1,416 results
- Animals
Peril of play
A new study shows that playful 2-year-old chimpanzees may be particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases — some caught from humans.
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- Animals
Cousin Who? Gliding mammals may be primates’ nearest kin
Two species of small, little-known rain forest mammals may be primates' closest living relatives.
- Humans
Bypassing paralyzed nerves
Implanted electrode helps paralyzed monkey clench its forearm muscles.
- Anthropology
Loud and clear
Skulls of Neandertal ancestors show the prehistoric humans had a hearing capacity similar to present-day people, suggesting human speech could have originated much earlier than previously thought.
- Humans
Symbolic snacks
Capuchin monkeys can reason with tokens as they do with different foods, demonstrating a basic capacity for thinking symbolically.
- Animals
Dolphins wield tools of the sea
A long-term study of dolphins living off Australia’s coast finds that a small number of them, mostly females, frequently use sea sponges to forage for fish on the ocean floor.
- Psychology
A genetic pathway to language disorders
Researchers suspect a newly uncovered regulatory link between two genes contributes to language impairments in a range of developmental disorders.
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Well-Tooled Primates
People may have leaned on ancient primate-brain capacities to begin making stone tools by 2.5 million years ago, a transition that possibly spurred the development of language and other higher mental faculties.
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Alarming sex appeal
Hens may find there’s just something about a guy that squawks at danger.
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- Life
Genes & Cells: Science news of the year, 2008
Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Genes & Cells. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories.
