The Primate DiariesThe Primate DiariesNotes on science, politics and culture from a primate in the human zoo. Articles
His Brain is Gone!
2007-09-10 14:31:00 Encephelon #31 is up at Dr. Deborah Serani's Blogspot. Some terrific cognitive and molecular neuroscience reading that is sure to be good brain food.The Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain " was my firstexposure to the fascinating world of neuroscience.Be sure to check out:Neurophilosophy - the neuropsychology of synaesthesiaCognitive Daily - A new statistic begins to appear in journals: What the heck is a p-rep? (OK, statistics aren't everyone's bag, but since I'm struggling with the subject at the moment I found this to be excellent).Fitbuff.com - Out of Body Experiences: Medical Mysteries or Scientific Explanation?
DNA - Could It Happen To You?
2007-09-10 04:13:00 Mendel's Garden, the genetics blog carnival is up at Balancing Life. There are some excellent articles posted that you should check out. A few of my favorites are:Evolgen's Promoting Intelligence - about rapidly evolving promoters near genes involved in neural development and function.Living the Scientific Life's Pretty Boys Have All the Chicks - digs into the sordid nightlife of so-called "monogamous" birds.VWXYNot? posts Evolutionary Solutions to the Hairy Back Problem - about microevolutionary changes to a novel morphology in the larvae of a Drosophila species.Cartoon from the Science Creative Quarterly
Creationist Lunacy in North Carolina
2007-09-09 23:59:00 UNC Professor says God designed apes so humans could cage them. And God said it was good?As a recent émigré to the South from the heathenistic West Coast I'm often reminded of some of the cultural differences between my fellow countrymen. A case in point is this gem from David A. Plaisted, professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (just a stone's throw from where I live in Durham). After quote-mining select news items and science journals to claim that anthropologists are confused by the fossil evidence connecting humans and other apes (we aren't) he offers this suggestion of God's motives:But why would God create a creature that is so close to a human, but not quite? To answer this, we have to reason from what we know or can infer about God's motives in the creation. This may lead us to considerations that seem far removed from those that are expected in this context. The original creation was intended to contribute to the happiness ... More About: Creationist , Lunacy
Why People Are Good
2007-09-09 20:53:00 Your Sunday Skepticomic from Jesus and Mo.To view last Sunday's comic click here. More About: People , Good
The Bonding Brain
2007-09-09 04:42:00 How the evolution of primate sociality is linked to brain networks for pair bonds.Social conservatives are fond of linking morality with monogamy and will be quick to condemn the moral crimes of adulterous felatio while ignoring the moral crimes of cutting social programs for poor mothers. However, in a bizarre twist, it seems that morality and monogamy are closely intertwined, though it?s doubtful many conservatives will champion the reasons why.Those of you who are regular readers of these pages know that I?ve touched on the issues of evolution, cooperation and altruism on several occasions (for example see here and here). In the latest issue of the journal Science, Robin Dunbar revisits this question with a unique perspective on why some species (including humans) succeed so well as members of a group.While it may come as a shock to the Milton Friedman?s of the world (proponents for the brand of capitalist theory often referred to as ?free market fundamentalism?) human beings a... More About: Brain , Bondi
Shamanic Visions of Selective Sweep
2007-09-07 06:20:00 The evolution of schizophrenia reveals the nature of contingencySham an from the Mbukushu of NamibiaThomas Henry Huxley famously quipped that, if there is a God, he?s inordinately fond of beetles. Others may choose to be somewhat less kind and argue that, with around 2 million species of the beastly little things, such a design could only be the product of a disorganized mind. Perhaps that?s the solution Intelligent Design proponents have been looking for: God is schizophrenic! However, as it turns out, schizophrenia is the perfect metaphor for how our evolutionary history is not a well ordered and implemented design, but is rather full of twists and turns and ill-adapted consequences that are best explained through the contingencies of natural selection.Several years ago Robert Sapolsky suggested that genes promoting schizophrenia may have been selected for in human evolution because some of them conferred benefits that outweighed the 1% of people worldwide that were disabled by ... More About: Select , Sele , Visions
Sex for a Handshake
2007-09-06 13:37:00 Bonobo research continues despite Congo unrest.Vanessa Woods and friendsResearchers have gone to the Democratic Republic of Congo to study the social behavior of bonobos -- a close relative of the chimpanzee -- in the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary in Kinshasa.Vanessa Woods, an author and a participant in the study, will be posting daily updates at http://bonobohandshake.blogspot.com."We'r e always comparing ourselves to chimpanzees, but they're only half the picture," said Woods. "Bonobos and chimpanzees are so opposite in many ways, that we really need to understand bonobos if we're ever going to understand ourselves."Woods and her colleagues from the Max Planck Institute in Germany will look at cooperation, play behavior and altruistic characteristics in the primates."A lot of our experiments look silly, like when I throw a bright red soccer ball back and forth, or wave a red porcupine around. But a lot of these games help us understand the way bonobos think. Are they as obsessed wit...
