Researchers must be more careful with the language they use when describing the relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia to avoid causing misinformation and panic in the public, according to a Canadian researcher. In a Perspective the researcher writes the epidemiological evidence does not support the conclusion that cannabis use causes schizophrenia. Instead the author writes […]
Tag: communication
How Sperm whales speak
Sperm whales learn different ‘dialects’ of their ‘click’ sounds through cultural learning, a method of learning found in both Orcas and humans, say researchers. This reinforces the idea that the same processes responsible for the formation of human cultures can operate in animal societies. Sperm whales live in clans – groups of families that can […]
Language evolves faster in isolated populations
Changes in genetics and language follow similar patterns as human population disperse, however language is able to spontaneously change in isolated populations. Both genetics and language change over time as small mutations in genes or phonemes, like the ‘k’ sound in ‘cat’ or ‘skill’, accumulate or are lost. Additionally both language and genetics change by […]
The eyes (and the ears) have it
A new study shows that horses rely on both the eyes and the ears of fellow horses in order to understand where their attention is directed. Horses were presented with a life-sized photograph of a horse that was pointing toward one of two buckets full of food. They tended to choose the bucket toward which […]
Honey bee eavesdropping could assess conservation efforts
The famous ‘waggle dance’ that bees use to tell each other about the best foraging grounds could be used to measure the success of conservation programs, according to new research. Scientists ‘eavesdropped’ on 5,484 bee dances in a mixed urban-rural area and found that the best forage was located in a particular nearby nature reserve, […]
