ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Ocean plastic is creating new communities of life on the high seas
• Engineers create perching bird-like robot
• Astronomers discover strangely massive black hole in Milky Way satellite galaxy
• Footprints from site a at Laetoli, Tanzania, are from early humans, not bears
• When variations in Earth's orbit drive biological evolution
• Deep learning dreams up new protein structures
• Bringing 400-million-year-old fossilized armored worms to ‘virtual’ life
• Brief presence of water in Arabia Terra on Mars
• Time crystal in a quantum computer
• Scientists can control brain circuits, behavior, and emotion using light
• Three-body interactions bring egoists into the collective comfort zone – even penguins
• Constraining quantum measurement
• Nonverbal social interactions – even with unfriendly avatars – boost cooperation
• Quantum computers getting connected
• Crash safety: New traffic lights absorb kinetic energy
• Snow monkeys go fishing to survive harsh Japanese winters
• A star in subtropical Japan: A new species of parasitoid wasp constructs unique cocoon masses hanging on 1-meter-long strings
• Astronomers discover ancient brown dwarf with lithium deposits intact

Ocean plastic is creating new communities of life on the high seas Posted: 02 Dec 2021 06:29 AM PST Coastal plants and animals have found a new way to survive in the open ocean -- by colonizing plastic pollution. A new commentary reports coastal species growing on trash hundreds of miles out to sea in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, more commonly known as the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch.'

Engineers create perching bird-like robot Posted: 01 Dec 2021 11:53 AM PST With feet and legs like a peregrine falcon, engineers have created a robot that can perch and carry objects like a bird.

Astronomers discover strangely massive black hole in Milky Way satellite galaxy Posted: 01 Dec 2021 08:20 AM PST Astronomers have discovered an unusually massive black hole at the heart of one of the Milky Way's dwarf satellite galaxies, called Leo I. Almost as massive as the black hole in our own galaxy, the finding could redefine our understanding of how all galaxies -- the building blocks of the universe -- evolve.

Footprints from site a at Laetoli, Tanzania, are from early humans, not bears Posted: 01 Dec 2021 08:19 AM PST The oldest unequivocal evidence of upright walking in the human lineage are footprints discovered at Laetoli, Tanzania in 1978, by paleontologist Mary Leakey and her team. The bipedal trackways date to 3.7 million years ago. Another set of mysterious footprints was partially excavated at nearby Site A in 1976 but dismissed as possibly being made by a bear. A recent re-excavation of the Site A footprints at Laetoli and a detailed comparative analysis reveal that the footprints were made by an early human -- a bipedal hominin.

When variations in Earth's orbit drive biological evolution Posted: 01 Dec 2021 08:19 AM PST Coccolithophores are microscopic algae that form tiny limestone plates, called coccoliths, around their single cells. They are responsible for half of the limestone produced in the oceans and therefore play a major role in the carbon cycle and in determining ocean chemistry. A team of scientists show that certain variations in Earth's orbit have influenced the evolution of coccolithophores.

Deep learning dreams up new protein structures Posted: 01 Dec 2021 08:19 AM PST Using artificial intelligence and deep learning, researchers have developed a neural network that 'hallucinates' the structures of new protein molecules. The scientists made up completely random protein sequences and introduced mutations into them until the neural network predicted they would fold into stable structures. The software was not guided toward a particular outcome; the proteins were just what the computer dreams up. Next step: using deep learning to try to design proteins with particular functions, such as enzymes or drugs.

Bringing 400-million-year-old fossilized armored worms to ‘virtual’ life Posted: 30 Nov 2021 02:39 PM PST Scientists have documented the discovery of two new species of fossilized armored worms in Australia -- Lepidocoleus caliburnus and Lepidocoleus shurikenus -- dating from about 400 million years ago. Then, using the micro-CT imaging capabilities of the MU X-ray Microanalysis Core facility, the researchers were able to develop first-of-its-kind digital 3D-models of the species' individual armor plates by virtually examining the armored skeletons of these ancient worms, called machaeridians.

Brief presence of water in Arabia Terra on Mars Posted: 30 Nov 2021 12:04 PM PST Scientists recently discovered that water was once present in a region of Mars called Arabia Terra.

Time crystal in a quantum computer Posted: 30 Nov 2021 10:02 AM PST Researchers have created and observed a new phase of matter, popularly known as a time crystal.

Scientists can control brain circuits, behavior, and emotion using light Posted: 30 Nov 2021 08:25 AM PST Scientists can control brain circuits, behavior, and emotion using light. Researchers developed a new optogenetic tool, 'Opto-vTrap', which is expected to contribute to treatment for epilepsy, muscle spasms, and skin wrinkles.

Three-body interactions bring egoists into the collective comfort zone – even penguins Posted: 30 Nov 2021 07:15 AM PST A research team has examined the group dynamics of communicating active particles. These particles are consistently focused on self-optimization. By always endeavoring to maintain their own personal comfort, they also help the other group members. Such self-optimization is a common multi-body phenomenon which can occur for penguins and bacteria.

Constraining quantum measurement Posted: 30 Nov 2021 07:14 AM PST The quantum world and our everyday world are very different places. Physicists now investigate how the act of measuring a quantum particle transforms it into an everyday object.

Nonverbal social interactions – even with unfriendly avatars – boost cooperation Posted: 30 Nov 2021 07:14 AM PST Scientists used animated humanoid avatars to study how nonverbal cues influence people's behavior. The research offers insight into the brain mechanisms that drive social and economic decision-making.

Quantum computers getting connected Posted: 30 Nov 2021 07:11 AM PST Research into superfast quantum computers is now well advanced, but it is not yet possible to connect the individual processors. An international research team has now shown a way to scale quantum computers using nanophotonic silicon carbide structures to solve the problems.

Crash safety: New traffic lights absorb kinetic energy Posted: 29 Nov 2021 12:50 PM PST Game-changing technology to design traffic lights that absorb kinetic energy, stopping them from crumpling when hit by a vehicle, will prevent thousands of fatalities and injuries each year and make our roads much safer.

Snow monkeys go fishing to survive harsh Japanese winters Posted: 29 Nov 2021 09:27 AM PST Snow monkeys living in one of the world's coldest regions survive by 'going fishing' -- scooping live animals, including brown trout, out of Japanese rivers and eating them to stay alive, a new study reveals.

A star in subtropical Japan: A new species of parasitoid wasp constructs unique cocoon masses hanging on 1-meter-long strings Posted: 29 Nov 2021 07:56 AM PST A new species of parasitoid wasp that constructs remarkable star-shaped cocoon masses is reported from the biodiversity hot spot Ryukyu Islands. Researchers observed how the wasps construct 'stars' after making their way out of the moth larvae they inhabit during their own larval stage.

Astronomers discover ancient brown dwarf with lithium deposits intact Posted: 24 Nov 2021 12:38 PM PST Researchers have discovered lithium in the oldest and coldest brown dwarf where the presence of this valuable element has been confirmed so far. This substellar object, called Reid 1B, preserves intact the earliest known lithium deposit in our cosmic neighborhood, dating back to a time before the formation of the binary system to which it belongs.

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