Strange & Offbeat News
April 30, 2024
Top Headlines
Apr. 30, 2024 — A study of body size in leaf-nosed bats of the Solomon Islands has revealed surprising genetic diversity among nearly indistinguishable species on different ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — How did North America's saber-toothed cats hunt without breaking their unwieldy saber-like canines, which are vulnerable to sideways bending stresses? A paleontologist provides mechanical evidence that during adolescence, when young cats were ...
Apr. 26, 2024 — Quantum mechanical effects such as radioactive decay, or more generally: 'tunneling', display intriguing mathematical patterns. Researchers now show that a 40-year-old mathematical discovery can be used to fully encode and understand this ...
Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have successfully used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to map the weather on the hot gas-giant exoplanet WASP-43 ...
Latest Headlines
updated 7:28pm EDT
Apr. 30, 2024 — A four-legged robot trained with machine learning has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking -- a milestone for roboticists as well as biologists ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Scientists have applied a data-driven approach to understanding firefly population dynamics on a continental scale. Key findings from this new study indicate that fireflies, part of the beetle order, ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Scientists have developed a smart, reusable adhesive more than ten times stronger than a gecko's feet adhesion, pointing the way for development of reusable superglue and grippers capable of holding ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — When hunting for mice in winter, red and arctic fox are known to plunge headfirst at speeds of 2-4 meters per second, but their sharp noses reduce the impact force in snow and protect them from ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — Post-mitotic neurons in the brain that re-enter the cell cycle quickly succumb to senescence, and this re-entry is more common in Alzheimer's ...
Apr. 25, 2024 — Different types of barley recruit distinct communities of soil microbes to grow around their roots by releasing a custom mix of sugars and other ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Oncorhynchus rastrosus, a giant species of salmon that lived in the North American Pacific Northwest a few million years ago, sported a pair of front teeth that projected out from the sides of its ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Astronomers have confirmed that differences in binary stars' composition can originate from chemical variations in the cloud of stellar material from which they formed. The results help explain why ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Greening the way we eat needn't mean going vegetarian. A healthy, more realistic solution is to adopt a flexitarian diet where seafoods add umami to ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Dinosaurs were likely as smart as reptiles but not as intelligent as ...
Earlier Headlines
Apr. 29, 2024 — For most people, biting into a lemon would leave them puckered up and desperate to lose that sour flavor, but a new study revealed that roughly one in eight adults like intensely sour sensations. The ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Samples reveal evidence of changes experienced by the surface of asteroid Ryugu, some probably due to micrometeoroid ...
Apr. 26, 2024 — Are mice clever enough to be strategic? A neuroscientist who studies learning in humans and animals, and who has long worked with mice, wondered why rodents often performed poorly in tests when they ...
Apr. 26, 2024 — Using environmental DNA analysis, an international team of researchers identified a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah in Mexico. The plants, known ...
Apr. 26, 2024 — Robotics engineers have worked for decades and invested many millions of research dollars in attempts to create a robot that can walk or run as well as an animal. And yet, it remains the case that ...
Apr. 25, 2024 — Mice lacking an olfactory system have had their sense of smell restored with neurons from rats, the first time scientists have successfully integrated the sensory apparatus of one species into ...
Apr. 25, 2024 — How do birds fly in a coordinated and seemingly effortless fashion? Part of the answer lies in precise, and previously unknown, aerodynamic interactions, reports a team of mathematicians. Its ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Cells constantly navigate a dynamic environment, facing ever-changing conditions and challenges. But how do cells swiftly adapt to these environmental fluctuations? A new study is answering that ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Every cuckoo is an adopted child -- raised by foster parents, into whose nest the cuckoo mother smuggled her egg. The cuckoo mother is aided in this subterfuge by her resemblance to a bird of prey. ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — A university professor has found a way to help students -- and himself -- power through long lecture classes: exercise breaks. A new study showed that five-minute exercise sessions during lectures ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Their first vocalizations help young zebra finch males to memorize the songs of ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers have invented a new optical element that brings us one step closer to mixing the real and virtual worlds in an ordinary pair of eyeglasses using high-definition 3D holographic ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Magnetic cilia -- artificial hairs whose movement is powered by embedded magnetic particles -- have been around for a while, and are of interest for applications in soft robotics, transporting ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — While ESA's satellite INTEGRAL was observing the sky, it spotted a burst of gamma-rays -- high-energy photons -- coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA's XMM-Newton ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers explain the genomic and developmental basis of the patagium, the thin skin membrane that allows some mammalian species to soar through the ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study. The study focuses on an ancient ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — The day a male spear squid hatches determines which mating tactic he will use throughout his life, according to new research. Spear squid (Heterololigo bleekeri) that hatch earlier in the season ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — When we think of evolution, we think of a process that happens over hundreds or thousands of years. In research recently published, a species of frog that has evolved over the course of merely 25 ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — Palaeontologists have solved a hundred-year-old mystery of how some fossil frogs preserve their fleshy parts -- it's all down to their skin. Palaeontologists studied 45-million-year-old fossil ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — Sure, ChatGPT can write a poem about your pet in the style of T.S Eliot, but generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have a potentially more useful role to play in idea generation according ...
