Strange & Offbeat News -- ScienceDaily

Mystery Mars plume baffles scientists Posted: 16 Feb 2015 05:08 PM PST Plumes seen reaching high above the surface of Mars are causing a stir among scientists studying the atmosphere on the Red Planet. On two separate occasions in March and April 2012, amateur astronomers reported definite plume-like features developing on the planet.

Complex nerve-cell signaling traced back to common ancestor of humans and sea anemones Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:57 PM PST New research shows that a burst of evolutionary innovation in the genes responsible for electrical communication among nerve cells in our brains occurred over 600 million years ago in a common ancestor of humans and the sea anemone. The research reveals many of these genes, which when mutated in humans can lead to neurological disease, first evolved in the common ancestor of people and a group of animals that includes jellyfish, coral, and sea anemones.

Ancient rocks show life could have flourished on Earth 3.2 billion years ago Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:11 AM PST A spark from a lightning bolt, interstellar dust, or a subsea volcano could have triggered the very first life on Earth. But what happened next? Life can exist without oxygen, but without plentiful nitrogen to build genes -- essential to viruses, bacteria and all other organisms -- life on the early Earth would have been scarce. The ability to use atmospheric nitrogen to support more widespread life was thought to have appeared roughly 2 billion years ago. Now research looking at some of the planet's oldest rocks finds evidence that 3.2 billion years ago, life was already pulling nitrogen out of the air and converting it into a form that could support larger communities.

Genetic evidence shows penguins have 'bad taste' Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:11 AM PST Penguins apparently can't enjoy or even detect the savory taste of the fish they eat or the sweet taste of fruit. A new analysis of the genetic evidence suggests that the flightless, waddling birds have lost three of the five basic tastes over evolutionary time. For them, it appears, food comes in only two flavors: salty and sour.

Mothers can pass traits to offspring through bacteria's DNA, mouse study shows Posted: 16 Feb 2015 09:54 AM PST A new study in mice has shown that the DNA of bacteria that live in the body can pass a trait to offspring in a way similar to the parents' own DNA. According to the authors, the discovery means scientists need to consider a significant new factor -- the DNA of microbes passed from mother to child -- in their efforts to understand how genes influence illness and health.

Cold-blooded animals grow bigger in the warm on land, but smaller in warm water Posted: 16 Feb 2015 03:48 AM PST Scientists studying arthropods, the group of cold-blooded animals that includes crabs and insects, have found that individuals within species living on land tend to grow to a larger size in the warm and nearer the equator, but that the reverse is true of species found in water.

From space junk to asteroids, dark energy camera unveils small objects in our solar system Posted: 12 Feb 2015 06:24 AM PST The 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera, built to observe galaxies far away from Earth, also helps scientists spot and identify objects much closer to home: space junk that could damage satellites, large rocks that could hit Earth and asteroids that traverse our solar system.