Strange & Offbeat News -- ScienceDaily

How 'spontaneous' social norms emerge Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:07 PM PST A scientific explanation has been provided by researchers for how social conventions -- everything from acceptable baby names to standards of professional conduct -- can emerge suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, with no external forces driving their creation.

RNA: The unknotted strand of life Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:06 PM PST It had never been verified before: unlike other biopolymers, RNA, the long strand that is 'cousin' to DNA, tends not to form knots.

To save your energy while strolling, walk this sway Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:10 AM PST The first people to walk across the original Millennium Bridge may have been unnerved when it began to sway, but the bridge was actually doing them a favor: the swaying enabled them to walk the distance with 5 percent less effort, a new study shows.

Orangutans take the logging road Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST 'Foot' travel by Borneo's shaggy apes may be evolving more than initially thought, researchers have discovered. The Bornean orangutan not only regularly walks Wehea Forest floors to travel, but also hits newly constructed logging roads, researchers have observed.

Friend, foe or queen? Study highlights the complexities of ant perception Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST Researchers report that trap-jaw ants recognize the unique odor of a fertile queen only if the queen also shares the workers' own chemical cologne -- a distinctive blend of dozens of smelly, waxy compounds that coat the ants' bodies from head to tarsus. The discovery offers new insights into how social animals evolved and communicate with others in their group, the researchers say.

Wrinkle predictions: New mathematical theory may explain patterns in fingerprints, raisins, and microlenses Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST As a grape slowly dries and shrivels, its surface creases, ultimately taking on the wrinkled form of a raisin. Similar patterns can be found on the surfaces of other dried materials, as well as in human fingerprints. While these patterns have long been observed in nature, and more recently in experiments, scientists have not been able to come up with a way to predict how such patterns arise in curved systems, such as microlenses.

Dance of the nanovortices captured and recorded with help of X-ray holography Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:36 AM PST It is a familiar phenomenon: If a spinning top is set in rotation on an inclined surface, it scribes a series of small arches. Researchers have now succeeded in capturing this pattern of movement in a magnetic thin film system -- in the form of small magnetic nanovortices. The researchers made a new discovery: The nanovortices possess mass.

Mining the Moon becomes a serious prospect Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST With an estimated 1.6 billion tons of water ice at its poles and an abundance of rare-earth elements hidden below its surface, the Moon is rich ground for mining.

You can be a coward or a fighter -- just pick one and stick with it, says study Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:45 AM PST When the chips are down, having a strong personality may be the difference between thriving and failing, according to new research that studied how aphids reacted when faced with predatory ladybirds. The study suggests that committing to a consistent behavioural type in times of crisis results in the best overall outcome in terms of fitness and reproductive success.

Graphene displays clear prospects for flexible electronics Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:43 AM PST Semi-transparent, flexible electronics are no longer just science-fiction thanks to graphene's unique properties, researchers have found. Researchers now show that new 2D 'designer materials' can be produced to create flexible, see-through and more efficient electronic devices.

Scientists view effect of whisker tickling on mouse brains Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST Researchers have succeeded in peering into the brains of live mice with such precision that they were able to see how the position of specific proteins changed as memories were forged.

Urban taste for bushmeat poses threat to Amazonian wildlife Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:07 AM PST Alarming evidence of an under-reported wild-meat crisis in the heart of Amazonia has been uncovered by researchers who interviewed households in two Brazilian 'prefrontier' cities -- cities which are surrounded by more than 90 per cent of their original forest cover. They found virtually all urban households in these cities consumed wildlife for food, including fish (99%), bushmeat (mammals and birds; 79%), turtles and tortoises (48%) and caimans (28%).

'Live fast, die young' galaxies lose the gas that keeps them alive Posted: 01 Feb 2015 05:32 PM PST Galaxies can die early because the gas they need to make new stars is suddenly ejected, new research suggests. Most galaxies age slowly as they run out of raw materials needed for growth over billions of years. But a pilot study looking at galaxies that die young has found some might shoot out this gas early on, causing them to redden and kick the bucket prematurely.

DNA clock helps to get measure of people's lifespans Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:29 AM PST A biological clock that provides vital clues about how long a person is likely to live has been discovered by researchers. Researchers studied chemical changes to DNA that take place over a lifetime, and can help them predict an individual's age. By comparing individuals' actual ages with their predicted biological clock age, scientists saw a pattern emerging.

Why is a dolphin not a cat? Repurposing non-coding elements in genome gave rise to great 'mammalian radiation' Posted: 29 Jan 2015 09:55 AM PST A study of gene regulation in 20 mammals provides new insights into how species diverged millions of years ago. The findings demonstrate how methods and tools for genetic analysis of humans and mice can be adapted to study non-model species, such as whales and Tasmanian devils.