Monday, April 29, 2024
- One in Eight Grown-Ups Love Extreme Tartness
- Probing the Effects of Interplanetary Space on Asteroid Ryugu
Friday, April 26, 2024
- Test Reveals Mice Think Like Babies
- Ancient Maya Blessed Their Ballcourts
- Why Can't Robots Outrun Animals?
Thursday, April 25, 2024
- With Hybrid Brains, These Mice Smell Like a Rat
- How Do Birds Flock? Researchers Do the Math to Reveal Previously Unknown Aerodynamic Phenomenon
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
- Cells May Possess Hidden Communication System
- Color Variants in Cuckoos: The Advantages of Rareness
- A University Lecture, With a Dash of Jumping Jacks
- Zebra Finch Chicks Don't Babble for No Reason
- Holographic Displays Offer a Glimpse Into an Immersive Future
- Researchers Show It's Possible to Teach Old Magnetic Cilia New Tricks
- Eruption of Mega-Magnetic Star Lights Up Nearby Galaxy
- Scientists Unveil Genetics Behind Development of Gliding
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
- Bioluminescence First Evolved in Animals at Least 540 Million Years Ago
- Squids' Birthday Influences Mating
- Frog Species Evolved Rapidly in Response to Road Salts
- Fossil Frogs Share Their Skincare Secrets
- Hey Dave, I've Got an Idea for You: What's the Potential of AI-Led Workshopping?
Monday, April 22, 2024
- To Find Life in the Universe, Look to Deadly Venus
- AI and Physics Combine to Reveal the 3D Structure of a Flare Erupting Around a Black Hole
- Giant Galactic Explosion Exposes Galaxy Pollution in Action
Friday, April 19, 2024
- Lemur's Lament: When One Vulnerable Species Stalks Another
- New Research Shines a Light on How Expert Mapmakers See the World Differently
Thursday, April 18, 2024
- Octopus Inspires New Suction Mechanism for Robots
- Data-Driven Music: Converting Climate Measurements Into Music
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
- How 3D Printers Can Give Robots a Soft Touch
- First Evidence of Human Occupation in Lava Tube Cave in Saudi Arabia
- Paleontologists Unearth What May Be the Largest Known Marine Reptile
- Astronomers Uncover Methane Emission on a Cold Brown Dwarf
- 'Tube Map' Around Planets and Moons Made Possible by Knot Theory
- Study Finds Iron-Rich Enamel Protects, but Doesn't Color, Rodents' Orange-Brown Incisors
- Two-Dimensional Nanomaterial Sets Record for Expert-Defying, Counter-Intuitive Expansion
- Making Crops Colorful for Easier Weeding
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
- Older Males out-Compete Young Males Outside Breeding Pairs, Bird Study Shows
- Most Massive Stellar Black Hole in Our Galaxy Found
- A Single Atom Layer of Gold: Researchers Create Goldene
- Can Animals Count?