Parsimony and the Origin of Life in the Universe
2007-09-05 06:59:00 The all-too-common descent to arguments from personal incredulityThe micro-manager at work in His workshop (Monty Python's The Meaning of Life ).Intelligent Design creationists are fond of using the strategy of denial based on personal incredulity. ?I can?t explain how protein motors with multiple parts could evolve so, therefore, no one can and Darwin was wrong.? However, while Michael Behe may not have been able to explain the bacterial flagellum others seemed to have no difficulty. That Behe abandoned this centerpiece in his latest book suggests that he was smart enough to realize he was wrong.William Dembski and friends haven't figured that out yet and proudly display the flagellum as their website image at Uncommon Descent. Today they've found a new fallacy to flog with the recent Biology Direct paper on multiverses as an explanation for the improbability of life's origin.Origin of life is a chicken and egg problem: for biological evolution that is governed, primarily, b... More About: Universe , The Universe , Parsi , The O
Congolese Rebels Invade Gorilla Sanctuary
2007-09-05 04:41:00 Rebel takeover raises fears of more gorilla deaths Several gorillas were killed and eaten by rebels earlier this year who have nowtaken over Virunga National Park.Rebel forces loyal to a renegade general in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized control of large swaths of conservation reserve, placing the rare mountain gorillas that live there in grave danger.Conservationists fear for the safety of the 380 gorillas living in the forests of the Virunga National Park, in the North Kivu province. There are only 700 of the gorillas worldwide.North Kivu has been the scene of violent clashes between the Congolese army and forces loyal to General Laurent Nkunda. The army claims to have killed 28 rebel soldiers in recent weeks, while the general described the situation as "a state of war" over the weekend.Conservationists reported that General Nkunda's forces surrounded ranger stations in the park on Monday, seizing rifles and equipment and forcing the evacuation of park workers and ... More About: Invade , Gorilla
African Exodus Linked to Global Climate Change
2007-09-04 05:32:00 The climate crisis helped us emerge from the Stone Age, will it return us to it?Drought stricken regions of Africa today may have looked the same forour early ancestors.As I wrote earlier (see The Evolution of Metapopulations and the Future of Humanity) the earliest migration of fully modern humans out of Africa occurred approximately 70,000 years ago. I argued that the most likely explanation was that global climate change, as the last ice age was beginning, prompted this migration.This hypothesis found support today in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Christopher Scholz and colleagues who have evidence from deep sediment cores of Lake Malawi in Africa. These cores suggest a series of megadroughts that occurred between 135,000 and 75,000 years ago that reduced Lake Malawi by as much as 95% and caused many lakes throughout Africa to dry up completely. Approximately 70,000 years ago the climate stabilized in the region and was more favorable ... More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Global , African
Atheist and Humanist Carnivals
2007-09-02 22:48:00 Some great heathen reading for a lazy Sunday.The Humanist Carnival #7 is up at Bligbi.Carnival of the Godless #74 is up at Atheist Faq. More About: Carnivals , Theist
Secular Humanist Revisionists
2007-09-02 18:17:00 Your Sunday Skepticomic from D.C. Simpson.To view last Sunday's comic click here. More About: Secular , Humanist , Revision
Bonobo Decides on Names for Swans
2007-09-01 05:42:00 An ape is showing researchers just how smart primates can be.Panbanisha, a bonobo at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, has given names to two trumpeter swans nesting at the center. It's an achievement researchers say shows how important collaboration is to learning.The ape trust focuses on helping primates communicate through computers and symbols.The latest project began in the spring when the swans were released on the trust's lake. It took months of work to motivate Panbanisha to name the birds.Researchers made references to the swans while communicating with the bonobo -- showing the ape they were interested in giving them names. They displayed pictures of the swans, played videos of them and took Panbanisha on a walk to find them.Abstract symbols were developed to help the bonobo distinguish between the three male and female names under final consideration.And finally this month, Panbanisha made her choices: Morgan and Olivia.Source: Monkeys in the News More About: Names , Cide
Gorilla Protectors Murdered in Congo
