ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• Direct sound printing is a potential game-changer in 3D printing
• Why Uranus and Neptune are different colors
• Palms at the poles: Fossil plants reveal lush southern hemisphere forests in ancient hothouse climate
• Great white sharks may have contributed to megalodon extinction
• Cuttlefish camouflage may be more complex than previously thought

Direct sound printing is a potential game-changer in 3D printing Posted: 31 May 2022 11:01 AM PDT Researchers describe a new platform technology called direct sound printing (DSP), which uses soundwaves to produce new objects. The paper explains show how focused ultrasound waves can be used to create sonochemical reactions in minuscule cavitation regions. Extremes of temperature and pressure lasting trillionths of a second can generate pre-designed complex geometries that cannot be made with existing techniques.

Why Uranus and Neptune are different colors Posted: 31 May 2022 11:01 AM PDT Astronomers may now understand why the similar planets Uranus and Neptune are different colors. Researchers have now developed a single atmospheric model that matches observations of both planets. The model reveals that excess haze on Uranus builds up in the planet's stagnant, sluggish atmosphere and makes it appear a lighter tone than Neptune.

Palms at the poles: Fossil plants reveal lush southern hemisphere forests in ancient hothouse climate Posted: 31 May 2022 08:18 AM PDT Plant fossils dating back 55 to 40 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch reveal details about the warmer and wetter climate. These conditions meant there were palms at the North and South Pole and predominantly arid landmasses like Australia were lush and green. By focusing on the morphology and taxonomic features of 12 different floras, the researchers developed a more detailed view of what the climate and productivity was like in the ancient hothouse world of the Eocene epoch.

Great white sharks may have contributed to megalodon extinction Posted: 31 May 2022 08:18 AM PDT The diet of fossil extinct animals can hold clues to their lifestyle, behavior, evolution and ultimately extinction. However, studying an animal's diet after millions of years is difficult due to the poor preservation of chemical dietary indicators in organic material on these timescales. An international team of scientists has applied a new method to investigate the diet of the largest shark to have ever existed, the iconic Otodus megalodon. This new method investigates the zinc isotope composition of the highly mineralized part of teeth and proves to be particularly helpful to decipher the diet of these extinct animals.

Cuttlefish camouflage may be more complex than previously thought Posted: 31 May 2022 07:26 AM PDT A new study suggests that the European cuttlefish (sepia officinalis) may combine, as necessary, two distinct neural systems that process specific visual features from its local environment, and visual cues relating to its overall background environment to create the body patterns it uses to camouflage itself on the sea floor.

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• Supermassive black holes inside of dying galaxies detected in early universe
• AI learns coral reef 'song'
• Finding coherence in quantum chaos
• Perplexing fish-like fossil finally classified
• Aerodynamic analysis causes a rethink of the biggest pterosaur

Supermassive black holes inside of dying galaxies detected in early universe Posted: 27 May 2022 07:10 AM PDT An international team of astronomers used a database combining observations from the best telescopes in the world, including the Subaru Telescope, to detect the signal from the active supermassive black holes of dying galaxies in the early Universe. The appearance of these active supermassive black holes correlates with changes in the host galaxy, suggesting that a black hole could have far reaching effects on the evolution of its host galaxy.

AI learns coral reef 'song' Posted: 27 May 2022 05:52 AM PDT Artificial Intelligence (AI) can track the health of coral reefs by learning the 'song of the reef', new research shows.

Finding coherence in quantum chaos Posted: 26 May 2022 10:53 AM PDT A theoretical breakthrough in understanding quantum chaos could open new paths into researching quantum information and quantum computing, many-body physics, black holes, and the still-elusive quantum to classical transition.

Perplexing fish-like fossil finally classified Posted: 26 May 2022 06:55 AM PDT For the first time since its discovery 130 years ago one of the most mysterious fossil vertebrates has finally been classified, increasing our possible understanding of the first animals to crawl on Earth.

Aerodynamic analysis causes a rethink of the biggest pterosaur Posted: 20 May 2022 04:31 AM PDT Researchers shed light on the way Quetzalcoatlus would have flown, finding that the dinosaur's flying dynamics were actually very different to how it has been depicted in popular culture.

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Spider can hide underwater for 30 minutes Posted: 09 May 2022 10:26 AM PDT A tropical spider species uses a 'film' of air to hide underwater from predators for as long as 30 minutes, according to new research.

