Dress colour illusion tops 10 weirdest science news

Canberra: A bizarre case of the black/blue or gold/white dress was among the annual top 10 weirdest science stories chosen by the Australian Science Media Centre.

Simply known as "the dress", this viral phenomena piqued the internet's curiosity for far longer than it should have back in February, Xinhua cited the centre as saying on Friday.

There were even scientific papers written about it. A trick of the light, or indication of varying forms of colour vision in humans -- the theories, and their responses, were endless.

Doing nerds worldwide attempting to escape the term "egg head" no favours, Australian scientist Colin Raston, of Flinders University, invented a horrifying machine that could return cooked egg whites to their original state.

But Colin's machine was an amazing advancement in modern science when it came to cooking up cancer drugs, anaesthetics and even biofuels.

In another research, scientists busted the myth that the kangaroo, like the Queen of England and unicorns, does not fart. It was believed that, because of this special microbe in the gut, kangaroos would be a more environmentally friendly food source.

In November, Australian and European researchers found the methane output of kangaroos was just as much as that of horses, and they are unlikely to have specialised gut microbes that curb methane production.

However, kangaroos are a lot less greenhouse-gassy than cows who are just fart machines on legs.

The skinny jeans fad went from plain gross to deadly in June when a case of an Adelaide women was reported who managed to cut off the blood supply to her legs -- a condition known as compartment syndrome -- by squatting for hours in skinny jeans while helping her friend move house.

The unfortunate woman experienced numbness in her feet and had difficulty walking, causing her to trip and fall.

On examination, the doctors found she had damaged the muscles and nerves in her lower legs, all as a result of prolonged squatting in skinny jeans.

Other listed news included why our knuckles actually crack; humans walk around surrounded by a cloud of millions of airborne bacteria; pigeons are trained to spot malignant cancers, and why wasps are really evil insects.