Time for some weird science

LiveScience provides a list of their 10 weirdest science stories of the past year.

The 10 Weirdest Science Stories of 2019

It was unfortunate that the best story -- the DNA study of Loch Ness -- eliminated many of the more esoteric and thus more interesting potential identities of Nessie.  All that remains is big eels.  I would greatly enjoy it if this study somehow was overturned by the discovery of an unknown big something. But that's quite unlikely.


Still, my favorite weird story was the vampire tree.

Vampire tree leaches nutrients from its neighbors

"Deep in a New Zealand forest, an unassuming tree stump clings to the roots of nearby conifers, sucking up their hard-earned water and nutrients. Scientists stumbled upon this botanical vampire while hiking in West Auckland, New Zealand, as they were surrounded by hundreds of kauri trees — a species of conifer that can grow up to 165 feet (50 meters) tall. During the day, the towering trees shuttled water from their roots into their leaves. By night, the squat stump pumped leftover water and nutrients from its neighbors' roots into its own. "Possibly we are not really dealing with trees as individuals, but with the forest as a superorganism," study co-author Sebastian Leuzinger, an associate professor at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, said in a statement."