ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Do octopuses, squid and crabs have emotions?
• Physicists create extremely compressible 'gas of light'
• Light derails electrons through graphene
• Warming oceans are getting louder
• Fans of ASMR videos are more sensitive to their surroundings, study finds
• Male dolphins whistle to maintain key social relationships
• New potentially painkilling compound found in deep-water cone snails
• Seen and 'herd': Collective motion in crowds is largely determined by participants' field of vision
• Bionic wing flaps improve wind energy efficiency
• A whale's tale: The story hidden in their mouths
• Rapid adaptation in fruit flies

Do octopuses, squid and crabs have emotions? Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT Octopuses can solve complex puzzles and show a preference for different individuals, but whether they, and other animals and invertebrates, have emotions is being hotly debated and could shake up humans' moral decision-making, says an expert in animal minds. Most countries don't recognize invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, lobsters and crayfish, as sentient beings that can feel pain, but the United Kingdom is considering amendments to its animal welfare legislation that would recognize this.

Physicists create extremely compressible 'gas of light' Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT Researchers have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces.

Light derails electrons through graphene Posted: 24 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT Researchers have experimentally caused electrons to bend in bilayer graphene with the use of light. The way electrons flow in materials determine its electronic properties. For example, when a voltage is sustained across a conducting material, electrons start flowing, generating an electrical current. These electrons are often thought to flow in straight paths, moving along the electric field, much like a ball rolling down a hill. Yet these are not the only trajectories electrons can take: when a magnetic field is applied, the electrons no longer travel in straight paths along the electric field, but in fact, they bend. The bent electronic flows lead to transverse signals called 'Hall' responses.

Warming oceans are getting louder Posted: 24 Mar 2022 10:03 AM PDT Climate change is speeding sound transmission in the oceans and the way it varies over the globe with physical properties of the oceans. Two 'acoustic hotspots' of future sound speed increases are predicted east of Greenland and in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, East of Newfoundland. In these locations, the average speed of sound is likely to increase by more than 1.5% if 'business-as-usual' high rates of greenhouse gas emissions continue through 2100.

Fans of ASMR videos are more sensitive to their surroundings, study finds Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:25 AM PDT Fans of ASMR videos are more sensitive to their surroundings and feelings, a new study has revealed. ASMR, which stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, has swept the internet with millions watching viral clips of whispered voices, delicate hand movements or tapping.

Male dolphins whistle to maintain key social relationships Posted: 24 Mar 2022 09:25 AM PDT Allied male bottlenose dolphins maintain weaker yet vital social relationships with whistle exchanges, researchers have found.

New potentially painkilling compound found in deep-water cone snails Posted: 23 Mar 2022 12:16 PM PDT In a new study, researchers report that a group of cone snails produces a venom compound similar to the protein somatostatin. While they continue to learn more about this venom compound and its possible pharmaceutical applications, the results show the wide variety of drug leads that venomous animals produce, which they've designed and refined over millions of years.

Seen and 'herd': Collective motion in crowds is largely determined by participants' field of vision Posted: 22 Mar 2022 09:28 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new model to predict human flocking behavior based on optics and other sensory data.

Bionic wing flaps improve wind energy efficiency Posted: 22 Mar 2022 08:13 AM PDT Scientists show a bionic approach combining features of a seagull's wing with an engineered flow control accessory, known as a Gurney flap, can greatly improve wind turbine performance. To achieve the best aerodynamic performance, the scientists simulated the use of the combined flow control accessory in a variety of situations, including high and low angle of attack and pre- and post-stall scenarios. They compared their computational simulations to experimental results for an aircraft wing undergoing a dynamic stall.

A whale's tale: The story hidden in their mouths Posted: 21 Mar 2022 07:37 AM PDT Baleen plates -- the signature bristle-like apparatus toothless whales use to feed -- reveal how these large aquatic mammals adapt to environmental changes over time.

Rapid adaptation in fruit flies Posted: 17 Mar 2022 11:37 AM PDT Evolution is normally considered to be a gradual process, unfolding over long timescales. But new findings show that widespread physical and genomic adaptation to the environment can occur within just weeks.

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