MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'chimpanzees'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:29:32 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1642572&cid=t_116816_87_f&fid=34825&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wesleyjsmith.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F07%2Fchimps-not-chumps_21.html I was on a radio show today and told about an op/ed piece in the NY Times by Steve Ross, who is involved with cognitive research of primates with the Lincoln Zoo, that, the host implied, seemed to go along with the ethics of the Great Ape Project. I hadn't read it, so I thought I should check it out.Happily, at first it seemed not to be so. From the column:A survey that I and several colleagues conducted in 2005 found that one in three visitors to the Lincoln Park Zoo assumed that chimpanzees are not endangered. Yet more than 90 percent of these same visitors understood that gorillas and orangutans face serious threats to their survival. And many of those who imagined chimpanzees to be safe reported that they based their thinking on the prevalence of chimps in advertisements, on television... Secondhand Smoke blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1642572 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:14:00 +0100 1642572 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1637685&cid=t_116816_87_f&fid=34825&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wesleyjsmith.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F07%2Fmaking-chimps-human.html The zeal to demote humans into apes, and thereby destroy human exceptionalism, continues. The National Geographic has an extended article in the April 08 issue--which I saw in the dentist's office today--entitled "Almost Human." It is about some chimps--all given cute names in the article--some of which sharpen sticks with which to kill small monkeys called bush babies for consumption. The piece is interesting, and typical of the genre, overflowing with anthropomorphism. But this quote is why I bring the article up. From the story:The taboo on anthropomorphizing seems odd, given that the closeness--evolutionary, genetic, and behavioral--between chimpanzees and humans is the very reason we study chimps so obsessively. The answer is that when observation and reporting slips into anthropomorp... Secondhand Smoke blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1637685 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:19:00 +0100 1637685 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1443299&cid=t_116816_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F14%2Fthe-endowment-effect-in-chimpanzees-abstract%2F Sarah F. Brosnan, Owen D. Jones, Susan P. Lambeth, Mary Catherine Mareno, Amanda S. Richardson, and Steven Schapiro, posted their article, “Endowment Effects in Chimpanzees” 17 Current Biology, 1704-1707 (October 9, 2007) on SSRN. Here’s the abstract. * * * Human behavior is not always consistent with standard rational choice predictions. The much-investigated variety of apparent deviations from rational choice predictions provides a promising arena for the merger of economics and biology. Although little is known about the extent to which other species also exhibit these seemingly irrational patterns of human decision-making and choice behavior, similarities across species would suggest a common evolutionary root to the phenomena. The present study investigated whether ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1443299 Thu, 15 May 2008 02:42:29 +0100 1443299 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1400771&cid=t_116816_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F26%2Fa-new-theory-of-the-endowment-effect-abstract%2F Owen Jones and Sarah Brosnan have posted their article, “Law, Biology, and Property: A New Theory of the Endowment Effect” 48 William & Mary Law Review (2008) on SSRN. We’ve included the abstract below. * * * Recent work at the intersection of law and behavioral biology has suggested numerous contexts in which legal thinking could benefit by integrating knowledge from behavioral biology. In one of those contexts, behavioral biology may help to provide theoretical foundation for, and potentially increased predictive power concerning, various psychological traits relevant to law. This Article describes an experiment that explores that context. The paradoxical psychological bias known as the endowment effect puzzles economists, skews market behavior, impedes effi... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1400771 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:01:55 +0100 1400771 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1108784&cid=t_116816_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F203562359%2F Sorry, no monkeying around jokes. But Ugandan and French scientists have for months been observing the behavior of chimpanzees whose aptitude for self-medication could help humans discover new drugs, writes Agence-France Presse. Their ability to treat ailments by adjusting diet has long been observed by scientists, but this is “the first time that a chimpanzee observation aimed at discovering new medicine for humans is conducted within a scientific framework,” says Sabrina Krief, a French veterinary and professor at the Paris National History Museum. The University of Makerere in Kampala is conducting the project in partnership with the museum, France’s National Centre for Scientific Research and the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Should a new drug be discovered through the p... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1108784 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:37:36 +0100 1108784 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1007222&cid=t_116816_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F11%2F6%2Fare-we-as-patient-and-smart-as-we-think-we-are.html By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.DOh Lord, deliver me from temptation…but not quite yet.Confessions, St. Augustine, 4th century (free translation from the Latin). When we asked ourselves what characterizes us as human we used to answer with self-assurance,” it’s the language, stupid”. But now we know that language was not an abrupt development that happened after we diverged from the chimpanzees 4 million years ago. The chimps have the capacity to communicate with symbols such as pictures, colors and letters. But they can’t vocalize. For this they would need to undergo the anatomical descent of the voice box, or vocal cords, which we humans were lucky enough to have. Well chimps, maybe in a few millions years you may get lucky…What about patience?I am using &ldq... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1007222 Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:47:17 +0100 1007222 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=974169&cid=t_116816_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F10%2F24%2Fgramma-lucy-what-wonderful-lessons-you-taught-us.html By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.D Last Sunday we visited an exhibit of Lucy, the hominid (human-like) ape that is the mother of us all, at the Museum of Natural History in Houston , Texas . Who was Lucy? Lucy was an early hominid discovered in the Afar region of Ethiopia . She lived 3.2 millions years ago, and had the anatomical features of half human (the lower part of the body) and of an ape (the upper part). In a word, she represents the transition from ape to human. I stood mesmerized in front of the bony remains that made up her tiny skeleton. Here was a 25 year old female when she died, about 4 feet tall, weighing about 60 lbs. Older hominid fossils have been unearthed; other contenders challenge her central place on my, and your, family tree as a common ancestor to our genus, Homo. But Lucy,... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=974169 Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:12:27 +0100 974169 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=588458&cid=t_116816_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2F114004074%2F Today was an all-autism all-the-time kind of day: Another professor at my college came into the classroom where I erasing Latin conjugations from the dry erase board and we started to talk about our kids; she and I both started teaching at our school at the same time and last year she saw me run out more than once from a new faculty seminar in a state of great haste, after a frantic phone call from the bus driver or the babysitter. “When did you know he was autistic?” she asked and I mentioned how Charlie was diagnosed just around the time of his second birthday, and my sense that now—due to increased understanding of the very early autism phenotype—-he might well have been diagnosed in his first year. Another conversation, this time with a former student, ensued af... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=588458 Fri, 04 May 2007 06:41:26 +0100 588458