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) -- Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green monkeys avoid AIDS when infected with SIV, the simian equivalent of HIV. http://www.physorg.com/news179085831.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:05:48 EST news179085831 (AP) -- Puerto Rico has such a bad history with research monkeys running amok that some residents are stunned that its government has tentatively approved a plan to import and breed thousands of primates for sale to U.S. researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news178807311.html Biology Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:20:01 EST news178807311 The world's largest species of monkey 'chooses' mates with genes that are different from their own to guarantee healthy and strong offspring, according to a new research study. http://www.physorg.com/news178315092.html Biology Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:59:12 EST news178315092 A new species of chameleon has been discovered in Tanzania by a team of scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news178199221.html Biology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:50:01 EST news178199221 The most extensive DNA study to-date of Africa's rarest monkey reveals that the species had an intriguing sexual past. Of the last two remaining populations of the recently discovered kipunji, one population shows evidence of past mating with baboons while the other does not, says a new study in Biology Letters. The results may help to set conservation priorities for this critically endangered species, researchers say. http://www.physorg.com/news177164668.html Biology Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:25:33 EST news177164668 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 study published this week in PNAS provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news176398842.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:50:01 EST news176398842 Adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine while in the womb have poor impulse control and may be more vulnerable to drug abuse than female monkeys, even a decade or more after the exposure, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The findings could lead to a better understanding of human drug abuse. http://www.physorg.com/news175430239.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:38:06 EST news175430239 (PhysOrg.com) -- About 40 miles outside Cairo, Egypt, National Science Foundation-supported paleontologists from three American universities are revealing features of a newly discovered African primate and solving a riddle about humankind's evolutionary past. http://www.physorg.com/news175350798.html Other Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:41:42 EST news175350798 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) -- Despite the importance of AIDS in human health, scientists still know very little about the diversity and ecology of AIDS-like viruses in nature. http://www.physorg.com/news174145081.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:39:43 EST news174145081 (PhysOrg.com) -- A study of female monkeys' grooming habits provides new clues about the way humans socialise. New research reveals a link between the size of the neocortex in the brain, responsible for higher-level thinking, and the size of grooming clusters that monkeys belong to. http://www.physorg.com/news173541242.html Biology Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:54:32 EST news173541242 (PhysOrg.com) -- J. David Smith, Ph.D., a comparative psychologist at the University at Buffalo who has conducted extensive studies in animal cognition, says there is growing evidence that animals share functional parallels with human conscious metacognition -- that is, they may share humans' ability to reflect upon, monitor or regulate their states of mind. http://www.physorg.com/news172160987.html Biology Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:30:49 EST news172160987 What harm can a simple road do in a pristine place such as Ecuador's Yasuni National Park, home to peccaries, tapirs, monkeys and myriad other wildlife species? A great deal, it turns out. Specifically, it can turn subsistence communities into commercial hunting camps that empty rainforests of their wildlife, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the IDEAS-Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador have found. http://www.physorg.com/news171814103.html Biology Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:20:02 EST news171814103 Sticking with what you know often comes at the price of learning about more favorable alternatives. http://www.physorg.com/news171291482.html Medicine & Health Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:00:12 EST news171291482 A monkey that has acquired the sole power to hand out apples is generously rewarded with grooming sessions by the other monkeys in its group. But as soon as another monkey can hand out apples as well, the market value of the first monkey is halved. The monkeys therefore unerringly obey the law of supply and demand. Dutch-sponsored researchers Ronald Noë, Cécile Fruteau and Eric van Damme demonstrated this in their article that was published online on 7 July by the renowned journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). http://www.physorg.com/news171128565.html Biology Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:20:14 EST news171128565 (PhysOrg.com) -- Music is one of the surest ways to influence human emotions; most people unconsciously recognize and respond to music that is happy, sad, fearful or mellow. But psychologists who have tried to trace the evolutionary roots of these responses usually