Scientists from Oxford University and UCL have identified part of our brain that helps us learn to be good to others. The discovery could help understanding of conditions like psychopathy where people’s behaviour is extremely antisocial. The researchers were led by Dr Patricia Lockwood, who explained: ‘Prosocial behaviours are social behaviours that benefit other people. They are a fundamental aspect…
Expectations are soaring for 25-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya, who races next week in the 800 meters. She’s favored to clinch a gold medal. She might even shatter the longest-running world record for track and field. And if she does, it could affect much more than the pride of her competitors. A big win for Semenya would likely add…
A genetic mutation may have helped modern humans adapt to smoke exposure from fires and perhaps sparked an evolutionary advantage over their archaic competitors, including Neandertals, according to a team of researchers. Modern humans are the only primates that carry this genetic mutation that potentially increased tolerance to toxic materials produced by fires for cooking, protection and heating, said Gary…
ISG faculty, Patrick Allard, and two Human Biology & Society students, among others, have published a paper entitled “Exposure to the BPA-Substitute Bisphenol S Causes Unique Alterations of Germline Function,” with PLOS Genetics, 2016. ABSTRACT: Concerns about the safety of Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastics, receipts, food packaging and more, have led to its replacement with substitutes now…
Scientists from the University of British Columbia have shown that there is a genetic basis to the migratory routes flown by songbirds, and have narrowed in on a relatively small cluster of genes that may govern the behaviour. “It’s amazing that the routes and timing of such complex behaviour could be genetically determined and associated with a very small portion…
An orangutan called Rocky could provide the key to understanding how speech in humans evolved from the time of the ancestral great apes, according to a study led by Dr Adriano Lameira of Durham University and published in the journal Scientific Reports. Previously it was thought that great apes, our closest evolutionary relatives, could not learn to produce new sounds.…