2007-09-01 00:16:00 Violence continues in endangered gorilla sanctuaryCongo lese Park Rangers risk their lives to protect the endangered gorillas.Suspected Rwandan Hutu rebels killed a park ranger in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the latest attack on guards who protect rare mountain gorillas in a national park, officials said on Friday.The attack late on Thursday on the ranger station at Kabaraza, 95 km (60 miles) north of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma, followed the killings of five of the endangered gorillas in recent weeks in the Virunga National Park."Around 2300 hours, a ranger on night watch heard noises coming from some of the rangers' houses. He went there to find out what was going on and was shot in the belly," Robert Muir of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which supports the protection programme for the Virunga gorillas, told Reuters.The ranger died from his wounds, and a worker at the camp was injured by a bullet in the neck. Houses were looted.Other rangers who drove th... More About: Gorilla , Prot
Blog Carnival Roll Call
2007-08-30 17:27:00 There are two science carnivals up that you won't want to miss.An image blatantly stolen from PZ Myers sums up my enthusiasm.Tangled Bank #87 - the mixed bag of science related gems, is posted at Balancing Life.Four Stone Hearth #22 - the four-field anthropology carnival, is posted at Hominin Dental Anthropology (yeah, it was posted yesterday, but I missed it).Some terrific stuff to check out:For history of science buffs don't miss Sunil's post On the Shoulders of Giants.A fascinating exploration of aquatic animal's intuitive understanding of physics was posted by Andre at Biocurious.Primatology.net has an excellent review of the latest fossil ape discovery from Ethiopia.But those are just my favorites. Check them out for yourself. More About: Carnival , Blog , Roll , Blog Carnival , Call
Thirsty for Love, Or: Beetlemania
2007-08-29 14:18:00 File this under "I didn't need to know that."In a disturbing parallel to human mating practices, female beetles are more likely to mate if the guy offers to buy them a drink. In the current issue of Animal Behaviour (subscription required), Martin Edvardsson has found that female beetles are 40% more likely to mate if they?re thirsty. As reviewed in Science Daily:Female beetles mate to quench their thirst according to new research by a University of Exeter biologist. The males of some insect species, including certain types of beetles, moths and crickets, produce unusually large ejaculates, which in some cases can account for around 10% of their body weight. The study shows that dehydrated females can accept sexual invitations simply to get hold of the water in the seminal fluid.So-called ?nuptial gifts? are a common tactic by male insects to attract mates. Females of the majority of insects (including the eusocial ants, bees and wasps) mate with multiple males and improve their ... More About: Love , Thirst , Mania , Beetle
The Downstream Effects of Biopiracy
2007-08-28 17:39:00 Dutch primatologist gets caught up in economic blowback. As I recently highlighted, primatologist Marc van Roosmalen was sentenced to 16 years in Brazilian prison for alleged ?biopiracy?. The case outraged scientists around the world and Roosmalen?s lawyers were able to have him released from custody pending appeal.An article in today?s New York Times details his conviction and why Brazil has been so harsh in it?s laws regulating the nation?s biological inheritance. As the Times reports:Fears of biopiracy, loosely defined as any unauthorized acquisition or transport of genetic material or live flora and fauna, are deep and longstanding in Brazil. Nearly a century ago, for example, the Amazon rubber boom collapsed after Sir Henry Wickham, a British botanist and explorer, spirited rubber seeds out of Brazil and sent them to colonies in Ceylon and Malaya (now Sri Lanka and Malaysia), which quickly dominated the international market.In the 1970s, the Squibb pharmaceutical company used... More About: Effects , The D , Downstream
Monkeys Use "Motherese" With Infants
2007-08-28 17:02:00 Human universal now extended to non-human primates.Humans aren't the only animals to use baby talk when speaking to offspring?rhesus monkeys also go "gaga" over babies, new research says.Puerto Rico's female rhesus monkeys make unique vocalizations to interact with infants to get their attention, the study finds."These female monkeys are definitely excited about looking at babies, and their vocalizations convey that excitement," said study co-author Dario Maestripieri, an associate professor in comparative human development at the University of Chicago.One particular monkey sound, known as a "girney," seems especially designed for infant ears."When infants are around they use [the girney] a lot more, and they also do other things like wag their tails to the babies?which they don't do in other circumstances," Maestripieri said.Maestripieri and colleagues published their findings in the current issue of the journal Ethology.Musical MothereseBaby talk, also called "motherese," is pr... More About: Infants , Monkeys , Eres
