Science Strangeries

Awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics, Wilhelm Röntgendiscovered X-radiation. This X-ray tube became a frequently used instrument in medicine after this discovery.

A piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains 1,00,000 neurons and 1 billion synapses!

China is investigating a 'mysterious hut' on the far side of the moon! China's Yutu 2 rover has spotted what Chinese researchers are calling a "mysterious hut" on the far side of the moon. The rover, whose name means "jade rabbit" in Mandarin, recorded a blurry image of the cube-shaped object as the rover made its way across the moon's Von Kármán crater. Looking to the north on Oct. 29, the mission's 36th lunar day, the rover spotted the "mysterious hut" around 260 feet (80 meters) away, the China National Space Administration outreach program Our Space posted on the Chinese social network Weixin on Dec. 3. @Sci_Strangeries

How much does teaspoon of Neutron Star weighs? Neutron stars are extremely dense,i.e.,teaspoon of material from a neutron star weighs about 6 billion tons, with mass around 1.4 times that of the sun packed into a sphere only about 10 kilometers in diameter. Due to their intense gravity, the surface of a neutron star has a pressure of a hundred billion times that of Earth's atmosphere, which can cause physical changes to matter, such as flattening out mountains and stretching out atoms.

Infrared/visible light comparison view of the Helix Nebula This comparison shows a new view of the Helix Nebula acquired with the VISTA telescope in infrared light along with a more familiar view in visible light from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope (left). The infrared vision of VISTA reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are mucbh less prominent in visible light images of the Helix.

Researchers have found 4,000-year-old plague DNA in Britain - the oldest evidence of the disease in the country. Read more

Adorable, bloodsucking sea parasite looks just like sushi! This is an isopod from the genus Rocinela. While many isopods eat dead or decaying animals, Rocinela isopods tend to be parasites that carve out cozy homes on the backs or among the internal organs of other sea creatures. This one may have taken the colour of its latest victim. Fishers caught this peculiar 3-cm isopod near the coast of Japan at a depth of 800 to 1,200 meters.

Midnight Planetarium The clock shows the exact position of the planets in the solar system. Planets move at the same speed as real planets, and the hands of the stars mark hours and minutes. It is called the "Planetary Midnight". It costs a little over $210,000. The Midnight Planetarium watch depicts the universe and captures the course of the planets. The planetary spectacle is portrayed by the dial, while the shooting star indicates the time. A lucky star invites the wearer of the watch to register their lucky day on the starry dial. The dial reproduces the sun in miniature, accompanied by the five planets visible to the naked eye from Earth: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A unique module makes each planet move on its own disk, according to its actual rotation time.

In 1973 two men arrived at a sheriff’s office and claimed to be abducted by aliens with lobster-claw hands. Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker were fishing when they said they were taken. They talked in distressed voices about the abduction and told the same story even though they were in different rooms. Hickson even passed a polygraph exam, to prove he wasn’t making up things. #Conspiracy @Sci_Strangeries

The Eye of Heaven The largest radio telescope in the world searches for extraterrestrial life from the remote limestone peaks of southern China. Nested in a Natural Valley among the remote limestone peaks of southern China’s Guizhou Province, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST, for short) receiver is the largest radio telescope in the world, dwarfing Russia’s RATAN-600 or Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory. Also known by the more literary moniker “The Eye of Heaven,” this enormous dish was completed in 2016 to peer into distant celestial bodies billions of lightyears away. Its mission includes probing the remote parts of the universe to listen for signals of alien life, furthering our understanding of dark matter, and helping to map the Milky Way galaxy.

Fireproof DNA DNA isn't the sort of substance that you normally associate with being fireproof, but researchers have found that treating cotton fabric with DNA made it more flame retardant. This is due to the DNA itself. DNA molecules contain phosphate. When it is heated, the phosphate replaces the water that is naturally present in the cotton fibers with phosphoric acid, which is more resistant to heat than the fibers are on their own. Now, we're not suggesting treating your fabrics with genetic material, but this is a great little tidbit to drop at parties. @Sci_Strangeries

Anti-aging drug acts as a "smart bomb" to take out dysfunctional cells A new anti-aging breakthrough could clear out senescent cells with great. Back in 2015 we saw a new class of drugs emerge with huge potential when it comes to the aging process and how it might be slowed. Scientists working to improve the potency and safety of these so-called senolytic drugs have made a significant discovery, pioneering an antibody treatment that closes in on the target cells with a new level of precision, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

International Space Station once decommissioned, would orbit into the ocean in 2031. More specifically, it would end at a place between New Zealand and the southern tip of South America called “Point Nemo”—a final resting place for other spacecraft chosen because it is the place on Earth farthest from land masses.

A real ghost ship with a captain on board In February 2016, a drifting ship with a mummy of the captain on board was discovered off the coast of the Philippines. The victim turned out to be the German traveler Manfred Fritz Bayorat, an experienced sailor who had been traveling on this yacht for 20 years. Judging by the pose in which the mummy was frozen, in the last hours of his life the captain tried to contact rescuers. The cause of Bayorat's death remains a mystery. @Sci_Strangeries

Black, Hot Ice May Be Nature’s Most Common Form of Water The discovery of superionic ice potentially solves the puzzle of what giant icy planets like Uranus and Neptune are made of. They’re now thought to have gaseous, mixed-chemical outer shells, a liquid layer of ionized water below that, a solid layer of superionic ice comprising the bulk of their interiors, and rocky centers.

The world’s biggest flower, Rafflesia arnoldii, is a parasite that spends much of its life inside its vine hosts. New genomic work suggests that the parasites in this group of plants have lost an astonishing share of their genes. The bizarre genome of the world’s most mysterious flowering plants shows how far parasites will go in stealing, deleting and duplicating DNA. @Sci_Strangeries

Mitochondria Social Network Mitochondria appear to communicate and cooperate with one another, both within and between cells. Biologists are only just beginning to understand how and why. In this false-colored cross-section through an ovarian cell, the mitochondria appear as yellow-edged organelles. Evidence suggests that mitochondria send signals to one another and operate in coordinated networks. @Sci_Strangeries

Nuclear Plasma The strongest substance in the universe forms from the leftovers of a dead star. According to simulations, protons and neutrons in a star's shriveled husk can be subject to insane gravitational pressure, which squeezes them into linguini-like tangles of material that would snap — but only if you applied to them 10 billion times the force needed to shatter steel. @Sci_Strangeries