ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

By mimicking features of living systems, self-organizing lasers could lead to new materials for sensing, computing, light sources and displays.

Scientists had long wondered how woodpeckers can repeatedly pound their beaks against tree trunks without doing damage to their brains. This led to the notion that their skulls must act like shock-absorbing helmets. Now, researchers have refuted this notion, saying that their heads act more like stiff hammers. In fact, their calculations show that any shock absorbance would hinder the woodpeckers' pecking abilities.

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious short-duration astronomical event that was as bright as a superluminous supernova, but evolving much faster.