Do Animals Typically Think Like Autistic Savants? (Op-Ed)
Posted on January 9, 2023
| 7 minutes
| 1454 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is one of the world's pioneering cognitive ethologists, a Guggenheim Fellow, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This essay is adapted from one that appeared in Bekoff's column Animal Emotions in Psychology Today. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Over the past few years — and at a meeting of the Animal Behavior Society this past summer —a number of people have asked me to address Temple Grandin's claim that nonhuman animals (animals) typically behave like people with autism.
[Read More]Gravity Moved Continents on Early Earth
Posted on January 9, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 748 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
Plate tectonics is the movement of the crust that builds mountains and opens ocean basins. How this gargantuan process got started on early Earth has been quite a mystery. Now, a new computer model suggests the motion started because of gravity: Whole continents flattened out under their own weight.
That's not how the Earth's crust gets jostled today. Currently the continents and ocean basins all float on the mantle, the layer beneath the crust, which flows like putty.
[Read More]Human Hands Evolved for Fighting, Study Suggests
Posted on January 9, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 633 words
| Trudie Dory
Human hands may have evolved their unique shape in order to better punch the living daylights out of competitors, a new study suggests.
The new findings, published today (Dec. 19) in the Journal of Experimental Biology, show that the clenched fist produces no more force than an open-palm slap, but protects the fingers better. Human's unique hand shape is one of only a few possible configurations that allow an organism to have both manual dexterity and the ability to brutally club opponents, the study reveals.
[Read More]Japanese Scientist Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine for Cell 'Self-Eating'
Posted on January 9, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 576 words
| Trudie Dory
For illuminating the weird cellular phenomenon of "self-eating," Yoshinori Ohsumi has won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Foundation announced this morning (Oct. 3).
Called autophagy — from the Greek words "auto" and "phagein," meaning self and to eat — the process allows cells to destroy their own guts and essentially recycle them.
Little was known about the odd behavior until Ohsumi's "brilliant experiments" in the early 1990s, according to a statement by the Nobel Foundation.
[Read More]Maryland woman catches rare tropical bacterial disease from her fish tank
Posted on January 9, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 802 words
| Trudie Dory
A woman in Maryland contracted a rare bacterial disease from her home aquarium, according to a new report.
The disease, called melioidosis, is usually seen only in tropical areas outside of the U.S., and when cases do appear in the U.S., they almost always occur in people who have traveled to other countries. The Maryland case, which occurred in 2019 and is described in a report published Sept. 27 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, is unusual because the woman had never traveled outside the U.
[Read More]Oh, the Places You'll Go with Seuss' Rhymes in Tow
Posted on January 9, 2023
| 5 minutes
| 932 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
"I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am."
Dr. Seuss, the children's book author born Theodor Seuss Geisel 108 years ago today (March 2), knew how to craft a catchy rhyme. But these rhymes aren't just child's play — research suggests that rhyming is built into our brains, and is even key to helping children learn to read.
"If you hear one word, words that rhyme with that word will get activated"
[Read More]Some of Ben Franklin's Quirkiest Ideas
Posted on January 9, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 562 words
| Fernande Dalal
For many, the iconic image of Benjamin Franklin involves a kite, key, and bolt of lightning.
Today, on the 300th anniversary of his birth, the statesman is celebrated as much for his scientific achievements as for the signature on the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
A keen observer of nature throughout his life, Franklin by the age of 42 had amassed enough personal wealth from his printing business that he was able to retire and pursue his love of scientific research full time.
[Read More]5 Strange Courting Rituals from Around the World
Posted on January 8, 2023
| 3 minutes
| 500 words
| Mittie Cheatwood
In this country, if you're harboring a secret crush, Valentine's Day is when to let it be known. Each year on that day, many quivering hands have offered chocolates and flowers, and many a racing heart has skipped a beat at the words, "Will you be my Valentine?"The question seems rather strange when you think about it. But then again, its oddity pales next to courting rituals common in other parts of the globe.
[Read More]Astronomers See Stars Slinging Comets at Earth for the First Time
Posted on January 8, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 736 words
| Trudie Dory
Stars and comets make unlikely dance partners. Their gravitational partnership is one that astronomers have long suspected but have never seen — until now. For the first time, a Polish group has identified two nearby stars that seem to have plucked up their icy partners, swinging them into orbits around our sun.
The astronomers found the stellar duo after studying the movements of over 600 stars that came within 13 light-years of the sun.
[Read More]Did Neanderthals Teach Modern Humans How to Make Tools?
Posted on January 8, 2023
| 4 minutes
| 748 words
| Arica Deslauriers
Neanderthals apparently created the oldest known examples of a kind of bone tool used in Europe, thus raising the possibility that modern humans may have learned how to make these tools from Neanderthals, researchers say.
Neanderthals were once the closest living relatives of modern humans, dwelling across a vast area ranging from Europe to the Middle East to western Asia. This ancient lineage of humans went extinct about 40,000 years ago, about the same time modern humans expanded across the world.
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