Flesh-eating Bacteria Inspires Superglue
A team of Oxford University researchers have created a superglue that binds at the molecular level. This glue was created by engineering an unusual protein from a type of bacteria that can cause life-threatening disease.
PhysOrg
Newly Discovered Limbless Amphibians
Up to six new species of limbless amphibians have been discovered in India. These creatures resemble earthworms and represent an entirely new family of amphibians.
NatGeo
Cook a Biodegradable Stool
Design student Dale Hardiman won this year’s Green Inventors Award for the Kid’s Straw Stool, a biodegradable DIY product. The stool is made from wheat starch, water, vinegar, glycerol, pea straw and grass seeds, and at the end of its life, can be buried in the ground and sprouted. The chair is almost all DIY – to be created, it must be cooked first.
SmartPlanet
Ant’s Collective Memory Protects Against Rivals
A new study done by researchers at the University of Melbourne reports that ant colonies share a collective memory for the odor of ants in rival nests. The researchers found that ants use the information to prime the entire colony to compete with their rivals before meeting them, and that ants defended their colony more aggressively from intruders from a familiarized rival nest.
RedOrbit
Top image: Ants by Flickr user Kim Windmolders