We think of chitchat and small talk as the things people say to pass the time or kill an awkward silence. New research suggests, however, that these idle conversations could be a social-bonding tool passed down from primates.
Plants & Animals
Dec 14, 2015
1
416
A theory called the cultural brain hypothesis could explain extraordinary increases in brain size in humans and other animals over the last few million years, according to a study published in PLOS Computational Biology by ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Nov 8, 2018
0
172
(PhysOrg.com) -- Over millions of years dogs have developed bigger brains than cats because highly social species of mammals need more brain power than solitary animals, according to a study by Oxford University.
Plants & Animals
Nov 23, 2010
0
0
Brain size in primates is predicted by diet, an analysis by a team of New York University anthropologists indicates. These results call into question "the social brain hypothesis," which has posited that humans and other ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2017
4
61
Researchers studying wild dwarf mongooses have provided insight into what happens when immigrants join a new group. The study in Current Biology on December 4 shows that, initially, recent immigrants rarely serve as lookout, ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 4, 2017
1
7
Growing up in a large social group makes Australian magpies more intelligent, new research shows.
Plants & Animals
Feb 7, 2018
0
208
Only by knowing the average number of friends each person has, scientists at Complexity Science Hub (CSH) were able to predict the group sizes of people in a computer game. For this purpose, they modeled the formation of ...
General Physics
Jan 30, 2023
0
132
When a male fruit fly gets aggressive, he rears up on his back four legs and batters his foe with his front pair. Neither fly seems particularly damaged by the encounter, but their subsequent actions are telling about the ...
Evolution
Dec 1, 2016
0
53
Bacteria have a sense of their own number. They release and sense signaling molecules that accumulate with increasing cell numbers, which allows them to change their behavior when a certain group size is reached. A team of ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 5, 2020
0
85
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study finds that Florida's 2002 constitutional amendment mandating a reduction in the size of classes in school districts throughout the state had no discernible impact upon student achievement, either ...
Social Sciences
May 14, 2010
5
0
