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POPSEgalitarian revolution in the Pleistocene? In humans, a secondary transition from egalitarian societies to hierarchical states took place as the first civilizations were emerging. How can it be understood in terms of the model discussed? One can speculate that technological and cultural advances made the coalition size much less important in controlling the outcome of a conflict than the individuals' ability to directly control and use resources (e.g. weapons, information, food) that strongly influence the outcomes of conflicts.
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POPSTrouble in the Wild For some species it seems it's already too late. They no longer have the numbers needed to sustain existence. But we have seen turnarounds before.
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POPS Brain's Hub of Fear Found The results of the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and the Yerkes Center, are detailed in the October issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience. The genetically engineered virus was injected into the amygdala of the mice by Emory graduate student Kimberly Maguschak. The amygdala is a part of the brain thought to be important for forming memories of emotionally charged events. "We found that after beta-catenin is taken out, the mice can still learn to fear the shocks," Maguschak said. "But two days later, their fear doesn't seem to be retained because they spend half as much time freezing in response to the tone." So it appears that beta-catenin is turned on in the amygdala to help in signaling during the learning process, Maguschak said.
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POPSDinosaurs Lucky. Pay Attention, Humans! Interesting stuff. It's not clear on what evidence they base the judgment that luck was involved. But the same thing could be said for mammals, when the evolutionary door swung wide open for us, after the dinosaurs got bumped off.
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POPSChandelier Cells Unveil Human Cognition "By triggering specific chandelier cells, the authors were able to elicit a precisely timed chain of electrical events in the neocortex. Additionally, the authors found that the synaptic pathways between chandeliers and pyramid cells are incredibly strong – much stronger than has been recorded previously in other mammals. This suggests that humans do possess different types of cells, and that our higher cognition isn't due to having larger cells. Although chandelier cells have been found in other species, they are more complex in humans. This raises the possibility that there are many things which attribute to higher cognition – different types of cells, and a complex circuitry, perhaps. This study by Tamas, et al, furthers the search for the answers to higher cognition, and more fully opens the door to questions of how our brains compare to those of other species."
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POPSThe ability to see through things... "In today's world, humans have more in common visually with tiny mice in a forest than with a large animal in the jungle. We aren't faced with a great deal of small clutter, and the things that do clutter our visual field — cars and skyscrapers — are much wider than the separation between our eyes, so we can't use our X-ray power to see through them," Changizi says. "If we froze ourselves today and woke up a million years from now, it's possible that it might be difficult for us to look the new human population in the eyes, because by then they might be facing sideways."
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POPSCows and Their Internal Compass Unlike some city folks who have no clue as to north and south, cows and deer may have a built-in compass. A new study and observation reveals that not only birds and butterfly's but also large mammals may have a compass.
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