ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

Biologists have discovered how New Caledonian crows make one of their most sophisticated tool designs -- sticks with a neatly shaped hooked tip. New Caledonian crows are the only species besides humans known to manufacture hooked tools in the wild. The study reveals how crows manage to fashion particularly efficient tools, with well-defined 'deep' hooks.

Black holes are famous for their muscle: an intense gravitational pull known to gobble up entire stars and launch streams of matter into space at almost the speed of light. It turns out the reality may not live up to the hype.

Scientists have developed an entirely textile-based, bacteria-powered bio-battery that could one day be integrated into wearable electronics.

A team of Australian scientists has discovered a new species of marsupial lion which has been extinct for at least 19 million years. The findings are based on fossilized remains of the animal's skull, teeth, and humerus (upper arm bone) found in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area of remote northwestern Queensland.

A new study finds that bamboo lemurs, giant pandas and red pandas share 48 gut microbes in common -- despite the fact that they are separated by millions of years of evolution.

Similar to normal hard drives, so-called spin-crossover molecules can save information via their magnetic state. A research team has now managed to place a new class of spin-crossover molecules onto a surface and to improve its storage capacity. The storage density of conventional hard drives could therefore theoretically be increased by more than one hundred fold.

Researchers have found that statistical methods and 3-D imaging can be used to accurately measure animal bone cut marks made by prehistoric human butchery, and to help answer pressing questions about human evolution.

Was St Nicholas, the fourth century saint who inspired the iconography of Santa Claus, a legend or was he a real person? New research has revealed that bones long venerated as relics of the saint, do in fact date from the right historical period.

A reindeer with a red glowing nose. A heart, two sizes two small, that suddenly grows three sizes. A trip to the past and to the future — all in one night. Researchers dug deep into their reserves of scientific expertise to explain how these inexplicable plot lines in holiday classics just might be (almost) possible.