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• Tiny robotic crab is smallest-ever remote-controlled walking robot
• Artificial cilia could someday power diagnostic devices
• Researchers teleport quantum information across rudimentary quantum network
• Archaeologists reveal pre-Hispanic cities in Bolivia with laser technology
• First Australians ate giant eggs of huge flightless birds, ancient proteins confirm
• Horses and pigs sense harsh speaking tones
• Human or seal? Who has the best underwater hearing?

Tiny robotic crab is smallest-ever remote-controlled walking robot Posted: 25 May 2022 12:17 PM PDT Engineers have developed the smallest-ever remote-controlled walking robot -- and it comes in the form of a tiny, adorable peekytoe crab. Just a half-millimeter wide, the tiny crabs can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn and even jump. Although the research is exploratory at this point, the researchers believe their technology might bring the field closer to realizing micro-sized robots that can perform practical tasks inside tightly confined spaces.

Artificial cilia could someday power diagnostic devices Posted: 25 May 2022 10:12 AM PDT Researchers have now designed a micro-sized artificial cilial system using platinum-based components that can control the movement of fluids at such a scale. The technology could someday enable low-cost, portable diagnostic devices for testing blood samples, manipulating cells or assisting in microfabrication processes.

Researchers teleport quantum information across rudimentary quantum network Posted: 25 May 2022 10:11 AM PDT Researchers have succeeded in teleporting quantum information across a rudimentary network. This first of its kind is an important step towards a future quantum Internet. This breakthrough was made possible by a greatly improved quantum memory and enhanced quality of the quantum links between the three nodes of the network.

Archaeologists reveal pre-Hispanic cities in Bolivia with laser technology Posted: 25 May 2022 08:09 AM PDT Several hundred settlements from the time between 500 and 1400 AD lie in the Bolivian Llanos de Mojos savannah and have fascinated archaeologists for years. Researchers have now visualized the dimensions of the largest known settlement of the so-called Casarabe culture. Mapping with the laser technology LIDAR indicates that it is an early urbanism with a low population density -- the only known case so far from the Amazon lowlands. The results shed new light on how globally widespread and diverse early urban life was and how earlier societies lived in the Amazon.

First Australians ate giant eggs of huge flightless birds, ancient proteins confirm Posted: 25 May 2022 07:29 AM PDT Scientists settle debate surrounding species that laid eggs exploited by early Australian people around 50,000 years ago. Shell proteins point to Genyornis, which was among the 'mega-fauna' to go extinct a few thousand years after humans arrived on the continent.

Horses and pigs sense harsh speaking tones Posted: 24 May 2022 07:05 AM PDT How we speak matters to animals. Horses, pigs and wild horses can distinguish between negative and positive sounds from their fellow species and near relatives, as well as from human speech. The study provides insight into the history of emotional development and opens up interesting perspectives with regards to animal welfare.

Human or seal? Who has the best underwater hearing? Posted: 24 May 2022 07:05 AM PDT We humans do better on land than under water -- also when it comes to our hearing. But now a new study shows that we actually have better underwater hearing than previously thought -- at certain frequencies we hear just as well as the seal.

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• Hot-blooded T. rex and cold-blooded Stegosaurus: Chemical clues reveal dinosaur metabolisms
• New discovery about distant galaxies: Stars are more massive than we thought
• Wake up and smell the burning rubbish? Secrets of disordered smell found
• Hubble reaches new milestone in mystery of universe's expansion rate
• Breakthrough in quantum universal gate sets: A high-fidelity iToffoli gate
• Traveling wave of light sparks simple liquid crystal microposts to perform complex dance

Hot-blooded T. rex and cold-blooded Stegosaurus: Chemical clues reveal dinosaur metabolisms Posted: 25 May 2022 08:08 AM PDT There's a new method for determining whether dinosaurs were hot- or cold-blooded, using clues in their bones that indicated how much the individual animals breathed in their last hour of life. The study shows that the bird-hipped dinosaurs like T. rex and Brachiosaurus were hot-blooded, while the lizard-hipped dinosaurs like Triceratops and Stegosaurus were cold-blooded.

New discovery about distant galaxies: Stars are more massive than we thought Posted: 25 May 2022 07:29 AM PDT A team of astrophysicists has arrived at a major result regarding star populations beyond the Milky Way. The result could change our understanding of a wide range of astronomical phenomena, including the formation of black holes, supernovae and why galaxies die.

Wake up and smell the burning rubbish? Secrets of disordered smell found Posted: 25 May 2022 07:29 AM PDT Researchers have discovered the secrets of why certain food and drinks smell (and likely taste) disgusting to people with parosmia.

