Amazing Facts – Page 15

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Scientist Harnesses ATP Synthase

March 27, 2008

How would you like shorter waits at airports? fast screening for disease? the ability to detect biological warfare agents quickly? That may be possible soon – thanks to an amazing man-and-nature cooperative technology reported by Science Daily. A team led by Wayne Frasch at Arizona State is on the verge of an invention that can […]

Amazing Facts

The Gecko in the Flight Simulator

March 17, 2008

It’s a lizard! It’s a plane! It’s Supergecko! Researchers at UC Berkeley (where else) put a gecko into a wind tunnel to watch it fly. News about gecko’s magic feet that allow it to run vertically up glass is almost old hat now (08/27/2002, 01/04/2005). Even a gecko can lose its footing, though, and thereon […]

Amazing Facts

The Root Route

March 4, 2008

Why don’t roots push a plant right out of the ground? It’s a question only a scientist or an 8-year-old kid would ask. The answer is more amazing than either would have realized. Root hairs feel their way around obstacles and find the openings, in the dark, by means of a complex interplay of proteins […]

Amazing Facts

Cool Bat Tricks

March 1, 2008

Bats put on a dazzling air show. Science Daily revealed that the acrobatic mammals have magnetic instruments. Somehow, they are able to use the magnetite in their cells as navigational aids. Scientists from Leeds University and Princeton conducted experiments on large brown bats. They were able to steer the bats off course by issuing magnetic […]

Amazing Facts

Why Blood Clots Are Stretchy

February 27, 2008

A team of biophysicists at University of Illinois ran a computation for six months to find out why blood clots are stretchy. The primary protein in the clot, fibrinogen, can stretch two to three times its resting size. By studying the force on every atom in the protein, Science Daily said, they produced a force […]

Amazing Facts

Sea Monsters Were for Real, and Other Wonders Under the Sea

February 26, 2008

National Geographic News published a story about a real sea monster. A fossil pliosaur nearly 50 feet in length, the largest marine reptile ever found, was discovered in permafrost just 800 miles from the North Pole, on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Scientists estimate it had such strong teeth and muscles […]

Amazing Facts

Prevent Drought: Hire a Beaver

February 25, 2008

“Beavers can help ease drought,” say scientists from University of Alberta. EurekAlert published a press release about a 54-year study that showed beaver kept open water wetlands available. They seem to even mitigate the effects of global warming. “Climate models predict the incidence of drought in parts of North America will increase in frequency and […]

Human Body

Fast Protein Fine-Tunes the Ear

February 13, 2008

A protein helps the human ear respond to volume differences over 12 orders of magnitude.

Amazing Facts

Migrating Birds Measure Longitude

February 13, 2008

Migrating birds are able to get back on course, even when released 1000 km east of their normal migration path. This shows that long-distance migrating birds are capable of true bicoordinate navigation: the ability to make course corrections both in latitude and longitude. The results of experiments, published in Current Biology,1 left the researchers baffled: […]

Amazing Facts

Did Birds Evolve Aeronautical Engineering?

February 8, 2008

Two news stories on birds may not seem to flock together. One is about their supreme aeronautical engineering. The other ponders when they evolved. A story on EurekAlert and Science Daily describes how engineers are eyeing birds, bats and insects for design ideas. The appeal is clear from the following comparisons: A Blackbird […]

Amazing Facts

Nose Code Rockets Smell Discrimination

February 1, 2008

You have a code in your nose. Scientists working on fruit fly olfactory systems have found that a mapping mechanism between components maximizes the fly’s ability to discriminate smells. The coding system provides a non-linear response that appears finely tuned to maximize the information content of odor inputs. The components of this system […]

Amazing Facts

A Pitcher of Health, and Reasons to Love Slime

January 28, 2008

Pitcher plants contain chemicals that just might help medicine and agriculture, reported PhysOrg. A Japanese team found a myriad of interesting proteins in this “evolutionary marvel,” a plant that eats insect meat. Now for some slimy good news. PhysOrg said, “You know algae. It’s the gunk that collects on the sides of a […]

Amazing Facts

Getting a Hand on Facts and Meanings

January 24, 2008

What could be more simple than pressing a button with your finger? That “seemingly trivial action is the result of a complex neuro-motor-mechanical process orchestrated with precision timing by the brain, nervous system and muscles of the hand.” So says a press release from University of Southern California posted on EurekAlert. Simple, everyday […]

Amazing Facts

Butterfly Wings Flash Shiny Optical Tricks

January 22, 2008

You can get brilliant colors without pigment if you build patterns near the wavelengths of light. Butterflies have the trick down to a science. Their wings shimmer and shine with brilliant colors produced by nanostructures that scientists want to imitate. Science Daily told how butterflies and moths, even the white-winged varieties, use nanostructures […]

Amazing Facts

Solar System Super Snapshots

January 12, 2008

Here are some of the most fascinating new images coming from spacecraft out there on duty – but they didn’t just come in on their own. They are brought to you by highly intelligent and dedicated human beings: the navigators, instrument teams, deep space network engineers, flight controllers and scientists who gather and distribute the […]

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