Published on Nov 17, 2018
Generalizing from one group of chimps to the whole species is a sticky business. |SOURCE| Human cultures have widely varying norms when it comes to friendliness and politeness. Make accidental eye contact with a Londoner on public transport and suffer mutual horror, but go to South Africa and find yourself routinely embraced by complete strangers. [...] Read more
Published on Oct 29, 2018
Caltech engineers create an optical gyroscope smaller than a grain of rice. |SOURCE| Mechanical versus Optical Gyroscopes Gyroscopes are devices that help vehicles, drones, and wearable and handheld electronic devices know their orientation in three-dimensional space. They are commonplace in just about every bit of technology we rely on every day. [...] Read more
Published on Oct 29, 2018
Twenty years ago, scientists were shocked to realize that our universe is not only expanding, but that it’s expanding faster over time. |SOURCE| Pinning down the exact rate of expansion, called the Hubble constant after famed astronomer and UChicago alumnus Edwin Hubble, has been surprisingly difficult. Since then scientists have used two methods [...] Read more
Published on Oct 29, 2018
When it comes to cooperation, there’s no monkey business in how some chimpanzees respond. |SOURCE| These primates often make decisions faster that benefits others than themselves, according to a newly published University of Michigan study. For decades, social scientists and biologists have sought to study primates because they are humans’ closest [...] Read more