Celebrated neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga explains the new science behind an ancient philosophical question.
Researchers studying different African communities of wild chimpanzees have pooled their data and found that the apes sometimes kill each other nearly everywhere they’ve been studied. Chimp homicides occurred most frequently in groups with the most adult males, anthropologist Michael Wilson reported at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists’ annual meeting. Chimps spend most of…
Shellfish respond to increasing acidification in seawater – such as that produced by climate change – by producing lighter, thinner shells. As more and more carbon dioxide is generated by human beings, it becomes dissolved in the oceans, making them more acidic. And according to British, Australian and Singaporean scientists, this is affecting the size…
The males of many species impress potential mates with brilliant plumage, massive antlers, or expensive cars. Water striders, however, don’t go in for courtship. For these smoothly gliding pond insects, mating is a wrestling match in which the male grips the female’s head and pins her down while she struggles to throw him off. Now…
Green technology is proving lucrative in India, clean energy investments here were worth $10.3 billion, a growth of 52% on 2011, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. This means that India had the highest rate of growth in green technologies of any other major world economy, with wind and solar areas being where most money…
A swollen star near the end if its life has been caught devouring one of its own planets — a scenario that could one day be replayed on Earth when our own sun dies in billions of years, scientists say. Astronomers discovered the cosmic crime scene while studying an ancient star that has expanded in…
Nationwide, gardeners have been experimenting with their newly assigned plant hardiness zones, a guide provided by the USDA that maps how well a plant will survive winter temperatures in a certain region. The map divides regions into different growing zones based on the average lowest temperature. Since the 1960s, growers have used it as a…