Tag Archive | animal behavior
Helping Your Fellow Rat
If you called someone a rat, they probably wouldn’t take it as a compliment. But in a clever new study published today in Science, a team of University of Chicago neurobiologists show that rodents could serve as role models for how humans should behave. Rats were given a difficult choice between heart and stomach: either […]
What Happens to Gorillas on the Pill
In zoos, keepers strive to preserve as much of the natural experience as possible for their animals. But not everything can be left up to nature behind zoo walls. While encouraging reproduction can be a zoo mission for captive endangered species, other species can’t be allowed to procreate without limits, lest the zoo run out […]
Linkage 2/25: AAASing From Afar, NOVA Venom, Magnetic Turtles
I’ve said it before, but the AAAS Meeting is my favorite scientific conference, a cross-disciplinary feast of research that’s perfect for omnivores of science. As I wait for the meeting to return to Chicago (2014!), I spent the week attending from afar through the many online recaps. Depending on your preferences, you can get your […]
Linkage 2/4: Facepalms, Fisherman Birds, and Snow Sleepovers
A quick round-up of science around the web to end a busy, snowy week: The “facepalm” has become a popular piece of the internet lexicon, alongside peers such as “epic fail” and “OMG.” But, as Ed Yong writes at Not Exactly Rocket Science, humans aren’t the only ones who make the universal expression of disgust […]
Using Fear to Flirt: The “Scary Movie Effect”
The Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies aren’t typically thought of as mating strategies. But putting on a scary movie is a trick as old as drive-in theaters for encouraging one’s date to jump in fright and snuggle in just a little bit closer. Birds, so far as we know, aren’t into […]
Linkage 1/29 – The Prion’s Job & Antivax Smackdown
A Place for Prions We previously discussed the bizarre infectious proteins called prions in the context of kuru, the disease of muscle tremors and uncontrollable laughter spread by cannibalistic rituals in Papua New Guinea. In diseases such as kuru or mad cow disease, abnormal prion proteins wreak havoc by binding to native prions and other […]
