http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Two fossil discoveries from the East African Rift reveal new information about the evolution of primates, according to a study published online in Nature this week led by Ohio University scientists. http://phys.org/news287824531.html Other Sciences Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:01 EST news287824531 (Phys.org) —A study by the universities of Manchester and Liverpool observing monkeys has found that those in the middle hierarchy suffer the most social stress. Their work suggests that the source of this stress is social conflict and may help explain studies in humans that have found that middle managers suffer the most stress at work. http://phys.org/news284103598.html Biology Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:40:05 EST news284103598 (Phys.org)—Males and females differ in a lot of traits (besides the obvious ones) and some evolutionary psychologists have proposed hypotheses to explain why. Some argue, for example, that males' slight, but significant, superiority in spatial navigation over females – a phenomenon demonstrated repeatedly in many species, including humans – is probably "adaptive," meaning that over the course of evolutionary history the trait gave males an advantage that led them to have more offspring than their peers. http://phys.org/news280496657.html Biology Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:00:01 EST news280496657 Japanese researchers show for the first time that primates modify their body movements to be in tune with others, just like humans do. Humans unconsciously modify their movements to be in synchrony with their peers. For example, we adapt our pace to walk in step or clap in unison at the end of a concert. This phenomenon is thought to reflect bonding and facilitate human interaction. Researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute report today that pairs of macaque monkeys also spontaneously coordinate their movements to reach synchrony. http://phys.org/news278573380.html Biology Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:29:48 EST news278573380 Two years of painstaking observation on the social interactions of a troop of free-ranging monkeys and an analysis of their family trees has found signs of natural selection affecting the behavior of the descendants. http://phys.org/news276883684.html Biology Wed, 09 Jan 2013 05:00:02 EST news276883684 Monkeys shy away from bystanders during copulation, irrespective of the bystanders' gender or rank. The new study, by Anne Overduin-de Vries and her team from the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands, also suggests that sneaky sex is opportunistic rather than a tactical deception i.e. intentional hiding of sexual behavior. Their work is published online in Springer's journal, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. http://phys.org/news270838132.html Biology Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:10:08 EST news270838132 Wild macaques who are bystanders to fights within their group exploit the losers for grooming favours, new research has shown. http://phys.org/news269200199.html Biology Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:52:13 EST news269200199 (Phys.org)—Cross a crow and it'll remember you for years. Crows and humans share the ability to recognize faces and associate them with negative, as well as positive, feelings. The way the brain activates during that process is something the two species also appear to share, according to new research being published this week. http://phys.org/news266518867.html Biology Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:01:24 EST news266518867 A new international study has investigated how diseases are shared among species of primates with a view to predicting what diseases may emerge in humans in the future. The findings aim to help in the fight against these diseases by enabling scientists to develop treatments before outbreaks occur. The findings are published online this week in the journal Ecology Letters. http://phys.org/news265310484.html Biology Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:21:30 EST news265310484 New research published in BMC Genetics shows that the rhesus macaque has three times as much genetic variation than humans. However despite much of this extra variation being within genes, it does not affect protein function. Consequently damaging variations are at similar levels in macaques and humans - indicating a strong selection pressure to maintain gene function regardless of mutation rate or population size. http://phys.org/news260124390.html Biology Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:00:01 EST news260124390 Human nature has deep evolutionary roots and is manifested in relationships with family members, friends, romantic and business partners, competitors, and strangers more than in any other aspects of behavior or intellectual activity, contends a University of Chicago behavioral biologist. http://phys.org/news251554600.html Biology Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:16:47 EST news251554600 Thousands of monkeys are being held in overcrowded and barren farms in Laos and sold for international laboratory research, according to a report from a British animal protection group. http://phys.org/news250229635.html Biology Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:14:15 EST news250229635 (PhysOrg.com) -- In order to better understand human relationships, researchers who study such things often turn to other primates for the simple reason that they are more accessible, being locked up in zoos and such. Thus, PhD student Jerome Micheletta, at the University of Portsmith in the UK, found himself studying the crested macaque in the Marwell Wildlife Zoological Park. It was while doing so that he discovered that the macaques tended to follow the gaze of a friend more quickly than they did others, such as family members. Micheletta along with Dr. Dr Bridget Waller have published their findings on this research in the journal Animal Behavior. http://phys.org/news245576805.html Biology Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:40:01 EST news245576805 New research in the UK on rhesus macaque monkeys has found for the first time that if they live in larger groups they develop more gray matter in parts of the brain involved in processing information on social interactions. http://phys.org/news239594282.html Other Sciences Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:00:01 EST news239594282 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by scientists in China has found that baby rhesus macaques stressed by being separated from their mothers remained anxious