by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 19, 2007 | Books
The First Word is published today! It should be available on shelves and online throughout North America. Australians can buy it online from Amazon.com, and also I believe from local online retailers like Angus & Robertson. UK residents can get it from...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 19, 2007 | Bilinguals, Languages
Scientist argue about whether speaking in a second language unconsciously invokes the first. Now UK researchers have shown that reading or hearing words in a second language creates the same brain activity for bilinguals that reading the word in their native languages...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 18, 2007 | Africa, First human..., Genes, Prehistoric humans, Skeleton
Modern humans originated in Sub-saharan Africa, and from there spread all over the globe. Cambridge scientists, who published their study today in Nature, used genetic information combined with the measurements of 6000 skulls from collections all over the world in...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 18, 2007 | Chimpanzees, Co-operation, Punishment, Revenge
Chimpanzees take revenge upon one another, but only if it doesn’t cost them. Humans, however, will inflict suffering on themselves in order to punish someone else. It may be that our willingness to punish others even if it hurts us is as important to the...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 17, 2007 | Chimpanzees, First human..., Walking
In this week’s PNAS, scientists have compared how much energy is used in human bipedal walking compared to the four-legged gait of chimpanzees (and even bipedal walking in chimpanzees). In general, they found that energy is saved with longer steps and less...
