ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• NASA's Maven observes Martian night sky pulsing in ultraviolet light
• Why shaving dulls even the sharpest of razors
• New class of laser beam doesn't follow normal laws of refraction
• Hubble uses Earth as proxy for identifying oxygen on potentially habitable exoplanets
• Chemists create the brightest-ever fluorescent materials
• This fruit attracts birds with an unusual way of making itself metallic blue
• Faster rates of evolution are linked to tiny genomes
• Fossil mystery solved: Super-long-necked reptiles lived in the ocean, not on land
• Spintronics: Researchers show how to make non-magnetic materials magnetic
• Ammonia-rich hail sheds new light on Jupiter's weather
• Lava tubes on Mars and the Moon are so wide they can host planetary bases
• Spray-on clear coatings for cheaper smart windows

NASA's Maven observes Martian night sky pulsing in ultraviolet light Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:36 PM PDT Vast areas of the Martian night sky pulse in ultraviolet light, according to images from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft. The results are being used to illuminate complex circulation patterns in the Martian atmosphere

Why shaving dulls even the sharpest of razors Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:36 PM PDT Engineers have studied the simple act of shaving up close, observing how a razor blade can be damaged as it cuts human hair -- a material that is 50 times softer than the blade itself. They found that hair shaving deforms a blade in a way that is more complex than simply wearing down the edge over time.

New class of laser beam doesn't follow normal laws of refraction Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:35 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new type of laser beam that doesn't follow long-held principles about how light refracts and travels. The findings could have huge implications for optical communication and laser technologies.

Hubble uses Earth as proxy for identifying oxygen on potentially habitable exoplanets Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:28 AM PDT Taking advantage of a total lunar eclipse, Hubble used the Moon as a mirror to study sunlight that had passed through Earth's atmosphere. As a result, Hubble detected Earth's own brand of sunscreen - ozone - in our atmosphere. The technique simulates how scientists will search for evidence of life on planets around other stars.

Chemists create the brightest-ever fluorescent materials Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:18 AM PDT By formulating positively charged fluorescent dyes into a new class of materials called small-molecule ionic isolation lattices (SMILES), a compound's brilliant glow can be seamlessly transferred to a solid, crystalline state, researchers report. The advance overcomes a long-standing barrier to developing fluorescent solids, resulting in the brightest known materials in existence.

This fruit attracts birds with an unusual way of making itself metallic blue Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:18 AM PDT Instead of relying solely on pigments, the metallic blue fruits of Viburnum tinus use structural color to reflect blue light, a mechanism rarely seen in plants. Researchers show that the fruits use lipid nanostructures in their cell walls, a previously unknown mechanism of structural color, to get their striking blue -- which may also double as a signal to birds that the fruits are full of nutritious fats.

Faster rates of evolution are linked to tiny genomes Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:18 AM PDT Inside every cell lies a genome - a full set of DNA that contains the instructions for building an organism. Across the biological world, genomes show a staggering diversity in size but scientists still don't fully understand why. Now, scientists have found a link between mutation rate - how quickly the DNA sequence changes - and genome size. Writing in Current Biology, the researchers reported that prokaryotes with higher mutation rates lose genes at a faster pace, and therefore have smaller genomes.

Fossil mystery solved: Super-long-necked reptiles lived in the ocean, not on land Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:18 AM PDT By CT scanning crushed fossilized skulls and digitally reassembling them, and by examining the fossils' growth rings, scientists were able to describe a new species of prehistoric sea creature. Tanystropheus hydroides, named after mythology's hydra, was a twenty-foot-long animal with a ten-foot-long neck.

Spintronics: Researchers show how to make non-magnetic materials magnetic Posted: 06 Aug 2020 07:17 AM PDT A complex process can modify non-magnetic oxide materials in such a way to make them magnetic. The basis for this new phenomenon is controlled layer-by-layer growth of each material.

Ammonia-rich hail sheds new light on Jupiter's weather Posted: 05 Aug 2020 09:40 AM PDT New Juno results suggest that the violent thunderstorms taking place in Jupiter's atmosphere may form ammonia-rich hail, or 'mushballs', that play a key role in the planet's atmospheric dynamics.

Lava tubes on Mars and the Moon are so wide they can host planetary bases Posted: 05 Aug 2020 08:01 AM PDT Subsurface cavities created by lava on Mars and the Moon could provide a shield against cosmic radiation, new research suggests.

Spray-on clear coatings for cheaper smart windows Posted: 05 Aug 2020 07:20 AM PDT Researchers have developed a spray-on method for making conductive clear coatings, or transparent electrodes. Fast, scalable and based on cheaper materials, the new approach could simplify the fabrication of smart windows and low-emissivity glass. It can also be optimised to produce coatings tailored to the requirements of different applications of transparent electrodes, like touchscreen displays, LED lighting and solar panels.

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