and had poor social skills even three years after separation. The babies had to be separated from their mothers at birth for a variety of reasons, such as the mother lacking breast milk or being too inexperienced to care for the infant safely. Some of the babies were taken into care because they were too weak or at risk of failing to survive in cold, rainy conditions. http://phys.org/news232942036.html Biology Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:10:01 EST news232942036 Malaysian wildlife researchers have tagged a Bornean slow loris for the first time as part of efforts to find out more about the nocturnal primate known for its big eyes and rare toxic bite. http://phys.org/news230127564.html Biology Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:10:03 EST news230127564 Mealtimes can be a fraught business for the wild baboons of the Namib Desert. There's little food about, which means they have to share. Unsurprisingly, skirmishes often break out. http://phys.org/news229179401.html Biology Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:56:56 EST news229179401 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a recent study published in Nature Communications, it appears that Old World monkeys have the ability to count better than was originally thought. The research also shows that when presented with counting tasks, these long-tailed macaques are very similar to children in suppressing their impulses. http://phys.org/news220795274.html Biology Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:01:39 EST news220795274 The tendency to perceive others as "us versus them" isn't exclusively human but appears to be shared by our primate cousins, a new study led by Yale researchers has found. http://phys.org/news219576323.html Other Sciences Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:25:51 EST news219576323 Contrary to expectations, new evidence shows that unrelated male macaques in the wild form close and stable social partnerships with select males in their groups. Although the degree of emotional attachment obviously can't be measured, those relationships resemble human friendship, according to researchers who report their findings online on Nov. 18 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. What's more, it appears the motivation for those males to maintain close ties with other males is political in nature. http://phys.org/news209308788.html Biology Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:20:15 EST news209308788 An experimental vaccine developed to prevent outbreaks of Marburg hemorrhagic fever continues to show promise in monkeys as an emergency treatment for accidental exposures to the virus that causes the disease. There is no licensed treatment for Marburg infection, which has a high fatality rate. http://phys.org/news195914874.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:48:14 EST news195914874 Rhesus monkey babies born to mothers who had the flu while pregnant had smaller brains and showed other brain changes similar to those observed in human patients with schizophrenia, a study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found. http://phys.org/news187530429.html Medicine & Health Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:47:42 EST news187530429 Imagine a mosquito-borne virus that has already infected millions of people in recent outbreaks in South and Southeast Asia, the islands of the Indian Ocean, Africa and northern Italy. Although seldom fatal, it causes highly painful arthritis-like symptoms that can linger for months or even years. It's capable of adapting to spread through a mosquito species common in much of North America. And no vaccine or treatment exists to protect humans from its effects. http://phys.org/news186941859.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:50:03 EST news186941859 Among rhesus macaque monkeys, mothers who weigh more and have had previous pregnancies produce more and better breast milk for their babies than mothers who weigh less and are less experienced. Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of California, Davis are using this natural variation in breast milk quality and quantity to show that a mother's milk sends a reliable signal to infants about their environment. This signal may program the infant's behavior and temperament according to expectations of available resources and discourages temperaments that prove risky when food is scarce. The study was published in the American Journal of Primatology Feb. 16. http://phys.org/news186761632.html Biology Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:14:06 EST news186761632 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green monkeys avoid AIDS when infected with SIV, the simian equivalent of HIV. http://phys.org/news179085831.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:05:48 EST news179085831 Researchers in Malaysia have identified key laboratory and clinical features of an emerging new form of malaria infection. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, confirms the potentially deadly nature of the disease. http://phys.org/news171745925.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:50:01 EST news171745925 (AP) -- Scratch an itch and you get ... aaaaaah. Now scientists have watched spinal nerves transmit that relief signal to the brain in monkeys, a possible step toward finding new treatments for persistent itching in people. http://phys.org/news158236044.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:28:00 EST news158236044 As we look at the world around us, images flicker into our brains like so many disparate pixels on a computer screen that change every time our eyes move, which is several times a second. Yet we don't perceive the world as a constantly flashing computer display. Why not? http://phys.org/news157906808.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:01:41 EST news157906808 A potential treatment for HIV may one day help people who are not responding to Anti-Retroviral Therapy, suggests new research published tomorrow in The Journal of Immunology. Scientists looking at monkeys with the simian form of HIV were able to reduce the virus levels in the blood to undetectable levels, by treating the monkeys with a molecule called D-1mT alongside Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART). http://phys.org/news157732139.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:29:32 EST news157732139 Thai monkeys have been observed showing their young how to floss -- proof primates teach offspring to use tools, a Japanese researcher said Wednesday. http://phys.org/news155993011.html Biology Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:24:06 EST news155993011