Anthropology

Virtual Navigation- Rethinking How Columbus Mentally Found His Way

When explorers like Magellan and Columbus sailed from Europe to the New World 500 years ago, they amazingly managed to navigate the open sea without terrestrial landmarks, natural boundaries or the navigational technology we have today. Historical reports ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 4 2007 - 3:57pm

How Family Environment Can Alter Navigation Ability

All vertebrates use geometric cues like walls and corners to figure out how to go from place to place. Some, like rats and human children, are so influenced by these geometric cues that they often ignore more reliable features such as a distinctive object ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 19 2007 - 4:19pm

Homosexual Civil Unions: A Medieval Tradition?

Opponents of gay marriage in the United States state that nuclear families have always been the standard household form. Turns out this may not be true. While gay marriage itself may not have happened in medieval times there is evidence that homosexual civ ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 23 2007 - 11:30am

Is Baby Talk Universal? Monkeys Use It Also

Female rhesus monkeys use special vocalizations while interacting with infants, the way human adults use motherese, or “baby talk,” to engage babies’ attention, new research at the University of Chicago shows. “Motherese is a high pitched and musical form ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 24 2007 - 9:58pm

Anthropology Surprise: Struggling Males Respond Better To Female Teachers

Boys with difficulty reading actually respond better to female teachers, according to a new Canadian study. Research shows that boys develop higher positive self-perceptions as readers when they worked with female research assistants compared to working wi ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 26 2007 - 7:12am

Religious People Are More Generous, Says Study

In a study to be published in the September issue of Psychological Science journal, researchers investigated how thinking about God and notions of a higher power influenced positive social behavior, specifically cooperation with others and generosity to st ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 29 2007 - 10:55am

Burn Out Or Fade Away: Rock Stars 2X As Likely To Die Young

Eminem should be reading up on his Elvis history if he wants to stay around. Famous musicians are more than twice as likely as the rest of the population to die an early death, and within a few years of becoming famous, reveals research in the Journal of E ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2007 - 11:17am

'Windeby Girl' Mummy's Secret- She Was A Boy

Bog mummies are 2000-year-old mummies from the Iron Age that were preserved with amazing detail by the peat bogs of Europe. Physical anthropologists draw conclusions from the eerily preserved hair, leathery skin and other features in the mummies that emerg ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 11 2011 - 10:36am

Using Artificial Intelligence To Understand The Behavior Of Primates

Artificial intelligence, in the form of simple computer ‘agents’, can mimic the actions of primates and help us understand why some groups are ‘despotic’ whilst others are ‘egalitarian’- overturning previous theories developed by primatologists. The new st ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 11 2007 - 9:22am

Even Female Chimps Love The Bad Boys

The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but the way to a female chimpanzees may be through being a great thief. Researchers studying wild chimps in West Africa have learned that males steal desirable fruits from local orchards as a means of attract ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 11 2007 - 9:09pm