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Helping Your Fellow Rat: Rodents Show Empathy-Driven Behavior

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011Scienceanimals, behavior, biological inheritance, chocolate, chocolate chips, emotional contagion, empathetic behavior, empathy driven helping behavior, empathy in rodents, evolutionary tree, homo sapiens, inbal ben ami bartal, jean decety, jeffrey mogil, laboratory rats, mcgill university, neuroscientists, peggy mason, phenomenon in humans, primates, pro social, rats, robert mitchum, rodents, special test, Technology, test arena, university of chicago, wild species

*Rats free trapped companions, even when given choice of chocolate instead*

The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists.

The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought. Though empathetic behavior has been observed anecdotally in non-human primates and other wild species, the concept had not previously been observed in rodents in a laboratory setting. (more…)

UK Mums Are Keen Online Shoppers

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011TechnologyComscore, demographic analysis, ea online, Europe, european markets, females, flowers, france, Germany, gifts, Google, household, internet usage in europe, italy, online, top online destination, turkey, uk mothers, united kingdom, vimeo

*comScore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage for October 2011*

LONDON, UK, 9 December 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of internet usage in Europe, showing 376.6 million unique visitors went online in October 2011 for an average of 27.8 hours per person. This study highlights internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated into the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. The study also analysed the online behaviour of mothers, defined as females age 25 and older with children in the household, showing their heavy propensity to visit retail sites. (more…)

Backpacks, Not the Bombs Inside, Key to Finding DNA

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011Scienceatlanta, backpacks, bomb fragments, bomb squad, bombings, centennial olympic park bombing, david foran, detonate bombs, DNA, explosive devices, explosives, fbi, homemade bombs, ieds, insurgents, michigan state university, oklahoma city bombing, pipe bombs, shane hoffmann, shawn stallworth, straps and zipper, terrorists, united states, weapon of choice

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Catching terrorists who detonate bombs may be easier by testing the containers that hide the bombs rather than the actual explosives, according to pioneering research led by Michigan State University.

Currently, law enforcement labs tend to test for DNA on the exploded bomb fragments – but this has a low success rate, said David Foran, an MSU forensic biologist and lead investigator on the research project. (more…)

Vision Scientists Demonstrate Innovative Learning Method

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Scienceautomated learnin, brain activity patterns, brain technology, innovative learning method, visual perceptual learning

New research suggests it may be possible to learn high-performance tasks with little or no conscious effort

New research published today in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It’s the kind of thing seen in Hollywood’s “Matrix” franchise. (more…)

With ‘Google Earth’ for Mars, Explore the Red Planet from Home

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Science, Technologyanaglyph image file, arizona, bradford castalia, crater on mars, data mapper, desktop, geologic feature, gigabyte size, hirise, hirise imagery, hiview, image file format, images, jpeg2000, layered deposits, local storage space, martian landscape, mesas, monument valley, orbit around mars, oval mesa, photoshop, pictures are beautiful, red planet, rodney heyd, Science, shelley littin, software tool, statistics tool, surface of mars, terabytes, university of arizona, utah, waves

A new software tool developed by the HiRISE team in the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Lab allows members of the public to download high-resolution images of the Martian landscape almost instantaneously and explore the surface of the Red Planet from their own desktops.

Imagine zooming in over the surface of Mars, sweeping over sand dunes and circling around the rims of craters – all from your home desktop.

With HiView, the image-viewing tool recently released by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, team at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab, you can do just that. (more…)

U.S. Believers Favor International Action on Climate Change, Nuclear Risk: UMD Poll

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Culture, Environmentamericans, author, belief in god, catholics, climate change, combat, conservative, creation, evangelicals, global policy, global poverty, greenhouse gases, john steinbruner, liberal, nuclear risks, nuclear war, poll, religious americans, spiritual obligation, spread of nuclear weapons, steven kull, united states, university of maryland, us population

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A majority of Americans professing belief in God favor cooperative international efforts to combat climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons, says a new public opinion poll conducted jointly by the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and its Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

The nearly 1,500 Americans surveyed include large numbers of Catholics and Evangelicals.

The study, Faith and Global Policy Challenges: How Spiritual Values Shape Views on Poverty, Nuclear Risks, and Environmental Degradation, also finds that a majority of believers consider addressing global poverty a “spiritual obligation,” and think that the United States should work cooperatively with other nations to reduce it. (more…)

Scientists Discover a Climate Change Warning Deep Under The Dead Sea

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Environmentclimate change, climate projections, dead sea, dead sea level, drilling, past warm period, seismic risks

University of Minnesota professor is part of international team that predicts the volatile region’s water may once again vanish

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL — An international team of scientists drilling deep under the bed of the Dead Sea has found evidence that the sea may have dried up during a past warm period similar to predicted scenarios for climate change in coming decades. Emi Ito, professor of earth sciences in the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering, is a research team member. (more…)

Female Fish Choose Attractive Friends to Avoid Attention

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Naturearipo river, attractive friends, females, freshwater fish, male attention, mating, receptive, reduce harassment, safi darden, scientists, sexual attention, sexual pheromone, species, trinidad, trinidadian guppy, universities of exeter

Scientists have observed a strategy for females to avoid unwanted male attention: choosing more attractive friends.

Published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study is the first to show females spending time with those more sexually attractive than themselves to reduce harassment from males.

Carried out by the Universities of Exeter and Copenhagen, the study focuses on the Trinidadian guppy, a species of small freshwater fish. It shows that the females choose companions that are relatively more attractive than themselves and in this way reduce harassment from males. The research shows that the tactic is successful and by ensuring they are less attractive than other group members, the fish experience less harassment and fewer mating attempts from males. (more…)

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