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Your cat is a killer. According to biologists, when they’re not curling up in your lap, cats are off killing other animals — billions of ‘em. Scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service estimate that each year, apparently bloodthirsty felines are preying on billions of birds and small mammals like indigenous chipmunks, shrews, and meadow voles. “When we ran the model, we didn’t know what to expect,” researcher Dr. Peter Marra told theNew York Times. “We were absolutely stunned by the results.”
4 to 18 — Birds killed by a typical house cat every year
8 to 21 — Small mammals killed by a typical house cat every year
1.4 billion to 3.7 billion — Total birds killed by America’s cats every year -
6 fascinating things we've learned from studying apes and monkeys
A committee from the National Institutes of Health recently recommended that scientists retire a majority of the chimpanzees currently being used for federally-funded medical research in the United States. It’s worth taking a look back at some of the things we’ve learned by studying chimps, monkeys, and other non-human primates over the years. The methodology of some research is unsettling — but the conclusions do lead to a better understanding of who we are.
- Stress early in life can lead to drinking later in life
This is, perhaps, not a huge surprise, but at least now you know you can blame your childhood for your drinking habits. Researchers compared the alcohol consumption of two different groups ofrhesus monkeys, one raised without adult contact and comfort, and another raised with their mothers. When the monkeys were roughly 4 years old, they were given access to alcohol, and the monkeys raised away from their mothers drank more alcohol more often than the mother-reared monkeys. Of course, even those of us with the most stable childhoods can be driven to drink. When the mother-reared monkeys were placed in stressful situations, they increased their alcohol consumption, too. - We’re not the only primates capable of selfless acts
Can non-human primates experience empathy? Can they understand and share in another’s feelings? Research suggests it’s very possible. In one 1964 study, a group of six rhesus monkeys were taught to pull a chain to receive a helping of food. At one point, a seventh monkey was introduced to the group, and each time the first six pulled the lever for food, the new guy would get a painful electric shock. In response, the monkeys did one of two things: Some pulled a separate chain that administered less food, but didn’t shock their companion. Others stopped eating entirely. One monkey went 12 days without eating to ensure it did not shock the others.
- Stress early in life can lead to drinking later in life
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Your bathroom scale isn’t lying: You really are gaining winter weight. Consider it an unmistakable reminder that long before we were regularly bombarded by ads featuring the immaculate abs of celebrities and multi-day cleanses that taste like grass clippings, our ancestors needed those extra couple of pounds to protect them against the season’s inclement weather. From an evolutionary standpoint, it’s why that extra helping of pasta, that greasy slice of pizza, or even that stale, sprinkled donut all appear extra tempting when the temperature drops a few degrees.
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“I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues.”
Gerald Crabtree, a developmental scientist at Stanford University, counterintuitively argues that our ancient ancestors were much smarter than we are. According to his theory, advances in technology and medicine have masked an “underlying decline in brain power” that, in the future, will continue to contribute to the “dumbing down” of our species.
Are the comforts of modern life making humans dumber?
Photo: Thinkstock/iStockphoto
(Source: theweek.com)
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Men have been vainly searching for a way to cure baldness for at least 3,500 years, says Rob Dunn in New Scientist, pointing to an ancient Egyptian papyrus outlining an anti-baldness recipe that blends iron oxide, lead, alabaster, onions, honey, and fat from a snake, crocodile, hippopotamus, and lion. But those hair-challenged Egyptians, and today’s bald men, should just be happy to be alive.
Given that since the dawn of man, a full head of hair has helped “protect us from the noonday sun, maintain body heat when it is cold, and even attract a mate,” chrome-domed men should be at an evolutionary disadvantage.
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Dinosaurs ate all the giant bugs.
That’s the word from researchers at UC Santa Cruz, who noticed that the griffinfly (a dragonfly-like insect with a wingspan of about 28 inches) stopped growing bigger right around the time the first birds began to take flight in the Jurassic period. Insects like the griffinfly began to shrink, evolving features that made them harder to catch.
The study’s author claims that if not for birds, the largest bugs would likely be three times bigger today. Which is why birds are our new favorite animals.
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Wanna know a secret? Scientists don’t really understand where dogs came from. They know they likely descended from wolves, but no one really knows when or where. A new study might help scientists finally figure it out.
Photo: An Akita puppy, a breed that is considered one of the few that has identifiably “ancient” DNA that can be traced back a few thousand years.
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It is apparently quite common for school districts to request that standardized tests not include certain words that students might find offensive. But New York City’s list of some 50 banned test topics is twice as long as national sensitivity lists, and stands out as “a bizarre case of political correctness run wild,“ says Yoav Gonen in the New York Post.
Here, a look at some of the blacklisted topics, and why they might have been deemed problematic:
1. Birthdays
Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays2. Dinosaurs
Some students don’t believe in evolution3. Halloween
Suggests paganism4. Religious holidays and festivals
Could offend students who don’t celebrate one or more of the holidays5. TV, celebrities, and video games
To “avoid giving offense or disadvantage any test takers by privileging prior knowledge” like pop culture, Robert Pondiscio at the Core Knowledge Foundation tells the New York Post.6. Computers in the home
Not all students have computers at home -
Survey: Only a minority of biology teachers teach evolution "unabashedly"
A new survey shows that many biology teachers still endorse creationism, and most don’t make a strong case either way — leaving many students with a muddled picture of mankind’s beginnings.
For the most part, educators walk on eggshells when it comes to evolution, avoiding a decisive viewpoint. The study identified three major ways biology teachers accomplish this, says Lisa Grossman at Wired. Some teachers “focus on evolution at the molecular level,” thus “ignoring the idea that whole species of animals can evolve.” Other teachers “hide behind rigid state science tests,” teaching the theory but not actually advocating for it. A third group presents arguments for evolution and creationism, leaving students to decide which is the better approach. “This strategy,” says Grossman, “respects high schoolers’ critical reasoning skills, but undervalues the scientific method.”
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So our brains are shrinking. But how much brain mass have we lost over the last 20,000 years?
Well, it’s equivalent to the size of a tennis ball.
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If you're a night person, you're probably also a smarter person
A recent study claims that being a night owl is an evolutionary advancement that marks out “more intelligent individuals,” whereas “those with lower IQs tend to restrict their activities primarily to daytime. Basically, smart people have evolved to stay up later.
This puts a whole new spin on things. The early bird gets the worm? Forget it.
But as with many things, there’s a catch. Night people may be smarter, but they’re also less reliable and more likely to suffer from addictions and eating disorders.
You just can’t win.
Here’s a test you can take to determine whether you’re a morning or night person.
