#sciencealert

[pettycentral]

[sciencealert]

Mutations can be one of the drivers of evolution. And sometimes they can just be really fascinating, like this mutant Magnificent Biscuit Starfish (Tosia magnifica). Its mutation has removed one of its five limbs, and it came out looking like a pillow! ⭐ 📷: Saspotato/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 http://bit.ly/2PBvHPG

[keerthananlove-blog]

[texasdreamer01]

Scientists Have Developed Glass That Heals Itself When You Press It Together

This could be the last time your phone looks like this.

If you're like most of our readers, you're probably reading this right now on your mobile, which means there's also a chance you're reading it on a broken, fragmented phone screen.

Luckily, the days of squinting at cracked phone displays like this could soon be over, thanks to a team of Japanese scientists who have developed a new kind of self-healing glass that fuses itself back together, simply by pressure being applied.

The self-healing polymer, created by researchers at the University of Tokyo, was initially discovered by accident while they were studying new adhesives.

During the research, one of the team noticed that the polymer he was examining for use as a glue had the ability to adhere to itself when cut, compressed and held together for 30 seconds at room temperature (21 degrees Celsius, or 70 degrees Fahrenheit).

A hirata/YouTube

Not trusting the chance result, Yu Yanagisawa, a graduate student in the university's department of chemistry and biotechnology, ran a series of follow-up experiments to confirm the self-healing glass really did work.

According to the team, the glass is made possible thanks to a low weight polymer called 'polyether-thiourea', which makes use of the compound thiourea to increase the ability of hydrogen bonding in the material when it is cut or broken.

It's not the first time researchers have designed self-healing materials like this, but what sets the new polymer apart is that it's structurally robust, like glass, but also capable of self-healing – properties that are often mutually exclusive in engineered compounds.

Photo: Svetlana San'kova/Shutterstock

[scientificphilosopher]

On 24 November 1859 a book was released called “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”. Despite the intense title, this book - released 158 years ago today - created the foundations of evolutionary biology! 😍

[woodlandtrust]

The strange case of pine trees that always lean towards the equator | ScienceAlert

You can find them in many places around the world - tall, lean conifers that can't seem to grow straight. And now scientists have figured out that the direction these Cook pines (Araucaria columnaris) lean is always towards the equator, but they're not quite sure why.

"We uncovered a surprisingly consistent pattern of hemisphere-dependent directional leaning in A. columnaris," the team reports.

[sciencealert]

Not quite a snail, not quite a slug - it's a semi-slug! These fascinating creatures carry a small shell on their backs. It's too big to be considered vestigial, but too small to retreat into. This particular species is the long-tailed semi-slug, Ibycus rachelae. 📷: arnoldwijker/iNaturalist/CC-BY-NC http://bit.ly/2Jh1yEM

[sciencealert]

This delightful embroidery shows one of the many colourful jumping peacock spiders that have been discovered in Australia. Such talented #sciart! ❤️ ✏️ : Linda Lance via @allan.lance.12/Facebook https://ift.tt/2CLgmHd