When biologists study cooperation in animals, they usually offer just a single task at a time. But what happens when animals can choose among several opportunities to work together? Biologists at Utrecht University discovered ...
Inequality is not unique to human groups and societies. Individuals with relatively little power possess a variety of behavioral strategies to counterbalance or regulate power differences. In humans, these strategies include ...
There's a conundrum that has perplexed biologists since Charles Darwin himself. Why do some exotic species take off as invasive pests while others don't?
For decades, historians have generally agreed that the progress of small villages as they evolved into cities came at the price of widening inequality. A small group of leaders, kings and priests, would inevitably seize control ...
Researchers have recently found a new way to summon useful structures in magnetic materials using light, heat, and electric fields. This new method, described in a new study published in Physical Review Letters, may lead ...
In many primate species, males are much larger than their female counterparts, which is generally attributed to male competition for mates (sexual selection). But bigger bodies may not just be about alpha males defeating ...
Most people have experienced it: when you're moving, engaged, and focused, pain fades into the background, then flares when you're immobilized with nothing to do. That isn't imagination; it's biology. A comprehensive review ...
A new study on ancient societies from around the world is rewriting what we thought we knew about democracy. A team of researchers analyzed archaeological and historical evidence from 31 ancient societies across Europe, Asia, ...
In recent years, Nepal has been heralded as a global leader in community-based forest conservation. By handing over nearly a third of its nationally owned forest to local villagers in the 1980s, the country reversed years ...
Political published writing retains an "important and complex role" in the national conversation—despite huge social and technological changes this century, a new book shows.