Cognitive Science Carnival Today
2007-08-28 00:54:00 Encephelon #30, the cognitive science blog carnival is up at Neurofuture. Some of the best science bloggers on the net offer news and analysis about what's on their (and everyone's) mind.Check it out.The next edition of Encephalon (make submissions here) is scheduled for September 10th, to be hosted by Dr. Deborah Serani. More About: Science , Carnival , Today , Cognitive Science
Religion, Secularism & Politics in the 21st Century
2007-08-27 15:02:00 Center for Inquiry hosts conference in NovemberRenowned speakers, scholars, and media personalities will meet to discuss the future of reason and secularism in an America and a world increasingly divided by religion. Join Christopher Hitchens, Alan Dershowitz, Peter Singer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Wendy Kaminer, Ann Druyan, an unannounced Very Special Guest, and many others for this historic event.Themes will include: * The Age of American Unreason * The Next Islamic Enlightenment * Science and the Public * Student Freethinkers Speak Out * Secular ism through History: from Spinoza to JFKWith the Atheist Alliance International Convention in late September, looks like there will be plenty of time to get in some good heathen networking before Christmas.Learn more and register at the Center for Inquiry website. More About: Politics , Religion , Poli
"Intelligent" Design and Magical Thinking
2007-08-26 15:50:00 You Sunday Skepticomic from The New Yorker.To view last Sunday's comic click here. More About: Intelligent Design , Design , Intelligent , Thinking , Gent
The Feeling of What Happens
2007-08-25 05:41:00 Science, Faith and Nature's ErrorThe "Revelation" as described by St. John, though likely inspired through theuse of hallucinogens (see The Mystery of Manna).The title for this post comes from a terrific book by the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, but I think it's appropriate for a discussion on faith, feeling and reason. Sam Harris' recent editorial in the journal Nature has effectively gotten people talking about religion, science and what, if anything, each should have to do with the other. In a recent discussion with a fellow blogger it was argued that Harris' inclusion of Christian geneticist Francis Collins in his critique of Nature's editors was improper, effectively undermining his argument.[R]ather than challenge Collins directly, he lumps Collins with Islamic fundamentalists and the Catholic Church as part of a giant "force of unreason" based on views and positions that Collins adamantly opposes. Sounds rather weak to me.Firstly, while I'm sure there is much that... More About: Feeling
Scientists should unite against threat from religion
2007-08-24 15:09:00 In the current issue of Nature, Sam Harris (author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation) penned this critique of the Nature editors' inclusion of religious apologists.CorrespondenceNature 448, 864 (23 August 2007) | doi:10.1038/448864a;Published online 22 August 2007Sam Harrishttp://www.samharris.orgSirIt was genuinely alarming to encounter Ziauddin Sardar's whitewash of Islam in the pages of your journal ('Beyond the troubled relationship' Nature 448, 131?133; 2007). Here, as elsewhere, Nature's coverage of religion has been unfailingly tactful ? to the point of obscurantism.In his Commentary, Sardar seems to accept, at face value, the claim that Islam constitutes an "intrinsically rational world view". Perhaps there are occasions where public intellectuals must proclaim the teachings of Islam to be perfectly in harmony with scientific naturalism. But let us not do so, just yet, in the world's foremost scientific journal.Under the basic teachings of Islam, the... More About: Religion , Scientists , Threat , Unit
New Life in the Congo
2007-08-24 14:15:00 After recent Gorilla tragedy, the birth of a new baby offers hopeConservationists announced the birth of a critically endangered mountain gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo 's Virunga National Park. The newborn marked a positive development for the embattled apes in the park -- nine out of its 100 gorillas have been killed this year by poachers, including five last month.WildlifeDirect called the birth "a key step toward the survival of this critically endangered species."The baby gorilla, a male, was born to the only female in the Munyaga Family, according to WildlifeDirect.The newborn gorilla is expected to spend its first few months of life in constant physical contact with its mother, usually riding on its mother's back or being carried. Infant gorillas begin to walk at around four or five months and start to feed on plant parts at four to six months.The gorillas live in Virunga National Park park, which sits near the border with Rwanda and supports roughly 380 of the ... More About: Life , New Life , The Con
Forbidden Love
