ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

With the help of special telescopes, researchers have observed a cosmic particle accelerator as never before. Observations made with the gamma ray observatory H.E.S.S. in Namibia show for the first time the course of an acceleration process in a stellar process called a nova, which comprises powerful eruptions on the surface of a white dwarf. A nova creates a shock wave that tears through the surrounding medium, pulling particles with it and accelerating them to extreme energies. Surprisingly, the nova 'RS Ophiuchi' seems to cause particles to accelerate at speeds reaching the theoretical limit, corresponding to ideal conditions.

Astronomers have observed primordial material that may be giving birth to three planetary systems around a binary star in unprecedented detail.

Animals often use highly specific signals to warn their herd about approaching predators. Surprisingly, similar behaviors are also observed among plants. Shedding more light on this phenomenon, researchers have discovered one such mechanism. Using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system, the researchers have shown that herbivore-damaged plants give off volatile chemical 'scents' that trigger epigenetic modifications in the defense genes of neighboring plants. These genes subsequently trigger anti-herbivore defense systems.

Researchers have created a robot with an internal weight that can give the impression of conveying emotions while reading text messages. It can also remind users to not get upset, which may help them cope with unpleasant information.

Researchers have developed a huggable, cushion-like device that mechanically simulates breathing, and preliminary evidence suggests it could help reduce students' pre-test anxiety.

Scientists have long known that the hydrogen gas in galaxy clusters is searingly hot -- about 10 million degrees Kelvin, or roughly the same temperature as the center of the sun -- which is so hot that hydrogen atoms cannot exist. Instead the gas is a plasma consisting of protons and electrons. But a puzzle persists: There is no straightforward explanation for why or how the gas stays so hot. According to the normal rules of physics, it should have cooled within the age of the universe. But it hasn't. Scientists have created conditions similar to the hot gas in gigantic galaxy clusters.

Danish and Swedish researchers have dated the enormous Hiawatha impact crater, a 31 km-wide meteorite crater buried under a kilometer of Greenlandic ice. The dating ends speculation that the meteorite impacted after the appearance of humans and opens up a new understanding of Earth's evolution in the post-dinosaur era.

Researchers provide the first plausible explanation to why one of the most massive black hole pairs observed to date by gravitational waves also seemed to merge on a non-circular orbit. Their suggested solution involves a chaotic triple drama inside a giant disk of gas around a super massive black hole in a galaxy far, far away.

The partially fossilized remains of a giant extinct crocodilian that could have been ritualistically beheaded explain how modern crocodilian species may have evolved. Discovered in southern China, the new species is estimated to have been 6 meters long and the top predator of its environment. Human migration into southern China and subsequent hunting might have driven it to extinction only a few hundred years ago. The discovery may impact knowledge of ancient Chinese civilization.

New research shows how, after it rains, microbes in desert soil convert one form of pollution into another -- laughing gas.

How can Einstein's theory of gravity be unified with quantum mechanics? It is a challenge that could give us deep insights into phenomena such as black holes and the birth of the universe. Now, a new article presents results that cast new light on important challenges in understanding quantum gravity.

When we eat food, our gut somehow senses its presence to begin shifting it along our digestive tract, but the question has always been -- how? Now, new research using both human gut samples and mice has discovered that a touch-sensing protein called Piezo2 is not just in our fingers, but also in our gut, with its presence likely playing a key role in constipation.