ScienceDaily: Quirky - March 19, 2025
Top quirky research news
Iguanas floated one-fifth of the way around the world to colonize Fiji
The only iguanas outside the Americas, Fiji iguanas are an enigma. A new genetic analysis shows that they are most closely related to the North American desert iguana, having separated about 34 million years ago, around the same time that the islands emerged from the sea. This suggests that the iguanas rafted 5,000 miles across the Pacific from western North America to reach Fiji -- the longest known transoceanic dispersal of any land animal.
How to stop being surprised by extreme weather
A team of scientists have brought together methods to see beyond the limitations of conventional weather records, which typically only cover the past century.
If a person hides their own hand and focuses on a rubber hand instead, they may perceive it as part of their own body under certain conditions. What sounds like a gimmick could one day be used to help patients who suffer from chronic pain: Researchers have shown that pain caused by heat is experienced as less severe thanks to the rubber hand illusion.
Dialing in the temperature needed for precise nuclear timekeeping
For decades, atomic clocks have been the pinnacle of precision timekeeping, enabling GPS navigation, cutting-edge physics research, and tests of fundamental theories. But researchers are now pushing beyond atomic transitions to something potentially even more stable: a nuclear clock.
Bridging Nature and Nurture: Study reveals brain's flexible foundation from birth
By studying never-before-seen details of brain connectivity in human infants, researchers have identified how a balance of innate structure and flexible learning produces our remarkably organized visual brains.
RNA origami: Artificial cytoskeletons to build synthetic cells
With the long-term goal of creating living cells from non-living components, scientists in the field of synthetic biology work with RNA origami. This tool uses the multifunctionality of the natural RNA biomolecule to fold new building blocks, making protein synthesis superfluous. In pursuit of the artificial cell, a research team has cleared a crucial hurdle. Using the RNA origami technique, they succeeded in producing nanotubes that fold into cytoskeleton-like structures.
Combination of cosmic processes shapes the size and location of sub-Neptunes
A combination of cosmic processes shapes the formation of one of the most common types of planets outside of our solar system, according to a new study.
Webb telescope captures its first direct images of carbon dioxide outside solar system
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first direct images of carbon dioxide in a planet outside the solar system in HR 8799, a multiplanet system 130 light-years away that has long been a key target for planet formation studies.
Age of upcoming asteroid flyby target
New modeling indicates the main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson may have formed about 150 million years ago when a larger parent asteroid broke apart; its orbit and spin properties have undergone significant evolution since. When NASA's Lucy spacecraft flies by this approximately three-mile-wide space rock on April 20, 2025, the data collected could provide independent insights on such processes based on its shape, surface geology and cratering history.
Artificial muscle flexes in multiple directions, offering a path to soft, wiggly robots
Engineers developed a method to grow artificial muscle tissue that twitches and flexes in multiple, coordinated directions. These tissues could be useful for building 'biohybrid' robots powered by soft, artificially grown muscle fibers.
Magnetic microalgae on a mission to become robots
Scientists have developed a single-cell green microalgae coated with magnetic material. This miniature robot was put to the test: would the microalgae with its magnetic coating be able to swim through narrow spaces and, additionally, in a viscous fluid that mimics those found in the human body? Would the tiny robot be able to fight its way through these difficult conditions?
How a hummingbird chick acts like a caterpillar to survive
For the first time, scientists described a hummingbird chick potentially mimicking a poisonous caterpillar to avoid getting eaten.
How big brains and flexible skulls led to the evolution of modern birds
New research shows how physical changes in the skull affected the mechanics of the way birds move and use their beaks to eat and explore their habitats -- adaptations that helped them evolve into the extraordinarily diverse winged creatures we see today.
'Microlightning' in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth
A study shows that electrical charges in sprays of water can cause chemical reactions that form organic molecules from inorganic materials. The findings provide evidence that microlightning may have helped create the building blocks necessary for early life on the planet.
TOI-1453: Sub-Neptune in system of two exoplanets
Astronomers have discovered two exoplanets around TOI-1453, a star about 250 light years away. These two exoplanets, a super-Earth and a sub-Neptune, are common in the galaxy, yet are absent from our system. This discovery paves the way for future atmospheric studies to better understand these types of planets.
How chemistry and force etch mysterious spiral patterns on solid surfaces
Curiosity about a mistake that left tiny dots on a germanium wafer with evaporated metal films led to the discovery of beautiful spiral patterns etched on the surface of the semiconductor by a chemical reaction. Further experiments showed that the patterns arise from chemical reactions that are coupled to mechanical forces through the deformation of a catalyzing agent. The new system is the first major advance in experimental methods to study chemical pattern formation since the 1950s. Studying these complex systems will help scientists understand other natural processes, from crack formation in materials to how stress influences biological growth.
Weighing in on a Mars water debate
Water once existed in abundance of at the surface of Mars. How much of that water has been stored in the planet's crust is still unclear, according to a new analysis.
Spinning, twisted light could power next-generation electronics
Researchers have advanced a decades-old challenge in the field of organic semiconductors, opening new possibilities for the future of electronics. The researchers have created an organic semiconductor that forces electrons to move in a spiral pattern, which could improve the efficiency of OLED displays in television and smartphone screens, or power next-generation computing technologies such as spintronics and quantum computing.
Dozens of 3-toed dinosaurs leave their mark in Australia
A researcher has confirmed a boulder at a regional school contains one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints per square meter ever documented in Australia.
Most current AI struggles to read clocks and calendars
Some of the world's most advanced AI systems struggle to tell the time and work out dates on calendars, a study suggests.
Signs of alien life may be hiding in these gases
Scientists identify a new way to detect life in outer space with currently existing telescopes. The method hinges on worlds that look nothing like Earth, and gases rarely considered in the search for extraterrestrials.
Dynamic acoustics of hand clapping, elucidated
Researchers elucidate the complex physical mechanisms and fluid dynamics involved in a handclap, with potential applications in bioacoustics and personal identification, whereby a handclap could be used to identify someone.
Scientists develop solar-powered method to convert sewage sludge into green hydrogen and animal feed
Scientists have developed an innovative solar-powered method to transform sewage sludge -- a by-product of wastewater treatment -- into green hydrogen for clean energy and single-cell protein for animal feed.
Entwined dwarf stars reveal their location thanks to repeated radio bursts
A white dwarf and a red dwarf star have been discovered closely orbiting each other emitting radio pulses every two hours. Their findings means we know it isn't just neutron stars that emit such pulses, but these are spaced unusually far apart.
New research suggests black holes may transition into 'white holes', ejecting matter and potentially even time back into the universe, defying our current understanding of these cosmic giants.
First operating system for quantum networks
Researchers have announced the creation of the first operating system designed for quantum networks: QNodeOS. The research marks a major step forward in transforming quantum networking from a theoretical concept to a practical technology that could revolutionize the future of the internet.
Appreciate the updates. So much discovery. Spent a fair amount of time observing iguanas with my herpetologist husband. Love that they made it to Fiji. A great place to live.