Hubble reaches new milestone in mystery of universe's expansion rate Posted: 24 May 2022 01:00 PM PDT NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has calibrated more than 40 'milepost markers' of space and time to help scientists precisely measure the expansion rate of the universe -- a quest with a plot twist.

Breakthrough in quantum universal gate sets: A high-fidelity iToffoli gate Posted: 24 May 2022 09:49 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated the first three-qubit high-fidelity iToffoli native gate in a superconducting quantum information processor and in a single step. This demonstration adds a novel easy-to-implement native three-qubit logic gate for universal quantum computing.

Traveling wave of light sparks simple liquid crystal microposts to perform complex dance Posted: 24 May 2022 09:48 AM PDT Mastering control over the dynamic interplay among optical, chemical and mechanical behavior in single-material, liquid crystalline elastomers, results in microposts that combine bending, twisting and turning into complex dances. The advancement could contribute toward further development of soft robotics and other devices.

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• Astronomers find hidden trove of massive black holes
• Charting a safe course through a highly uncertain environment
• Twisted soft robots navigate mazes without human or computer guidance
• Skydiving salamanders live in world's tallest trees
• Noisy jackdaw birds reach 'consensus' before taking off
• Planets of binary stars as possible homes for alien life
• The limits of vision: Seeing shadows in the dark
• A family of termites has been traversing the world's oceans for millions of years
• Möbius band constructed solely by carbon atoms
• Ancient tooth unlocks mystery of Denisovans in Asia

Astronomers find hidden trove of massive black holes Posted: 24 May 2022 07:05 AM PDT Astronomers have found a previously overlooked treasure trove of massive black holes in dwarf galaxies. The newly discovered black holes offer a glimpse into the life story of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Charting a safe course through a highly uncertain environment Posted: 23 May 2022 12:06 PM PDT Researchers have developed a trajectory-planning system for autonomous vehicles that enables them to travel from a starting point to a target location safely, even when there are many different uncertainties in the environment, such as unknown variations in the shapes, sizes, and locations of obstacles.

Twisted soft robots navigate mazes without human or computer guidance Posted: 23 May 2022 12:06 PM PDT Researchers have developed soft robots that are capable of navigating complex environments, such as mazes, without input from humans or computer software.

Skydiving salamanders live in world's tallest trees Posted: 23 May 2022 08:55 AM PDT Researchers have documented in a vertical wind tunnel the amazing ability of one species of salamander -- which spends its entire life in the tops of redwoods -- to parachute, glide and maneuver in mid-air. Ground-dwellers, on the other hand, freak out during free-fall. The salamander's skydiving skills are likely a way to steer back to a tree it has fallen or jumped from to avoid terrestrial predators.

Noisy jackdaw birds reach 'consensus' before taking off Posted: 23 May 2022 08:55 AM PDT On cold, dark winter mornings, small black crows known as jackdaws can be heard calling loudly to one another from their winter roosting spots in the U.K. before taking off simultaneously right around sunrise. Now, researchers who've studied their daily activities in unprecedented detail report evidence that these groups of hundreds of individuals rely on a 'democratic' decision-making process to coordinate with one another and take to the skies all at once.

Planets of binary stars as possible homes for alien life Posted: 23 May 2022 08:55 AM PDT Nearly half of Sun-size stars are binary. According to new research, planetary systems around binary stars may be very different from those around single stars. This points to new targets in the search for extraterrestrial life forms.

The limits of vision: Seeing shadows in the dark Posted: 23 May 2022 08:54 AM PDT A specific retinal pathway enables mice to detect incredibly dim shadows -- nearly reaching the limit of what's physically possible. The same circuit is in human eyes, which might enable researchers to probe visual diseases at unprecedented resolution.

A family of termites has been traversing the world's oceans for millions of years Posted: 23 May 2022 07:22 AM PDT A comprehensive family tree, based on DNA sequences, has revealed that drywood termites have made at least 40 oceanic journeys over the last 50 million years to reach far flung landmasses.

Möbius band constructed solely by carbon atoms Posted: 19 May 2022 08:53 AM PDT A team has synthesized a belt-shaped molecular nanocarbon with a twisted Möbius band topology, i.e., a Möbius carbon nanobelt.

