Mammals – Page 51

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Monkey See, Monkey Rationalize

November 10, 2007

It’s a quirk of English that rational and rationalize have opposite meanings. Be that as it may, the latter may have evolved into to the former, according to a story in the New York Times. A monkey study using children as control subjects seems to indicate that Capuchin monkeys, like us, occasionally rationalize bad choices. […]

Genetics

Mighty Mouse Has Arrived

November 6, 2007

Geneticists at Case Western Reserve University have genetically engineered mice that “can run five to six kilometres at a speed of 20 meters per minute on a treadmill, for up to six hours before stopping,” according to a report on the BBC News. Professor Richard Hanson explained, “They are metabolically similar to Lance […]

Cell Biology

Month-End Close-Out

October 31, 2007

Sometimes the creation-evolution news comes in too fast. Here’s a baker’s dozen from the October shelf, lest they go stale; time to start a new batch for November. Charity begins at worldview: David Cyranoski in Nature (450, 24-25, 10/31/2007) investigated why the level of charitable giving in prosperous Japan is a tenth of that in […]

Dumb Ideas

Machiavellian Monkeys Made Us Compassionate

October 28, 2007

Love, loyalty, patriotism – all the qualities that imbue a romantic novel with soul – came from Rhesus monkeys acting badly. This is the belief of Dario Maestripieri, a primatologist and Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, according to an article in Science Daily. Dr. […]

Intelligent Design

Evolutionary Science Reporting Battles Creationists

October 24, 2007

If creationism is so discredited as to not warrant any further discussion, some science writers are sure going out of their way to refute it. Some recent examples: Eye of the Hydra: Little sea creatures known as hydrae have light-sensitive molecules called opsins, reported Science Daily. Scientists think the opsin proteins, which exist all over […]

Amazing Facts

Inner Ear More Complex than Thought

October 13, 2007

Another level of complexity has been added to the mystery of hearing. Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that another membrane in the cochlea of the inner ear, once thought to be passive, is actively involved in transmitting sound waves to the hair cell receptors. Their work was published in PNAS.1 […]

Mammals

Whale Sonar: Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

September 5, 2007

Biosonar is a complex ability possessed by toothed whales and dolphins, bats and some birds. It includes both the ability to produce signals and to process the echoes to locate prey. How could such a system evolve? Scientists at UC Berkeley proposed an answer. The press release promised a developing story: Behind the sailor’s lore […]

Darwin and Evolution

Evolution Takes Credit

August 24, 2007

It may be more blessed to give than to receive, but evolution often just takes.

Early Man

Fossil Gorilla Forces Hominid Ancestor Earlier

August 23, 2007

A set of gorilla teeth found in Ethiopia pushes the evolutionary story of a split between apes and humans back almost twice as far as previously thought. Nature reported the fossil announcement that estimated the date of the teeth as 10.5-11 million years old.1 The prior estimate for a human-ape divergence was about 6 million. […]

Human Body

Monkeys Prefer the Sound of Silence

August 5, 2007

Given a choice, chimpanzees choose silence over music. The Random Samples page in Science1 mentioned experiments by scientists from MIT and Harvard where monkeys were given a choice of booths playing a flute lullaby, a Mozart concerto, techno-rock, and silence. Between the musical booths, “The monkeys spent an average of about two-thirds of their time […]

Amazing Facts

Motorized Ears Give Mammals Acoustic Acuity

July 31, 2007

f=”crev03.htm#amazing11″>03/27/2001), we reported on the discovery of prestin, a motor protein that acts as an amplifier in the inner ear. One of the fastest-acting molecular motors known (02/21/2002), prestin works by stiffening the rod-shaped cell body with its cilia. Somehow, the action of this motor protein amplifies hearing in mammalian ears by several orders of […]

Early Man

But Is It Evolution?

July 14, 2007

Every week the news media cheerfully present the latest finding that is claimed to be evidence for evolution. The following recent examples, though, might leave a perceptive reader wondering, “What’s Darwin got to do with it?” Slow? No!: If you thought evolution was a gradual process too slow to watch, get a load of this: […]

Fossils

Baby Frozen Mammoth Found Intact

July 10, 2007

The BBC News has a picture of a baby frozen mammoth that was found intact in northwest Siberia. The article says it is one of the best-preserved frozen mammoths ever found, complete with eyes, fur, and trunk. One investigator said, “In terms of its state of preservation, this is the world’s most valuable discovery” of […]

Mammals

Elephant Trunk Inspires Robot Arm

July 9, 2007

Scientists are trying to imitate the smooth, supple movements of an elephant's trunk.

Early Man

Chimp Altruism: Is it All True?

June 27, 2007

Humans are the only inhabitants of earth that are masters of true altruism: helping others with no thought of reward. Previous experiments had shown that chimpanzees lack this trait. Given an opportunity to help another chimp get a banana, they showed no pattern of charity. New experiments by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for […]

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