ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• World's smallest propeller could be used for microscopic medicine
• Vision-correcting display makes reading glasses so yesterday
• Mysterious molecules in space: Silicon-capped hydrocarbons may be source of 'diffuse interstellar bands'
• 'Killer sperm' prevents mating between worm species
• The Quantum Cheshire Cat: Can neutrons be located at a different place than their own spin?
• Do your stem cells sound like cancer? While-you-wait, non-invasive cancer diagnosis by converting stem cell data into sound
• Optimum inertial self-propulsion design for snowman-like nanorobot
• Microscopic rowing -- without a cox: Cells' whip-like appendages can synchronize their movements
• Physicists unlock nature of high-temperature superconductivity
• Learning the smell of fear: Mothers teach babies their own fears via odor, animal study shows
• New meaning to refrigerator magnets: Magnets may act as wireless cooling agents
• Google searches may hold key to future market crashes, researchers find
• Warning: Birthdays can be bad for your health

World's smallest propeller could be used for microscopic medicine Posted: 29 Jul 2014 01:47 PM PDT Scientists have created robots that are only nanometers in length, small enough to maneuver inside the human body and possibly inside human cells.

Vision-correcting display makes reading glasses so yesterday Posted: 29 Jul 2014 12:29 PM PDT Researchers are developing vision-correcting displays that can compensate for a viewer's visual impairments to create sharp images without the need for glasses or contact lenses. The technology could potentially help those who currently need corrective lenses to use their smartphones, tablets and computers, and could one day aid people with more complex visual problems.

Mysterious molecules in space: Silicon-capped hydrocarbons may be source of 'diffuse interstellar bands' Posted: 29 Jul 2014 12:27 PM PDT New research has offered a tantalizing new possibility in the realm of interstellar molecules and diffuse interstellar bands: these mysterious molecules may be silicon-capped hydrocarbons like SiC3H, SiC4H and SiC5H.

'Killer sperm' prevents mating between worm species Posted: 29 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT Most cross-species mating is merely unsuccessful in producing offspring. However, when researchers mated Caenorhabditis worms of different species, they found that the lifespan of the female worms and their number of progeny were drastically reduced compared with females that mated with the same species. In addition, females that survived cross-species mating were often sterile, even if they subsequently mated with their own species.

The Quantum Cheshire Cat: Can neutrons be located at a different place than their own spin? Posted: 29 Jul 2014 09:38 AM PDT Can neutrons be located at a different place than their own spin? A quantum experiment demonstrates a new kind of quantum paradox. The Cheshire Cat featured in Lewis Caroll's novel "Alice in Wonderland" is a remarkable creature: it disappears, leaving its grin behind. Can an object be separated from its properties? It is possible in the quantum world. In an experiment, neutrons travel along a different path than one of their properties -- their magnetic moment. This "Quantum Cheshire Cat" could be used to make high precision measurements less sensitive to external perturbations.

Do your stem cells sound like cancer? While-you-wait, non-invasive cancer diagnosis by converting stem cell data into sound Posted: 29 Jul 2014 09:38 AM PDT Converting stem cell data into sounds could enable GPs to make instant, non-invasive cancer diagnoses during a routine check-up. A recent study shows how data sonification (where data is conveyed as audio signals as opposed to visual illustrations such as graphs) can improve standard techniques currently used in spectroscopy stem cell analysis. What could this mean for cancer diagnostics?

Optimum inertial self-propulsion design for snowman-like nanorobot Posted: 29 Jul 2014 08:53 AM PDT A new study investigates the effects of small but finite inertia on the propulsion of micro and nano-scale swimming machines. Scale plays a major role in locomotion. Swimming microorganisms, such as bacteria and spermatozoa, are subjected to relatively small inertial forces compared to the viscous forces exerted by the surrounding fluid. Such low-level inertia makes self-propulsion a major challenge. Now, scientists have found that the direction of propulsion made possible by such inertia is opposite to that induced by a viscoelastic fluid.

Microscopic rowing -- without a cox: Cells' whip-like appendages can synchronize their movements Posted: 29 Jul 2014 05:45 AM PDT New research shows that the whip-like appendages on many types of cells are able to synchronize their movements solely through interactions with the fluid that surrounds them.

Physicists unlock nature of high-temperature superconductivity Posted: 28 Jul 2014 12:40 PM PDT Physicists have identified the 'quantum glue' that underlies a promising type of superconductivity -- a crucial step towards the creation of energy superhighways that conduct electricity without current loss.

Learning the smell of fear: Mothers teach babies their own fears via odor, animal study shows Posted: 28 Jul 2014 12:36 PM PDT Babies can learn what to fear in the first days of life just by smelling the odor of their distressed mothers', new research suggests. And not just "natural" fears: If a mother experienced something before pregnancy that made her fear something specific, her baby will quickly learn to fear it too -- through her odor when she feels fear.

New meaning to refrigerator magnets: Magnets may act as wireless cooling agents Posted: 28 Jul 2014 07:47 AM PDT The magnets cluttering the face of your refrigerator may one day be used as cooling agents, according to a new theory. A magnetically driven refrigerator would require no moving parts, unlike conventional iceboxes that pump fluid through a set of pipes to keep things cool.

Google searches may hold key to future market crashes, researchers find Posted: 28 Jul 2014 06:44 AM PDT A team of researchers has developed a method to automatically identify topics that people search for on Google before subsequent stock market falls.

Warning: Birthdays can be bad for your health Posted: 24 Jul 2014 06:43 AM PDT Birthday-related drinking is associated with upsurges in hospital admissions among young people, research has found.

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