Category: Articles
The New York Times, March 8, 2005
Parents of wailing babies, take comfort: you are not alone.
Chimpanzee babies fuss. Sea gull chicks squawk. Burying beetle larvae tap their parents’ legs. Throughout the animal kingdom, babies know how to get their parents’ attention. Exactly why evolution has produced all this fussing, squawking and tapping is a question many biologists are now trying to answer. Someday, that answer may shed some light on the mystery of colic in human babies.
The New York Times, March 3, 2005
A team of Dutch scientists is trying to solve the mystery of personality. Why are some individuals shy while others are bold, for example? What roles do genes and environment play in shaping personalities? And most mysterious of all, how did they evolve?
The scientists are carrying out an ambitious series of experiments to answer these questions. They are studying thousands of individuals, observing how they interact with others, comparing their personalities to their descendants’ and analyzing their DNA.
The New York Times, March 1, 2005
A team of Dutch scientists is trying to solve the mystery of personality. Why are some individuals shy while others are bold, for example? What roles do genes and environment play in shaping personalities? And most mysterious of all, how did they evolve?
The scientists are carrying out an ambitious series of experiments to answer these questions. They are studying thousands of individuals, observing how they interact with others, comparing their personalities to their descendants’ and analyzing their DNA.
Continue reading “Looking for Personality in Animals, of All People”
The New York Times, February 8, 2005
In the world of competitive eating, it’s time to crown a new champion.
Even the fastest human eaters need a few seconds to consume a piece of food. The current record for devouring hard-boiled eggs, for example, is 65 eggs in 6 minutes 40 seconds, by Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, Va. That works out to about six seconds an egg.
But according to a report last week in the journal Nature, Ms. Thomas and her fellow record-holders must step aside to make room for the star-nosed mole, a bizarre creature that lives in wetlands in the Eastern United States.
Continue reading “Underground Gourmet: Mole Sets a Speed Record”
The New York Times, January 11, 2005
Dr. Steven A. Benner is bracing for what could be a spectacular year. When the Huygens mission parachutes into the hazy skies of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, he will be among the researchers anxiously awaiting a report.
After several days, Dr. Benner and his colleagues will receive the Huygens measurements of Titan’s chemical composition. They will comb through the data to see whether the moon harbors life.
But Dr. Benner, a professor of chemistry at the University of Florida, will not limit his search to familiar life forms of the sort that exist on Earth. He is casting a wider net, in hopes of discovering creatures that defy conventional biology — what Dr. Benner calls “weird life.”
Continue reading “In the Search for Life on Titan, the Challenge Will Be Recognizing It”