Science learning to improve human life through the study of animals has been occurring for hundreds of years. From a cancer cure developed from the sweat of a toad’s belly to the psoriasis remedies found in shark cartilage.

Now scientists may have found a solution to the age old problem of fusing hard medical implants to the soft tissues in your body through the study of squids and their hard beaks.

It appears the secret ingredient is chitin and other materials that change density gradually from the hard tip to a softer, more flexible base where it attaches to the muscle around the squid’s mouth.

Read about Squid Beak Medicine at Discovery.com.

NewScientist discusses 5 interesting auditory illusions that can help us better understand how the brain works. Each of the five illusions comes with a description of how/why we hear this illusion along with one or more samples.

A couple of these are cool, however several I just don’t get like the ‘Phantom melodies’.

Penn State University has published some high level findings out of their Biology department related to infectious disease dynamics.

According to biologists, the exchange of genetic material between two closely related strains of the influenza A virus may have caused the 1947 and 1951 human flu epidemics. This understanding could help explain why some strains cause major pandemics and others lead to seasonal epidemics.

Until now, it was believed that while human influenza viruses swap genes with influenza viruses that infect birds and causes severe pandemics, such as the ‘Spanish’ flu of 1918, the ‘Asian’ flu of 1957, and the ‘Hong Kong’ flu of 1968, viral mutation leads to regular influenza epidemics. But it has been a mystery why there are sometimes very severe epidemics – like the ones in 1947 and 1951 – that look and act like pandemics, even though no human-bird viral cross-species event occurred.

From reading this paper I’m not coming away with any better level of confidence that we’ll have a solid vaccine any time soon because they still warn that there’s lots more work ahead to stay abreast of multiple strains co-circulating and exchanging genetic material.

It’s almost as if the answer is to blast all known viruses simultaneously then start hunting down the few strains remaining, trying to keep up with them as they mutate and render yesterday’s vaccine useless.

When I lived in Hawaii, I would marvel at the cool geckos that would cross my field of view on a wall or a ceiling in the living room. Those buggers have some seriously sticky feet!

Welp, gecko feet have inspired MIT researchers to create sticky, waterproof bandages for surgical patients. But unlike the wily lizards, these internal Band-Aids are designed to stay in place.

Read MSNBC for the story

Speaking of lizards, did you see one of the best Super Bowl commercials from a few weeks ago? It’s the Sobe drink ‘Thrillicious’ lizards dancing as Michael Jackson’s Thriller video zombies (Sobe…Zombie, get it?). Yeah, weak association I know.

[youtube w9XfVzBgAN4]

When i first saw it was walking back to the kitchen for a round of snacks during a break in the Superbowl and caught just a hint of one of the lizards shaking himself just like the Thriller zombies. It was enough for me to do a double-take and immediately ‘rewind’ the DVR to get the full effect. I’ve always loved that dance, who would have thought rotting zombies could be so dexterous?

Scientists may one day be able to destroy viruses in the same way that opera singers presumably shatter wine glasses. New research mathematically determined the frequencies at which simple viruses could be shaken to death.

MSNBC has the story.