ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

Glowing urine may replace the biopsy needle: In detecting organ transplant rejection, a new nanoparticle has proven much faster and more thorough in the lab than a biopsy. When T cells mount their first attack on the organ's cells, the nanoparticle sends an alarm signal into the urine that makes it fluoresce.

Scientists have discovered tadpole-shaped jets coming out of the Sun that may help explain why the corona (the wispy upper atmosphere of our star) is so inexplicably hot.

Imagine being stuck inside a maze and wanting to find your way out. How would you proceed? The answer is trial and error. This is how traditional computers with classical algorithms operate to find the solution to a complex problem. Now consider this: What if, by magic, you were able to clone yourself into multiple versions so that you were able to go through all the various paths at the same time? You'd find the exit almost instantly.

A research team has discovered a previously unknown species of marsupial that lived in Alaska's Arctic during the era of dinosaurs, adding a vivid new detail to a complex ancient landscape. The thumb-sized animal, named Unnuakomys hutchisoni, lived in the Arctic about 69 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period.

A group of researchers has recently developed a new software aimed at the analysis of energy generation systems based on kites and drones. They used the software to study the behavior of these systems while transforming the kinetic energy of the wind into useful electrical energy.

Flip a lobster on its back, and you'll see that the underside of its tail is split in segments connected by a translucent membrane that appears rather vulnerable when compared with the armor-like carapace that shields the rest of the crustacean. But engineers have found that this soft membrane is surprisingly tough, with a microscopic, layered, plywood-like structure that makes it remarkably tolerant to scrapes and cuts.

A researcher searching the shoreline of the Panama Canal for fossil plants instead found an ancient sea cow. An 'emergency fossil excavation' due to rising water levels yielded a remarkably complete skeleton of a new genus and species of dugong, estimated to be about 20 million years old, the first evidence of a marine mammal from the Pacific side of the canal.

Virtual reality can often make a user feel isolated from the world, with only computer-generated characters for company. But researchers think they may have found a way to encourage a more sociable virtual reality.

In a first-of-its-kind study, the climate-change impact of several production methods for lab-grown and farmed beef was assessed accounting for the differing greenhouse gases produced. The new projections reveal that over the long term, cultured meat production methods requiring large energy inputs could increase global warming more than some types of cattle farming if energy systems remain dependent on fossil fuels.