Weird science

Alaskan blobs, memories from the womb and carnivorous jumbo squid — just a typical day of Weird Science:

The Blob: Last week, Time.com posted a story about a huge "fibrous, hairy" mass of black goo that was found floating in Alaska's Chukchi Sea. The Coast Guard was called in, scientists were dispatched and samples taken for analysis. The verdict? Algae. (Boo — we were hoping it was something gross and scary, like that thing from "The Thing").

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a ... scar?: In Australia, an amateur astronomer spotted a giant "scar" on the south pole of Jupiter. Reuters reports that Anthony Wesley of Murrumbateman, Australia called up NASA and told them to get their telescopes fired up. Apparently, this isn't the first time that Jupiter has gotten smacked around by stuff floating around in space: In 1994, the remnants of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into the planet after it was broken up by Jupiter's gravitational field.

Ah, memories ... : Remember when we were swimming around in-utero? And you did that funny thing that made me kick? No? Well, according to a new study, some fetuses do have "short-term" memories of their time in the womb. In the study, researchers used a vibration to stimulate fetuses at 30 weeks; at first, the fetus was startled, but after repeated stimulation, the fetuses got used to the vibration and didn't react, a response called "habituation." From LiveScience:

This lessened response to a repeated stimulus is called habituation, a process that both humans and animals are known to experience. For example, you might become habituated to the sound of your heater at nighttime, hearing it at first, but growing used to the noise after a while and falling asleep.

Can you see me now? Turns out bad eyesight isn't just a human problem, so a German company came up with a nifty idea to combat blurry-eyed sea lions and "visually-impaired" lionesses: contact lenses for animals. AFP reports that S & V Technologies came up with the idea of custom-made contact lenses to combat cataracts in animals, but have been contacted by zoos and nature parks asking for help. The contacts have been especially helpful to guide dogs for the blind.

Baaad news sheep: Scientists and environmentalists predict dire consequences of global warming: Melting polar ice caps, higher temperatures, more disease. And now ... smaller sheep? A recent article in the journal Science reports that milder Scottish winters are resulting in smaller wild sheep. The research data showed that the Soay sheep have been getting progressively smaller over the past 25 years, suggesting that "as winters have become shorter and milder, lambs now do not need to put on as much as weight in the first months of life in order to survive to their first birthday."

It's safe to get in the water. We swear: Try and guess what's swimming in the waters of San Diego, California. Hint: It's big, squishy and has tentacles. And it might try to take your air tank if you go diving. Give up? Check out the video below: (And you might want to get a bigger boat)

— Lili Ladaga

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