Monday, April 15, 2024
- How Pluto Got Its Heart
- Unlocking the 'chain of Worms'
- Evolution's Recipe Book: How 'copy Paste' Errors Cooked Up the Animal Kingdom
- Even the Simplest Marine Organisms Tend to Be Individualistic
- Leptanilla Voldemort, a Ghostly Slender New Ant Species from the Dark Depths of the Underground
Friday, April 12, 2024
- Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst of All Time Came from the Collapse of a Massive Star
- Stellar Winds of Three Sun-Like Stars Detected for the First Time
Thursday, April 11, 2024
- Beautiful Nebula, Violent History: Clash of Stars Solves Stellar Mystery
- Trapped in the Middle: Billiards With Memory
- Star Trek's Holodeck Recreated Using ChatGPT and Video Game Assets
- Breakthrough Promises Secure Quantum Computing at Home
- Twinkle Twinkle Baby Star, 'sneezes' Tell Us How You Are
- Oxidant Pollutant Ozone Removes Mating Barriers Between Fly Species
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
- The Hidden Role of the Milky Way in Ancient Egyptian Mythology
- Revolutionary Molecular Device Unleashes Potential for Targeted Drug Delivery and Self-Healing Materials
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
- 'Teacher Toads' Can Save Native Animals from Toxic Cane Toads
- Do Some Mysterious Bones Belong to Gigantic Ichthyosaurs?
Monday, April 8, 2024
- Engineers Design Soft and Flexible 'skeletons' For Muscle-Powered Robots
- Toothed Whale Echolocation Organs Evolved from Jaw Muscles
- How the Moon Turned Itself Inside out
- Mediterranean Marine Worm Has Developed Enormous Eyes
- Telescope Detects Unprecedented Behavior from Nearby Magnetar
- Inexplicable Flying Fox Found in Hydra Galaxy Cluster
Friday, April 5, 2024
Thursday, April 4, 2024
- Stellar Collisions Produce Strange, Zombie-Like Survivors
- Finds at Schöningen Show Wood Was Crucial Raw Material 300,000 Years Ago
- Researchers Envision Sci-Fi Worlds Involving Changes to Atmospheric Water Cycle
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
- NASA's Webb Probes an Extreme Starburst Galaxy
- 'Smart Swarms' Of Tiny Robots Inspired by Natural Herd Mentality
- Giant Phage Holds Promise as Treatment for Lung Infections
- Plastic-Free Vegan Leather That Dyes Itself Grown from Bacteria
- Intelligent Liquid
- We've Had Bird Evolution All Wrong
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
- First Results from BREAD Experiment Demonstrate a New Approach to Searching for Dark Matter
- Elastocaloric Cooling: Refrigerator Cools by Flexing Artificial Muscles
- Last Chance to Record Archaic Greek Language 'heading for Extinction'
- AI Writing, Illustration Emits Hundreds of Times Less Carbon Than Humans, Study Finds
Monday, April 1, 2024
- Study Uses Artificial Intelligence to Show How Personality Influences the Expression of Our Genes
- Universal Brain-Computer Interface Lets People Play Games With Just Their Thoughts
Thursday, March 28, 2024
- Genomic Research May Help Explain Cancer Resistance in Tasmanian Devils
- Ancient DNA Reveals the Appearance of a 6th Century Chinese Emperor
- Unlocking Supernova Stardust Secrets
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
- Persistent Hiccups in a Far-Off Galaxy Draw Astronomers to New Black Hole Behavior
- Robot, Can You Say 'cheese'?
- Rock-Wallaby Bite Size ‘packs a Punch’
- Scientists Extract Genetic Secrets from 4,000-Year-Old Teeth to Illuminate the Impact of Changing Human Diets Over the Centuries
- Did You Know That Physical Activity Can Protect You from Chronic Pain?
- Secrets of the Naked Mole-Rat: New Study Reveals How Their Unique Metabolism Protects Them from Heart Attacks
- Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way's Central Black Hole
- Distant 'space Snowman' Unlocks Mystery of How Some Dormant Deep Space Objects Become 'ice Bombs'
- A Decade of Aphantasia Research: What We've Learned About People Who Can't Visualize
- Milk on Ice: Antarctic Time Capsule of Whole Milk Powder Sheds Light on the Enduring Qualities--and Evolution--of Dairy Products Past and Present
- 'Cosmic Cannibals' Expel Jets Into Space at 40 Percent the Speed of Light
- A Solar Cell You Can Bend and Soak in Water
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
- Sleeping Supermassive Black Holes Awakened Briefly by Shredded Stars
- Researchers Show That Introduced Tardigrade Proteins Can Slow Metabolism in Human Cells
- Beethoven's Genes Reveal Low Predisposition for Beat Synchronization
- Micro-Lisa! Making a Mark With Novel Nano-Scale Laser Writing
- Tiniest 'starquake' Ever Detected
- Scientists on the Hunt for Evidence of Quantum Gravity's Existence at the South Pole