ScienceDaily: Strange Science News


Theropod dinosaur jaws became stronger as they evolved

Posted: 16 Dec 2021 11:59 AM PST

Theropod dinosaurs evolved more robust jaws through time allowing them to consume tougher food, a new study reveals.

Innovative textile vents to release heat when you sweat

Posted: 15 Dec 2021 11:21 AM PST

Materials scientists have developed a lightweight material that traps thermal energy when dry, but when the person starts sweating, opens a series of tiny vents to let heat escape and re-closes them to retain heat once they are dry again. Using physics rather than electronics to open the vents, the material has potential as a patch on various types of clothing to help keep the wearer comfortable in a wide range of situations.

Mystery behind formation of surface ice-shapes on Pluto unraveled

Posted: 15 Dec 2021 10:26 AM PST

Scientists have unraveled a fascinating new insight into how the landscape of the dwarf-planet Pluto has formed.

Exotic quantum particles — less magnetic field required

Posted: 15 Dec 2021 08:33 AM PST

Researchers have observed exotic fractional states at low magnetic field in twisted bilayer graphene for the first time.

Early bloomers: Using citizen-science data to investigate unseasonal flowering in Joshua trees

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 12:02 PM PST

In November 2019, visitors to Joshua Tree National Park in California encountered a strange sight. Joshua trees and closely related Mojave yuccas, which normally remain reproductively dormant until late spring, were in full bloom at the tail end of autumn. In a new study, researchers used citizen-science data to determine the cause of the anomalous bloom and predict when similar events might occur.

A spacecraft has 'touched' the sun for the first time

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:49 AM PST

On April 28, 2021, NASA's Parker Solar Probe reached the sun's extended solar atmosphere, known as the corona, and spent five hours there. The spacecraft is the first to enter the outer boundaries of our sun.

'Crazy' light emitters: Physicists see an unusual quantum phenomenon

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 07:41 AM PST

Scientists have experimentally confirmed an unusual quantum phenomenon for the motion of luminescent electronic quasiparticles in atomically-thin semiconductors.

Air flow key to ensuring black soldier fly larvae thrive as a sustainable food source

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 10:32 AM PST

New research demonstrates how using airflow can keep black soldier fly larvae, an important animal protein source, from overheating while feeding as a collective.

Big-headed ancient fish had land on its mind

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 06:49 AM PST

Sophisticated CT scanning of the cranium of an Australian fish fossil has given new insights to explain how fish first left the water to invade land about 370 million years ago. Palaeontologists studied Cladarosymblema narrienense, a 330 million-year-old fish from the Carboniferous Period found in Queensland, which is an ancestor of the first land animals or four-limbed vertebrate tetrapods.