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Walking the Walk: What Sharks, Honeybees and Humans Have in Common

By Guest PostDecember 25, 2013Nature, Scienceadam gordon, brian wood, common, david raichlen, east africa, evolutionary history, fundamental pattern, gps data, hadza people, hadza tribe, herman pontzer, honeybees, human movement patterns, humans, hunter college, hunters in africa, levy walk, levy walk pattern, mathematical pattern, new york, sharks, state university, Tanzania, ua anthropologist, university at albany, urban areas, walking the walk

A research team led by UA anthropologist David Raichlen has found that the Hadza tribe’s movements while foraging can be described by a mathematical pattern called a Lévy walk – a pattern that also is found in the movements of many other animals.

A mathematical pattern of movement called a Lévy walk describes the foraging behavior of animals from sharks to honey bees, and now for the first time has been shown to describe human hunter-gatherer movement as well. The study, led by University of Arizona anthropologist David Raichlen, was published on December 23, 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Lévy walk pattern appears to be ubiquitous in animals, similar to the golden ratio, phi, a mathematical ratio that has been found to describe proportions in plants and animals throughout nature. (more…)

The Placebo Effect Goes Beyond Humans, UF Researchers Find

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Rats and humans have at least one thing in common: They both react the same way to a placebo, according to a new University of Florida study.

“That was the big finding — that the animals that expected pain relief actually got pain relief when you gave them an inert substance,” said co-author John Neubert, a pain specialist and an associate professor with the UF College of Dentistry department of orthodontics. “It helps validate our model that what we do in the rats, we believe, is a good representation of what’s being seen in humans.”

The investigation of placebo effects might lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets in the brain and of novel treatment strategies for a variety of health conditions. (more…)

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Walking the Walk: What Sharks, Honeybees and Humans Have in Common

The Placebo Effect Goes Beyond Humans, UF Researchers Find