Yogi Bear always claimed that he was smarter than the average bear, but the average bear appears to be smarter than once thought. Psychologists Jennifer Vonk of Oakland University and Michael J. Beran of Georgia State University have taken a testing methodology commonly used for primates and shown not only that the methodology can be [...]

Here are my Science Seeker Editor’s Selections for the past week: Growing Up on Zoloft – David Dobbs Talking Drugs, Depression, and Identity With Katherine Sharpe Why do we (accidentally) name babies for hurricanes? Elizabeth Preston explains. It’s a complicated topic, and Christian Jarrett navigates it brilliantly. Girlie scientist role models could do more harm [...]

Last week (June 5, 2012), the lucky citizens of Earth were in just the right place to watch Venus’s transit across the face of the sun. While this occurred just eight years ago as well, it won’t happen again for more than a century. The next time any Earthling will be able to watch Venus [...]

Here are my Science Seeker Editor’s Selections for the past week: At Addiction Inbox, Dirk Hanson makes a bold statement: “It’s getting harder to interpret genetics studies, and that’s a good thing.” Find out why: High-Risk Haplotypes in Smokers. G r e a t e r / l e t t e r / s [...]

Just a quick announcement that I’ll be on a short segment of The Aaron Rand Show, on Montreal’s CJAD 800 radio station this afternoon tomorrow afternoon, June 6, around 3:45pm eastern (12:45pm pacific). The topic will be dog guilt. If you’re in or around Montreal, I expect you can simply tune into AM 800. For [...]

“I walked into the house, and he was acting strange. I could tell he had done something wrong,” she told me. I pressed for further details. “His head was down, and he wasn’t making eye contact,” she explained. “Then, I found it. Under the bed.” She had spent weeks training her dog, Henry, not to [...]

Here are my Science Seeker Editor’s Selections for the past week: When do so-called “killer bees” stop killing? At “The Beast, The Bard, and The Bot,” learn about when africanized honey bees turn nice. At the Scientific American Observations blog, Michael Moyer asks the Facebook IPO question we’re all thinking: What Will Make Eduardo Saverin [...]

Getting around is complicated business. Every year, animals traverse miles of sky and sea (and land), chasing warmth or food or mates as the planet rotates and the seasons change. And with such precision! Some animals rely on visual landmarks, others on subtle changes in magnetic fields, and yet others match their internal clocks with [...]

Here are my Science Seeker Editor’s Selections for the past week: “Kill Whitey,” writes David Dobbs. “It’s the right thing to do.” Find out what this has to do with moral psychology. What if you could remember every single day of your life in complete detail? Christian Jarrett describes one such man. Ferris Jabr has [...]

When is a yawn just a yawn? When is a yawn more than a yawn? Contagious yawning – the increase in likelihood that you will yawn after watching or hearing someone else yawn – has been of particular interest to researchers in fields as varied as primatology, developmental psychology, and psychopathology. At first, scientists thought [...]