The real story of how and why the zebra has stripes is an evolutionary mystery that has puzzled ethologists and evolutionary biologists for over a hundred years.
In various species of animals, females exhibit marked preferences for individuals with relatively rare ornaments.
Eye contact can be used to establish and strengthen emotional bonds, but depending on the socio-cultural context, looking directly into another person's eyes can be very intimidating.
It seems that the fear of death is not unique to our species. The responses of some animals in the face of death may be associated with emotions similar to those we experience when we bury our own.
Humans have a series of biases, including survivorship bias. Some of them seem to be adaptive, and others, limitations in our ability to assimilate information.
When we are having a conversation, walking together, or simply sitting next to someone else, our postures and movements are coordinated.
Sickness behaviours are far from being exclusive to humans; they have been found in virtually all animals in which they have been studied.
Oral storytelling may have had evolutionary benefits at both the individual and group levels, and may have conferred evolutionary advantages.
Animal colourations and the patterns they generate provide some of the best examples of evolution by natural selection. One of the most studied aspects has been camouflage.
Embracing an evolutionary perspective thus helps to explain why men and women react differently to certain infectious diseases and to understand (and combat) the strategies of viruses in their relentless evolutionary race to infect and spread among us.
Understanding what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is an old obsession of ours. The most frequent attribute we rely on to justify our supposed superiority is intelligence. Yet, how are we to compare the intelligence of species as different as humans, octopi or dolphins?
Biparental care is observed in less than 10 % of mammals and are often associated to monogamous relationships or immature offspring.
Maternal care comprises many different types of behaviours that, perhaps most prominently, include diverse ways to feed their young.
For a correct functioning of the brain, it is essential that the number of neurons is the appropriate one: neither more nor less.
Mr. Smith is an exemplary citizen: a caring father, a loving husband and a respected doctor, always eager to help fellow humans.
Biology has been and still is used to justify discriminatory practices against groups of people, but reality is always more passionately complex than the dualistic human logic is willing to accept.
From the simplest of cells to the first bands of hominids treading on two legs across the African savannah, the history of life in this planet is based on cooperation.
We live in an age of contradictions. It might well be the age we land on Mars, rule over our own DNA, or fuse two atoms to recreate a star. Alas, it is also the age of Trump, climate change denial, or the spending of millions of euros on pseudosciences such as homeopathy.
[caption id="attachment_18596" align="alignleft" width="320"] 2007 commemorative stamp with the face of the physiologist and physician Hans Selye, on the occasion of the one hundred anniversary of his birth. / Mètode[/caption] It's
Apart from a keystone ingredient to a healthy gut, microbiota also seem to communicate with our brains.
What do you see in the picture accompanying this article? The answer will probably be: «two dalmatian dogs, sitting and looking at the front». But they are nothing but black spots over a white background.
For a long time it was considered that emotions were mere physiological responses, basic processes, phylogenetically ancient, where the origin of «primitive» behaviour lies. In short, emotions were considered animal
L’envelliment és una disminució de l’eficiència de les nostres funcions fisiològiques que, en cas de no morir abans per causes externes, conduirà finalment a la mort.