Why do animals like to play? Scientists have often used the word play simply to describe any behavior that does not have any apparent adaptive function. In The Animal Mind, James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould describe play as an “apparently purposeless activity with no immediate adaptive goal, utilizing species-typical motor programs that are [...]

By Jason G. Goldman and Matt Soniak Humans have a complicated relationship with our non-human cousins. Some animals we invite into our homes, and treat as members of our families. Indeed, in November of this year singer Fiona Apple made headlines when she announced that she would cancel the South American segment of her tour [...]

The chimpanzee’s clever use of sticks to fish for termites is fairly well known. In 1964, Jane Goodall announced her groundbreaking discovery to the world, writing in the journal Nature, “During three years in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanganyika, East Africa, I saw chimpanzees use natural objects as tools on many occasions. These [...]

Here are my Science Seeker Editor’s Selections: Why does music move us so? In her inaugural post at National Geographic’s new blog salon Phenomena, Virginia Hughes explores this question by discussing a fascinating new study. Is music just auditory cheesecake, or is there more to it? “One morning, I awoke convinced that science was the [...]

While second nature to many of us, driving a car is actually a fairly complex process. At its most stripped down version, first you sit in the driver’s seat, then you start the engine, then you shift into gear, and then you must simultaneously steer while keeping your foot on the gas pedal. That doesn’t [...]

While natural selection works operates over an individual’s ability to survive, sexual selection operates over an individual’s ability to mate and successfully sire offspring. In other words, sexual selection is a process through which individuals of a given species struggle to be more reproductively successful. It works in two primary ways, first identified by Charles [...]

Here are my Science Seeker Editor’s Selections for the past week: Can Dogs Use Human Emotional Expressions to Identify Which Box Contains Food? New research from the Tomasello lab, ably covered at the Companion Animal Psychology blog. Can having more money make you a worse parent? At the Science of Relationships blog, Samantha Joel explains [...]

After being knocked out for a week by a flu (don’t procrastinate on those vaccines, like I did) and coming back to a veritable avalanche of new data and (American) Thanksgiving, things are a little busy around here. So, to keep you busy between carving up turkeys and decorating with gourds, and because I haven’t [...]

In 1988, a three-year-old child is led into a brightly colored testing room in a psychology department in Bloomington, Indiana. A small toy is brought out and put onto a table in front of the child. The toy was wooden, blue, about two inches square, and U-shaped. “This is a dax.” The researchers picked a [...]

Here are my Science Seeker Editor’s Selections for the past week: At Mind Hacks, Vaughan Bell shares a beautiful work by art by Victorian cartoonist George Cruikshank: A devil of a headache. Does eating turkey really make you sleepy? In a short, fun video, Ferris Jabr explains the science of Thanksgiving tiredness. “As it turns [...]