2007-08-22 07:45:00 Sexual Equality, Double Standards and Social ScaleIn my article Eye of the Beholder I described the latest study demonstrating that women tend to be most likely to cheat on their partners when they?re at the most fertile phase of their menstrual cycle.In response Paul asked the question:As you point out, these findings are consistent with the well supported notion that women (along with men) evolved more than one reproductive strategy. What puzzles me is why societies are more forgiving of the male who "cheats" than of the female who "cheats" -- a double standard that seems almost ubiquitous?This double standard has not only been ubiquitous, it has been downright murderous in its application throughout history. However, this is not the case in every society. There is something very specific about which societies consistently demonstrate this double standard and which don?t.In many indigenous societies sexuality is considered a healthy activity and marriage is a flexible social arr... More About: Love
Move Over MTV, Science Just Went Live
2007-08-21 06:17:00 SciVee brings the latest science to your desktopJohn Hawks just brought this to my attention. This looks incredibly cool and is just getting started. Following up on the Public Library of Science public domain journals, now scientists can upload videos presenting their cutting edge research at a free online conference.As they explain at the SciVee website:SciVee, created for scientists, by scientists, moves science beyond the printed word and lecture theater taking advantage of the internet as a communication medium where scientists young and old have a place and a voice.The only hitch, as of now, is that you have to be published in one of the PLoS journals in order to upload your video presentation. Nonetheless, this is just one more way that science can be made more accessible to the public. Of course, now that our conference presentations will reach an audience larger than 30 we'll have to seriously work on our public speaking skills. More About: Live , Move , Went
A Three Million Year Walk Through Egypt
2007-08-21 04:26:00 New hominid footprint has Intelligent Design advocate stumped Zahi Hawass_________________Cast of fossilized footprint________This is very confusing. The Scubaredneck (seriously, that's his name) writing at Uncommon Descent posted this article about a new fossil footprint in Egypt that might be older than the earliest evidence of Australopithecus afarensis. But he just posted the story as is from Reuters. Did he forget to inject his Intelligent Design message to show they?d predicted this all along? Is there something significant about Egypt having evidence of hominids earlier than Ethiopia? Are they changing their tactic to suggest that evolutionary anthropologists have been too conservative in their estimates about the age of A. afarensis? I really don?t understand why this would be posted on William Dembski?s page. Can someone explain it to me?CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found what they said could be the oldest human footprint in history in the country?... More About: Million , Walk , Year
Two More Gorillas Found Dead
2007-08-20 20:54:00 Good news of baby Ndeze's success marred by tragedyEarlier this week I linked to a story showing that the baby of one of the four murdered gorillas (one of whom was also pregnant) is currently in stable condition. Yesterday conservationists in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo discovered the remains of two more adult gorillas with one of their infants almost assuredly lost as well. This brings the death toll to nine this year. As I highlighted before, with only 700 mountain gorillas alive in the wild the loss of these individuals now represents the equivalent of 85 million people, or the entire population of Germany.According to Reuters:"Effectively, this means that not only are there six that are now dead, but there will now be a group of 12 gorillas that may not carry on into the next generation, said Gerard Collin, a consultant with the UNESCO team.So far this year, nine mountain gorillas have been killed in North Kivu.Two adult males, known as silverbacks because of their... More About: Gorillas , Dead
Point of Inquiry with Chris Mooney
2007-08-19 17:28:00 ScienceBlogger Chris Mooney (The Intersection) is featured in the latest interview at Point of Inquiry. His book Storm World, centers on the increasingly large storms that we can expect as a result of the climate crisis and the political forces that are opposing policy change.
Ever Considered Being an Evangelical Atheist?
More articles from this author:2007-08-19 16:48:00 From John Safran vs GodFor those of you who haven't heard of Australian comedian John Safran, this bit where he travels to Utah to inform Mormons about the good news is not to be missed. More About: Atheist , Evangelical , Cons , Theist , Consider 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
|
 |
|
 |
