http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- The first steps of an infant is a real milestone in the development of all mammals including humans, but little is known about why some animals can walk soon after birth, while others need months, or in the case of humans, a year or so, to take those first steps. Now a new study by scientists in Sweden has shed light on the mystery, finding that the time it takes for all mammals to start walking closely correlates with the size of their adult brains. http://www.physorg.com/news180340234.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:41:29 EST news180340234 (PhysOrg.com) -- The use and control of fire are behavioral characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. Now, a new study by Iowa State University anthropologist Jill Pruetz reports that savanna chimpanzees in Senegal have a near human understanding of wildfires and change their behavior in anticipation of the fire's movement. http://www.physorg.com/news180285365.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:16:50 EST news180285365 In spite of their genetic similarity to humans, chimpanzees and great apes have maximum lifespans that rarely exceed 50 years. The difference, explains USC Davis School of Gerontology Professor Caleb Finch, is that as humans evolved genes that enabled them to better adjust to levels of infection and inflammation and to the high cholesterol levels of their meat rich diets. http://www.physorg.com/news178988828.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:00:02 EST news178988828 (PhysOrg.com) -- What, exactly, distinguishes humans from apes? It`s certainly more than just our genes, renowned anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy told a Harvard audience recently (Nov. 18). http://www.physorg.com/news178820796.html Biology Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:30:01 EST news178820796 Most of the linguistic functions in humans are controlled by the left cerebral hemisphere. A study of captive chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (Atlanta, Georgia), reported in the January 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, suggests that this "hemispheric lateralization" for language may have its evolutionary roots in the gestural communication of our common ancestors. A large majority of the chimpanzees in the study showed a significant bias towards right-handed gestures when communicating, which may reflect a similar dominance of the left hemisphere for communication in chimpanzees as that seen for language functions in humans. http://www.physorg.com/news177592801.html Biology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:30:04 EST news177592801 The hormones, called androgens, are important in the development of masculine characteristics such as aggression and strength. It is also thought that prenatal androgens affect finger length during development in the womb. High levels of androgens, such as testosterone, increase the length of the fourth finger in comparison to the second finger. Scientists used finger ratios as an indicator of the levels of exposure to the hormone and compared this data with social behaviour in primate groups. http://www.physorg.com/news176555766.html Biology Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:17:05 EST news176555766 A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study, reported online on October 22nd in Current Biology shows that neighboring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log. http://www.physorg.com/news175435694.html Biology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:09:28 EST news175435694 The evolution of altruism has long puzzled researchers and has mainly been explained previously from ultimate perspectives -I will help you now because I expect there to be some long-term benefit to me. However, a new study by researchers at the Primate Research Institute (PRI) and the Wildlife Research Center (WRC) of Kyoto University shows that chimpanzees altruistically help conspecifics, even in the absence of direct personal gain or immediate reciprocation, although the chimpanzees were much more likely to help each other upon request than voluntarily. The findings are published October 14 in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE. http://www.physorg.com/news174735140.html Biology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:32:43 EST news174735140 Psychology Professor Marc Hauser dispels misconceptions about human and ape behavior with regard to patience, impulsiveness, and economic interactions in Harvard Museum of Natural History talk. http://www.physorg.com/news174550521.html Biology Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:30:01 EST news174550521 The intense exchanges that human mothers share with their newborn infants may have some pretty deep roots, suggests a study of rhesus macaques reported online on October 8th in Current Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news174223246.html Biology Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:22:08 EST news174223246 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Texas at Austin anthropologist Liza Shapiro and two fellow researchers on Thursday won an Ig Nobel Prize -- dedicated to "achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think" -- for a 2007 study on the evolutionary reasons pregnant women don't tip over. http://www.physorg.com/news173710357.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:53:38 EST news173710357 In a special issue of Science, an international team of scientists has for the first time thoroughly described Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. This research, in the form of 11 detailed papers and more general summaries, will appear in the journal's 2 October 2009 issue. http://www.physorg.com/news173615221.html Other Sciences Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:27:38 EST news173615221 (PhysOrg.com) -- Spotted hyenas may not be smarter than chimpanzees, but a new study shows that they outperform the primates on cooperative problem-solving tests. http://www.physorg.com/news173356849.html Biology Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:41:59 EST news173356849 Computer animations of yawning chimpanzees provoke the same irresistible grins in real chimps, according to an unusual study released Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news171657927.html Biology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:46:07 EST news171657927 As we approache the 25th anniversary of the discovery of DNA fingerprinting (September 10), University of Leicester geneticists interested in a particular type of DNA are receiving some help from an unusual band of assistants. http://www.physorg.com/news171518204.html Biology Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:57:24 EST news171518204 Chimpanzees in the Congo have developed specialised 'tool kits' to forage for army ants, reveals new research published today in the American Journal of Primatology. This not only provides the first direct evidence of multiple tool use in this context, but suggests that chimpanzees have developed a 'sustainable' way of harvesting food. http://www.physorg.com/news171172996.html Biology Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:03:33 EST news171172996 Humans and chimpanzees are genetically very similar, yet it is not difficult to identify the many ways in which we are clearly distinct from chimps. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have made a crucial discovery of genes that have evolved in humans after branching off from other primates, opening new possibilities for understanding what makes us uniquely human. http://www.physorg.com/news171051139.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:13:05 EST news171051139 An international team of 16 scientists today reports the first direct measurement of the general rate of genetic mutation at individual DNA letters in humans. The team sequenced the same piece of DNA - 10,000,000 or so letters or 'nucleotides' from the Y chromosome - from two men separated by 13 generations, and counted the number of differences. Among all these nucleotides, they found only four mutations. http://www.physorg.com/news170595325.html Medicine & Health Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:37:16 EST news170595325 When primates don`t get the same rewards as their peers, they often refuse them. A Georgia State University researcher is exploring why this reaction happens, and how reactions to inequality have evolved in related species, including humans. http://www.physorg.com/news169826073.html Biology Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:55:02 EST news169826073 Researchers have identified what they believe is the original source of malignant malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa. http://www.physorg.com/news168538678.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:18:33 EST news168538678 A chimp's attention is captured by faces more effectively than by bananas. A series of experiments described in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology suggests that the apes are wired to respond to faces in a similar manner to humans. http://www.physorg.com/news167548374.html Biology Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:13:57 EST news167548374 An international consortium has found that wild chimpanzees naturally infected with Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses (SIV) - long thought to be harmless to the apes - can contract an AIDS-like syndrome and die as a result. The findings are published in the July 23 edition of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news167488142.html Biology Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:30:40 EST news167488142 The use of tools by hominins - the primate group which includes humans (Homo) and chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan) - has been extensively researched by archaeologists and primatologists, both of who manifest the relevance of tool-use in understanding technology and the origins of human behaviour. http://www.physorg.com/news166968105.html Other Sciences Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:02:06 EST news166968105 (PhysOrg.com) -- Lots of species have been discovered to use simple tools. Some birds use twigs to pull grubs out of their hiding places, and chimpanzees will strip leaves from branches to fish for termites - but is making a tool from separate parts simply a stretch too far for a non-human species? http://www.physorg.com/news165682373.html Biology Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:00:02 EST news165682373 Scientists of the German Mouse Clinic at Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen (Germany) have made a major contribution to understanding human language development. Using a comprehensive screening method, they studied a mouse model carrying a 'humanized version' of a key gene associated with human language. In the brains of the mice the researchers found alterations which may be closely linked to speech and language development. Their analyses comprise part of an international study led by the Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The findings have been published in the current issue of the renowned journal Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news165043680.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:28:33 EST news165043680 New evidence underscores the theory of human origin that suggests humans most likely share a common ancestor with orangutans, according to research from the University of Pittsburgh and the Buffalo Museum of Science. Reporting in the June 18 edition of the Journal of Biogeography, the researchers reject as "problematic" the popular suggestion, based on DNA analysis, that humans are most closely related to chimpanzees, which they maintain is not supported by fossil evidence. http://www.physorg.com/news164508477.html Biology Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:48:32 EST news164508477 Humans, from ancient exchanges of food to modern day home mortgages, have bartered or traded to receive something that they couldn't achieve on their own. It's the basis of the economy, and it requires a leap of faith to believe that each party will receive a payoff in return for taking a risk. http://www.physorg.com/news163677392.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:56:50 EST news163677392 Researchers based in Gabon and France report the discovery of a new malaria agent infecting chimpanzees in Central Africa. This new species, named Plasmodium gaboni, is a close relative of the most virulent human agent P. falciparum; it is described in an article published May 29 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. http://www.physorg.com/news162795274.html Biology Fri, 29 May 2009 05:56:27 EST news162795274 Researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Queen Mary, University of London have found that rooks, a member of the crow family, are capable of using and making tools, modifying them to make them work and using two tools in a sequence. The results are published on-line this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news162491096.html Biology Mon, 25 May 2009 17:25:42 EST news162491096 (AP) -- Russ Cochran fondly recalls the fun he had with his chimpanzee when the animal was younger, taking him for rides in the car and to his cabin on the river. Boaters would stop to see Sammy, who would jump in canoes and help himself to food and drinks from the cooler. http://www.physorg.com/news161504684.html Biology Thu, 14 May 2009 07:25:20 EST news161504684