Ancient tooth unlocks mystery of Denisovans in Asia Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT What links a finger bone and some fossil teeth found in a cave in the remote Altai Mountains of Siberia to a single tooth found in a cave in the limestone landscapes of tropical Laos? The answer to this question has been established by an international team of researchers from Laos, Europe, the US and Australia. The human tooth was chanced upon during an archaeological survey in a remote area of Laos. The scientists have shown it originated from the same ancient human population first recognised in Denisova Cave (dubbed the Denisovans), in the Altai Mountains of Siberia (Russia).

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Haptics device creates realistic virtual textures Posted: 21 May 2022 06:33 AM PDT Tactile sensation is an incredibly important part of how humans perceive their reality. Haptics or devices that can produce extremely specific vibrations that can mimic the sensation of touch are a way to bring that third sense to life. However, as far as haptics have come, humans are incredibly particular about whether or not something feels 'right,' and virtual textures don't always hit the mark. Now, researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a new method for computers to achieve that true texture -- with the help of human beings. Called a preference-driven model, the framework uses our ability to distinguish between the details of certain textures as a tool in order to give these virtual counterparts a tune-up.

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• Unraveling a perplexing explosive process that occurs throughout the universe
• Mixing laser- and x-ray-beams
• Neuromorphic memory device simulates neurons and synapses
• Prehistoric feces reveal parasites from feasting at Stonehenge
• Discovery of 'ghost' fossils reveals plankton resilience to past global warming events
• Ghostly 'mirror world' might be cause of cosmic controversy
• Watch dolphins line up to self-medicate skin ailments at coral 'clinics'
• Are people swapping their cats and goldfish for praying mantises?
• Puzzling features deep in Earth's interior illuminated
• Component for brain-inspired computing
• Physicists explain how type of aurora on Mars is formed
• It's a female bonobo's world: Ecologists propose new tools to assess sex and power among wild animals
• Researchers use galaxy as a 'cosmic telescope' to study heart of the young universe
• Astronauts may one day drink water from ancient moon volcanoes
• Scientists see signs of traumatic brain injury in headbutting muskox
• Major infrared breakthrough could lead to solar power at night
• Scent dogs detect coronavirus reliably from skin swabs
• Chimpanzees combine calls to form numerous vocal sequences
• Chemists synthesize psychotropic compound from rainforest tree

Unraveling a perplexing explosive process that occurs throughout the universe Posted: 20 May 2022 03:12 PM PDT Novel simulation brings extraordinary fast radio bursts into the laboratory in a way once thought impossible.

Mixing laser- and x-ray-beams Posted: 20 May 2022 11:46 AM PDT Unlike fictional laser swords, real laser beams do not interact with each other when they cross -- unless the beams meet within a suitable material allowing for nonlinear light-matter interaction. In such a case, wave mixing can give rise to beams with changed colors and directions.

Neuromorphic memory device simulates neurons and synapses Posted: 20 May 2022 10:29 AM PDT Researchers have reported a nano-sized neuromorphic memory device that emulates neurons and synapses simultaneously in a unit cell, another step toward completing the goal of neuromorphic computing designed to rigorously mimic the human brain with semiconductor devices.

Prehistoric feces reveal parasites from feasting at Stonehenge Posted: 19 May 2022 05:45 PM PDT Study of ancient faeces found at a settlement thought to have housed builders of the famous stone monument suggests that parasites got consumed via badly-cooked cow offal during epic winter feasts.

Discovery of 'ghost' fossils reveals plankton resilience to past global warming events Posted: 19 May 2022 11:10 AM PDT The 'ghost' fossils are imprints of single-celled plankton called coccolithophores and their discovery is changing our understanding of how plankton in the oceans are affected by climate change.

Ghostly 'mirror world' might be cause of cosmic controversy Posted: 19 May 2022 10:27 AM PDT New research suggests an unseen 'mirror world' of particles that interacts with our world only via gravity that might be the key to solving a major puzzle in cosmology today -- the Hubble constant problem. The Hubble constant is the rate of expansion of the universe today. Predictions for this rate are significantly slower than the rate found by our most precise local measurements. This discrepancy is one that many cosmologists have been trying to solve by changing our current cosmological model.

Watch dolphins line up to self-medicate skin ailments at coral 'clinics' Posted: 19 May 2022 08:53 AM PDT If a human comes down with a rash, they might go to the doctor and come away with some ointment to put on it. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins get skin conditions, too, but they come about their medication by queuing up nose-to-tail to rub themselves against corals. Researchers now show that these corals have medicinal properties, suggesting that the dolphins are using the marine invertebrates to medicate skin conditions.