hit a dead end. Nonhuman primates scarcely respond to human music, and instead prefer silence. http://www.physorg.com/news171052183.html Biology Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:30:36 EST news171052183 (PhysOrg.com) -- You're meeting a friend in a crowded cafeteria. Do your eyes scan the room like a roving spotlight, moving from face to face, or do you take in the whole scene, hoping that your friend's face will pop out at you? And what, for that matter, determines how fast you can scan the room? http://www.physorg.com/news169299018.html Medicine & Health Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:30:57 EST news169299018 Over 350 new species including the world's smallest deer, a "flying frog" and a 100 million-year old gecko have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas, a biological treasure trove now threatened by climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news169111679.html Biology Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:28:31 EST news169111679 Bangladeshi conservationists said Thursday the discovery of a rare leopard captured by villagers in the southeast of the country renewed hopes for the survival of the critically endangered species. http://www.physorg.com/news167553867.html Biology Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:10:01 EST news167553867 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 (PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of a new primate fossil in Myanmar (formerly Burma) lends weight to the hypothesis that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes (anthropoid primates) originated in Asia, and not in Africa. To support the hypothesis, an international team of paleontologists, including two French researchers, has shown that these primates, which are 37 million years old and named Ganlea megacanina, had an ability observed today in modern monkeys, but not in lemurs: they pried open and ate seeds in a specific way by using their greatly enlarged canine teeth, like certain South American monkeys today. This ability is one of the reasons that justifies them being placed in the family of anthropoid primates. http://www.physorg.com/news166891773.html Biology Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:51:12 EST news166891773 New research demonstrates that single neurons in the reward center of the brain process not only primitive rewards but also more abstract, cognitive rewards related to the quest for information about the future. The study, published by Cell Press in the July 16 issue of the journal Neuron, enhances our understanding of learning and suggests that current theories of reward should be revised to include the effect of information seeking. http://www.physorg.com/news166882349.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:50:12 EST news166882349 They're called "fruit flies" for a reason, and it sure isn't for lack of appetite. But like most animals, the pests typically lose their appetite when they get infected. We humans go them one better: Even when bug-free and hungry, some of us are tempted to do some serious fasting, in hopes of living longer, healthier lives. http://www.physorg.com/news166769297.html Biology Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:40:04 EST news166769297 (PhysOrg.com) -- A monkey that has acquired the sole power to hand out apples is generously rewarded with grooming sessions by the other monkeys in its group. But as soon as another monkey can hand out apples as well, the market value of the first monkey is halved. The monkeys therefore unerringly obey the law of supply and demand. Dutch-sponsored researchers Ronald Noë, Cécile Fruteau and Eric van Damme demonstrated this in their article that was published online on 7 July by the renowned journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). http://www.physorg.com/news166721073.html Biology Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:25:57 EST news166721073 (AP) -- A form of ebola virus has been detected in pigs for the first time, raising concerns it could mutate and threaten humans, scientists report. http://www.physorg.com/news166367280.html Medicine & Health Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:08:20 EST news166367280 It's not just good manners to wait your turn -- it's actually down to evolution, according to new research by University of Leicester psychologists. http://www.physorg.com/news166337233.html Biology Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:47:46 EST news166337233 The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today the discovery of a new monkey in a remote region of the Amazon in Brazil. http://www.physorg.com/news166191394.html Biology Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:18:11 EST news166191394 Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have demonstrated for the first time rhesus monkeys and humans share a specific perceptual mechanism, configural perception, for discriminating among the numerous faces they encounter daily. The study, reported in the June 25 online issue of Current Biology, provides insight into the evolution of the critical human social skill of facial recognition, which enables us to form relationships and interact appropriately with others. http://www.physorg.com/news165152366.html Biology Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:39:56 EST news165152366 Rapamycin, a drug given to transplant recipients to suppress their immune systems, has a paradoxical effect on cells responsible for immune memory, scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center have discovered. http://www.physorg.com/news164809846.html Medicine & Health Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:31:30 EST news164809846