brain signals move paralyzed limbs in new experiment Posted: 19 Feb 2014 11:32 AM PST To help people suffering paralysis from injury, stroke or disease, scientists have invented brain-machine interfaces that record electrical signals of neurons in the brain and translate them to movement. Usually, that means the neural signals direct a device, like a robotic arm. Researchers are now bringing brain-machine interfaces to the next level: Instead of signals directing a device, they hope to help paralyzed people move their own limb, just by thinking about it.

Using holograms to improve electronic devices Posted: 19 Feb 2014 11:26 AM PST Scientists have demonstrated a new type of holographic memory device that could provide unprecedented data storage capacity and data processing capabilities in electronic devices.

Making nanoelectronics last longer for medical devices, 'cyborgs' Posted: 19 Feb 2014 07:54 AM PST The debut of cyborgs who are part human and part machine may be a long way off, but researchers say they now may be getting closer. Scientists have now developed a coating that makes nanoelectronics much more stable in conditions mimicking those in the human body. The advance could also aid in the development of very small implanted medical devices for monitoring health and disease.

People tend to blame fate when faced with a hard decision Posted: 19 Feb 2014 07:23 AM PST We tend to deal with difficult decisions by shifting responsibility for the decision to fate, according to new research. Life is full of decisions. Some, like what to eat for breakfast, are relatively easy. Others, like whether to move cities for a new job, are quite a bit more difficult. Difficult decisions tend to make us feel stressed and uncomfortable -- we don't want to feel responsible if the outcome is less than desirable. New research suggests that we deal with such difficult decisions by shifting responsibility for the decision to fate.

The nose knows in asthma: Nasal tissue samples may advance personalized medicine for asthma Posted: 19 Feb 2014 06:55 AM PST It has become increasingly clear in recent years that asthma comes in several variations, with different causes, different pathologies and different responses to therapy. These subtypes of asthma can be identified by knowing which genes are expressed at higher and lower levels in patients' airways. That information can, in turn, help guide personalized treatment to more effectively manage asthma and inspire research to better understand, manage and possibly prevent asthma. Nasal tissue samples may make genetic profiles of asthmatic patients more a more common and valuable tool to personalize therapy and guide research.

Dreams, déjà vu and delusions caused by faulty 'reality testing,' research shows Posted: 19 Feb 2014 06:53 AM PST New research has delved into the reasons why some people are unable to break free of their delusions, despite overwhelming evidence explaining the delusion isn't real.

How stick insects honed friction to grip without sticking Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:54 AM PST When they're not hanging upside down, stick insects don't need to stick. In fact, when moving upright, sticking would be a hindrance: so much extra effort required to 'unstick' again with every step.

'Gravity'-style space debris threat from giant satellite explored Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:54 AM PST Physics students have pointed out that the huge observational satellite Envisat -- which lost contact with Earth in 2012 -- could potentially pose a threat similar to the events which plague Sandra Bullock in the Oscar-nominated sci-fi thriller Gravity.

Deep freeze in the Great Lakes: Lakes nearly frozen completely for first time in 20 years Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:51 AM PST Lake Superior is more than 90 percent iced over, and experts say it may be covered completely before winter's end. Someone has proposed a hike across Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron and Lake Erie are 95 percent frozen. But even without 100 percent ice cover, the icy lakes are having a major effect on the environment around them, from contributing to weather patterns and temperatures, to changing the fish stock within them.

Frequent flyers, bottle gourds crossed the ocean many times Posted: 18 Feb 2014 12:38 PM PST Bottle gourds traveled the Atlantic Ocean from Africa and were likely domesticated many times in various parts of the New World, according to a team of scientists who studied bottle gourd genetics to show they have an African, not Asian ancestry. Domesticated bottle gourds are ubiquitous around the world in tropical and temperate areas because, while they are edible when young, the mature fruit make ideal lightweight, waterproof, liquid-carrying vessels. They were popular in areas either before development of ceramics or where ceramics never developed. According to the researchers, it is feasible that gourds did float across the Atlantic Ocean frequently. "It wasn't one gourd that came over and gave rise to all New World gourds," state the authors.

Nanodiamond-embedded contact lenses may improve glaucoma treatment Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:33 AM PST Glaucoma is a pervasive disorder that occurs when there is a buildup of pressure in the eye. If left untreated, this can damage the optic nerve, resulting in vision loss. Bioengineers have developed a nanodiamond-embedded contact lens that may improve glaucoma treatment by localizing and sustaining drug release that can be triggered using tears. The researchers showed that the nanodiamonds even improved lens durability while maintaining wear comfort.

Students invent 'aura' musical instrument using gloves Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:22 AM PST Imagine holding music in your hands. That's what you can do with the Aura, a new electronic musical instrument conceived by engineering students.

Calico cats inspire X chromosome research Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:22 AM PST Calico cats, renowned and beloved for their funky orange and black patchwork or "tortoiseshell" fur, can thank X chromosome inactivation or "silencing" for their unique look. Researchers are striving to unlock the mystery of how one X chromosome can be rendered nearly completely inactive.

Organic agriculture can pollute groundwater, research shows Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:43 AM PST Public demand has led to the rapid development of organic farming in recent years to provide healthy food products that are free of chemical additives and to reduce industrial and groundwater pollution worldwide. However, according to a new paper, intensive organic matter using composted manure prior to planting resulted in significantly higher groundwater pollution rates compared with liquid fertilization techniques. The study compared the water quality across the entire unsaturated zone under organic and conventional greenhouses in Israel.

Sweet taste receptors act as sentinels in defense against upper airway bacterial infections Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:42 AM PST The body uses mucus as a protective barrier to defend against pathogens, toxins, and allergens in the upper respiratory tract that can lead to such conditions as chronic sinusitis. Aiding in this defense are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a diverse group of small proteins found in mucus that kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi. In addition to these known defensive systems, researchers have recently surmised that taste receptors serve "double duty" by also acting as first line sentinels against infection in the upper airway. This study reveals the functional role of sweet taste receptors in the human airway.

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