Are people swapping their cats and goldfish for praying mantises? Posted: 19 May 2022 05:11 AM PDT Praying mantises have gained recent popularity as pets, sold at animal fairs and pet markets, but also collected in the wild by a fast-growing community of hobbyists and professional marketers. An overview of this market's dynamics reports on both problems and opportunities of the pet mantis market, like the absence of regulations, but also the potential of a stronger collaboration between hobbyists and scientists for biodiversity conservation.

Puzzling features deep in Earth's interior illuminated Posted: 19 May 2022 05:11 AM PDT New research examines an unusual pocket of rock at the boundary layer with Earth's core, some three thousand kilometers beneath the surface.

Component for brain-inspired computing Posted: 18 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new material for an electronic component that can be used in a wider range of applications than its predecessors. Such components will help create electronic circuits that emulate the human brain and that are more efficient at performing machine-learning tasks.

Physicists explain how type of aurora on Mars is formed Posted: 18 May 2022 08:38 AM PDT Researchers have learned how a type of aurora on Mars is formed. The physicists report discrete aurora form through the interaction of the solar wind and the crust at Mars' southern hemisphere.

It's a female bonobo's world: Ecologists propose new tools to assess sex and power among wild animals Posted: 18 May 2022 08:33 AM PDT In the wild, it might seem like male animals run the show. But researchers have laid a new framework to assess power distribution between the sexes, and its application has shown that in some animal species, females rule the roost and their paths to power look very different from that of their male counterparts'.

Researchers use galaxy as a 'cosmic telescope' to study heart of the young universe Posted: 18 May 2022 08:33 AM PDT A unique new instrument, coupled with a powerful telescope and a little help from nature, has given researchers the ability to peer into galactic nurseries at the heart of the young universe.

Astronauts may one day drink water from ancient moon volcanoes Posted: 17 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT If any humans had been alive 2 to 4 billion years ago, they may have looked up and seen a sliver of frost on the moon's surface. Some of that ice may still be hiding in craters on the lunar surface today.

Scientists see signs of traumatic brain injury in headbutting muskox Posted: 17 May 2022 10:07 AM PDT Scientists saw for the first time hallmarks of concussions and other head trauma in the brains of deceased headbutting animals -- muskoxen and bighorn sheep. The results may contradict the commonly-held belief that ramming animals do not suffer brain injuries and support the notion that studies on animals with brains evolutionarily similar to those of humans may help researchers understand and reduce traumatic brain injuries.

Major infrared breakthrough could lead to solar power at night Posted: 17 May 2022 08:22 AM PDT Using technology similar to night-vision goggles, researchers have developed a device that can generate electricity from thermal radiation.

Scent dogs detect coronavirus reliably from skin swabs Posted: 17 May 2022 06:48 AM PDT A recent study confirmed that scent detection dogs can be taught to identify individuals with a coronavirus infection from skin swabs. In the experimental set-up at Finland's Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, the accuracy of the dogs in identifying the samples was 92 percent.

Chimpanzees combine calls to form numerous vocal sequences Posted: 17 May 2022 06:48 AM PDT Evidence of structured vocal sequences in wild chimpanzee communication provides insights into human language evolution.

Chemists synthesize psychotropic compound from rainforest tree Posted: 12 May 2022 01:40 PM PDT Scientists found a chemical from a rainforest tree that binds to opioid receptors in the brain and may have utility as an antidepressant or anti-anxiety drug.

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• Electronic skin: Physicist develops multisensory hybrid material
• CRISPR now possible in cockroaches
• Extraterrestrial stone brings first supernova clues to Earth

Electronic skin: Physicist develops multisensory hybrid material Posted: 16 May 2022 09:40 AM PDT Recently developed 'smart skin' is very similar to human skin. It senses pressure, humidity and temperature simultaneously and produces electronic signals. More sensitive robots or more intelligent prostheses are thus conceivable.

CRISPR now possible in cockroaches Posted: 16 May 2022 09:39 AM PDT Researchers have developed a CRISPR-Cas9 approach to enable gene editing in cockroaches, according to a new study. The simple and efficient technique, named 'direct parental' CRISPR (DIPA-CRISPR), involves the injection of materials into female adults where eggs are developing rather than into the embryos themselves.

Extraterrestrial stone brings first supernova clues to Earth Posted: 16 May 2022 05:17 AM PDT The extraterrestrial Hypatia stone found in Egypt could be the first tangible evidence on Earth of a supernova type Ia explosion. These rare supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the universe. If the hypothesis is correct, Hypatia would be a 'forensic' clue of an epic cosmic story started sometime in the early formation of our solar system.

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