Strange & Offbeat News -- ScienceDaily

3-D printing with custom molecules creates low-cost mechanical sensor Posted: 09 Feb 2015 02:13 PM PST Imagine printing out molecules that can respond to their surroundings. Chemists teamed up with engineers who are using 3-D printers to create 3-D printed objects with new capabilities. Scientists created a bone-shaped plastic tab that turns purple under stretching, offering an easy way to record the force on an object.

F-bombs notwithstanding, all languages skew toward happiness: Universal human bias for positive words Posted: 09 Feb 2015 01:11 PM PST Arabic movie subtitles, Korean tweets, Russian novels, Chinese websites, English lyrics, and even the war-torn pages of the New York Times -- research examining billions of words, shows that these sources -- and all human language -- skews toward the use of happy words. This Big Data study confirms the 1969 Pollyanna Hypothesis that there is a universal human tendency to "look on and talk about the bright side of life."

Molecular Gastronomy: Understanding physical and chemical processes of cooking and eating Posted: 09 Feb 2015 11:24 AM PST An expert in biophysics, epigenetics and food science is working to gain a deeper understanding of genome compaction within the cells in our bodies and the way it influences gene expression. "Molecular gastronomy," is dedicated to the study of the physical and chemical processes involved in cooking and eating.

Amber fossil links earliest grasses, dinosaurs and fungus used to produce LSD Posted: 09 Feb 2015 10:07 AM PST A perfectly preserved amber fossil from Myanmar has been found that provides evidence of the earliest grass specimen ever discovered -- about 100 million years old -- and even then it was topped by a fungus similar to ergot, a hallucinogen which for eons has been intertwined with animals and humans. Among other things, it gave us the psychedelic drug LSD.

Controlling genes with light: Light-activated genes might be precisely controlled and targeted Posted: 09 Feb 2015 08:32 AM PST Researchers have demonstrated a new way to activate genes with light, allowing precisely controlled and targeted genetic studies and applications. The method might be used to activate genes in a specific location or pattern, allowing more precise study of gene function, or to create complex systems for growing tissue or new therapies.

Earth's surprise inside: Geologists unlock mysteries of the planet's inner core Posted: 09 Feb 2015 08:32 AM PST Seismic waves are helping scientists to plumb the world's deepest mystery: the planet's inner core. Thanks to a novel application of earthquake-reading technology, researchers have found that the Earth's inner core has an inner core of its own, which has surprising properties that could reveal information about our planet.

Evidence for dark matter in the inner Milky Way Posted: 09 Feb 2015 08:30 AM PST A new study is providing evidence for the presence of dark matter in the innermost part of the Milky Way, including in our own cosmic neighborhood and the Earth's location. The study demonstrates that large amounts of dark matter exist around us, and also between us and the Galactic center. The result constitutes a fundamental step forward in the quest for the nature of dark matter.

Stellar partnership doomed to end in catastrophe Posted: 09 Feb 2015 08:30 AM PST Astronomers have identified two surprisingly massive stars at the heart of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428. As they orbit each other the two stars are expected to slowly get closer and closer, and when they merge, about 700 million years from now, they will contain enough material to ignite a vast supernova explosion.

Pick a card, any card: How magicians sway decision-making Posted: 09 Feb 2015 08:30 AM PST A team of Canadian researchers has combined the art of magic and the science of psychology to demonstrate how certain contextual factors can sway the decisions people make, even though they may feel that they are choosing freely.

Electrochromic polymers create broad color palette for sunglasses, windows Posted: 09 Feb 2015 06:50 AM PST Researchers have created a broad color palette of electrochromic polymers, materials that can be used for sunglasses, window tinting and other applications that rely on electrical current to produce color changes. The materials could allow sunglasses that change from clear to colored in seconds, at the push of a button.

3-D vaccine spontaneously assembles to pack a powerful punch against cancer, infectious diseases Posted: 09 Feb 2015 06:48 AM PST Researchers have developed a novel 3-D vaccine that could provide a more effective way to harness the immune system to fight cancer as well as infectious diseases. The vaccine spontaneously assembles into a scaffold once injected under the skin and is capable of recruiting, housing, and manipulating immune cells to generate a powerful immune response. The vaccine was recently found to be effective in delaying tumor growth in mice.

In the quantum world, the future affects the past: Hindsight and foresight together more accurately 'predict' a quantum system’s state Posted: 09 Feb 2015 05:30 AM PST In the quantum world, the future predicts the past. Playing a guessing game with a superconducting circuit called a qubit, a physicist has discovered a way to narrow the odds of correctly guessing the state of a two-state system. By combining information about the qubit's evolution after a target time with information about its evolution up to that time, the lab was able to narrow the odds from 50-50 to 90-10.