evolution

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

Hinting At The Evolution Of Human Language – Bat Pups Babble And Bat Moms Use Baby Talk

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Ahana Aurora Fernandez, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin “Mamama,” “dadada,” “bababa” – parents usually welcome with enthusiasm the sounds of a baby’s babble. Babbling is the first milestone when learning to speak. All typically developing infants babble, no matter which language they’re learning. Speech, the oral output of language, requires precise control over the lips, tongue and jaw to produce one of the basic speech subunits: the syllable, like “ba,” “da,” “ma.” Babbling is characterized by universal features – for example, repetition of syllables and use of rhythm. It lets an infant practice and playfully learn how to control their vocal apparatus to correctly produce the desired syllables. More than anything else, language defines human nature. But its evo...

From Football Game To Entertainment Extravaganza – The Super Bowl’s Evolution

In just 50 years, the Super Bowl has become one of the biggest “shared experiences” in American culture, up there with attending religious services, voting in presidential elections and playing Pokémon Go. But curiously, many of the tens of millions who tune in don’t actually want to watch football. Perhaps it’s because the game itself has never been all that exciting, with the outcome rarely a close call. As a response, it seems the NFL has created a thriving, celebratory atmosphere around the game. So how did a battle of gridiron gladiators become second fiddle to a flashy spectacle of singers, fireworks and advertisements? The Super (boring) Bowl The Super Bowl is generally super boring – at least, in terms of the typically lopsided score. The game is so boring that a rehash of all 5...

Evolution On The Smallest Of Scales Smooths Out The Patchwork Patterns Of Where Plants And Animals Live

The Douglas fir is a tall iconic pine tree in Western North America forming a forest that winds unbroken from the Western spine of British Columbia all the way to the Mexican cordillera. The environmental conditions of Canada and Mexico are obviously very different, but even on much smaller scales – say, the top of a mountain compared with a valley below it – the rainfall, temperature, soil nutrients and dozens of other factors can vary quite a bit. The Douglas fir grows well in so many of these places that it turns a dramatically varied landscape into one smooth, continuous forest complete with all the species it supports. I am an ecologist and used to think that the Douglas fir was simply a hardy tree, rarely hemmed in by environmental conditions or other species. But recent research do...