LOS ANGELES: Cognitive biologists and primatologists have observed playful teasing in four species of great apes.Babies start teasing one other as early as eight months of age. Because language is not required for this activity, nonhuman animals may engage in similar playful teasing.Ape teasing, like human joking, is provocative and persistent, incorporating elements of surprise … Read more
RIO DE JANEIRO — The small team of state public health workers slalomed between auto parts strewn across a Rio de Janeiro junkyard, looking for standing water where mosquitoes might have laid their eggs. They were part of nationwide efforts to curtail a surge in Brazil of the mosquito-borne illness of dengue fever during the … Read more
NEW DELHI: Scientists have recently discovered that a 280-million-year-old fossil, believed to be a member of the reptile group, may have been partly forged. This revelation, published in the journal Palaeontology, has raised concerns about the accuracy of previous research conducted using this fossil. The fossil,called Tridentinosaurus antiquus, was found in the Italian Alps back … Read more
Record hot seawater killed more than three-quarters of human-cultivated coral that scientists had placed in the Florida Keys in recent years in an effort to prop up a threatened species that’s highly vulnerable to climate change, researchers discovered. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week returned to five reefs where they planted … Read more
LOISABA CONSERVANCY, Kenya — Conservationists in Kenya are celebrating as rhinos were returned to a grassy plateau that hasn’t seen them in decades. The successful move of 21 eastern black rhinos to a new home will give them space to breed and could help increase the population of the critically endangered animals. It was Kenya’s … Read more
TOKYO: Japan‘s space agency announced the successful launch of its new flagship rocket on Saturday, making it third time lucky for the H3 after years of delays and two previous failed attempts.The H3 rocket, billed as flexible and cost-effective by space agency JAXA, “was put into orbit,” a JAXA official told AFP.Developed jointly by JAXA … Read more
As It Happens6:24Great apes get a kick out of ‘playfully teasing’ each other, study finds What do you call it when a chimpanzee offers his buddy a delicious piece of fruit only to pull his hand away at the last second? Or when a bonobo repeatedly pokes, prods and pulls on the hair of an … Read more
The 27th annual Great Backyard Bird Count started Friday morning, and throughout the weekend, bird enthusiasts across Canada will be looking to help biologists track bird movements this winter. While the effort put in by any individual can be minimal, as little as 15 minutes, the overall contribution of the event to science is huge, … Read more
Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world. Tech executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new voluntary framework for how they will … Read more
Keir Starmer has been hit with his most recent test of his authority as MPs prepare to vote on a second parliamentary motion that calls for an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza next week. The SNP motion on the Middle East crisis comes after the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza reported that Israel’s assault on the … Read more
