Exorcist Update, Robot Chameleons, Arresting Ghosts and More Mysterious News Briefly — August 12, 2021

Mysterious News Briefly — August 12, 2021

Nature’s most mysterious lizards have inspired a team of Korean researchers to invent a chameleon robot with the ability to actively camouflage itself to quickly match the color of the surface below it – an innovation that is being developed for the military but will undoubtedly end up in color-changing clothing for everyone. That unusual new thing standing in the unemployment line is a green screen.

NASA’s Office of Inspector General issued the bad news that lunar-grade spacesuits won’t be ready for a lunar landing in late 2024 – making it not feasible, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his company could do it if asked nicely. Get ready for Jeff Bezos to counter-offer with a lunar cowboy hat.

Northrop Grumman’s latest space station cargo shipment includes fresh apples, tomatoes, kiwi, and enough pizza for all seven astronauts onboard. No wonder NASA’s space suits won’t be ready for the moon – they have to now be relaxed-fit.

Police in Sebring, Florida, are warning ghost hunters to stay away from the allegedly haunted Kenilworth Lodge in Highlands County because the ghosts are gone but officers with arrest warrants for trespassers are not. Ghosts are scary, but a car behind you with a flashing red light is scarier.

NASA is having lunar spacesuit problems, but things could be worse – two new computer simulations show that the Moon was once a flaming orb of hot magma that made it uninhabitable for even the hardiest tardigrade, let alone any other life form. Good news — Flaming Orbs of Hot Magma sounds like a great name for a band.

You may not be musically inclined, but your brain is – two new studies by researchers at the Society for Neuroscience describe how listening to musical melodies activates a prediction/recognition system in the brain that tries to predict the next note when the tune hits a pause. There’s a few rock music composers who should have waited at the pause a little longer.

For those who think “The Exorcist” was one of the greatest horror movies of all time, a sequel just bought some insurance it will follow the tradition – the producers announced that actress Ellen Burstyn will reprise her role as the mother of the possessed girl, Regan. Does her contract stipulate a stunt double for pea soup scenes?

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the California Institute of Technology have developed a new type of ‘chain mail’ fabric 3D-printed from nylon plastic polymers that is flexible like cloth but can stiffen on demand. Nervous knights at Renaissance fairs are hoping to test it soon.

Researchers conducting long-term studies of chimps and bonobos found that have their own version of ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ greetings — touching, holding hands, butting heads, and gazing — that establish a form of “joint commitment” when engaging in shared activities … traits once believed to be unique to humans. It’s time to get worried when they switch to using butting heads emojis.

Young female mice learn how to mother through observing experienced mouse mothers, who tutor the inexperienced female mice before they have babies of their own, according to a new study in the journal Nature. Snobby lab rodents probably use mice nannies.

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