Strange & Offbeat News -- ScienceDaily

Scientists find strongest natural material known to humans Posted: 17 Feb 2015 05:27 PM PST Limpet teeth might be the strongest natural material known to humans, a new study has found. Limpets -- small aquatic snail-like creatures with conical shells -- have teeth with biological structures so strong they could be copied to make cars, boats and planes of the future.

Women seek greater variety in men and consumer products near ovulation Posted: 17 Feb 2015 09:28 AM PST New research suggests women seek more options in dating partners near ovulation -- when they are most fertile -- which may lead them to also seek a greater variety of products and services.

Recent research provides new data on chemical gardens, whose formation is a mystery for science Posted: 17 Feb 2015 09:27 AM PST Recent research has yielded new data on chemical gardens, mysterious formations produced when certain solid salts -- copper sulfate, cobalt chloride -- are added to an aqueous solution of sodium silicate.

Even animals compose: What it means to be a musical species Posted: 17 Feb 2015 09:27 AM PST Music is found in all human cultures and thus appears to be part of our biology and not simply a cultural phenomenon. One approach to studying the biology of music is to examine other species to see if they share some of the features that make up human musicality.

Closest known flyby of star to our solar system: Dim star passed through Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago Posted: 17 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST Astronomers from the US, Europe, Chile and South Africa have determined that 70,000 years ago a recently discovered dim star is likely to have passed through the solar system's distant cloud of comets, the Oort Cloud. No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this close -- five times closer than the current closest star, Proxima Centauri. They analyzed the velocity and trajectory of a low-mass star system nicknamed "Scholz's star."