A baby elephant and its mother were rescued by conservation workers after they got stuck in the mud of Kapani Lagoon in Zambia. Conservation workers from South Luangwa Conservation Society, who normally have a policy of leaving nature to fend for itself as much as possible, unless the problem was created by humans. A baby elephant and its mother were rescued by conservation workers after they go…
International wildlife trade group Traffic says that more elephant tusks were seized in 2011 than in any year since 1989, when the ivory trade was banned. Traffic said elephants have had a “horrible year”, with 23 tones of ivory seized – representing at least 2,500 dead animals. Trade in ivory was banned in 1989 to save elephants from extinction. But it has continued illegally b…
…not believe that he has any comprehension of the words that he is saying. Instead, they think that the elephant took up talking as a way to bond with his human companions. Between the ages of five and 12, Koshik was the only elephant at Everland Zoo, and the researchers said that this was a crucial period for elephant development. Dr. Angela Stoeger explained: “Humans were his only social co…
Scientists have unraveled the mystery of the elephant’s long pregnancy. A quirk of biology allows the unborn calf to develop in the womb for almost two years (22 months), giving it the brain power it needs to survive from birth. The research, detailed in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, will help elephant breeding programmes in zoos. It may also lead to the development of a contraceptive…
The elephant dung coffee is made from beans eaten and digested by elephants living on a reserve in Thailand. When animals pass the beans in their excrement, they are harvested, cleaned up and processed into coffee grinds. The resulting brew is said to be floral and chocolaty, the taste containing notes of “milk chocolate, nutty, earthy with hints of spice and red berries”. Regular coffee drinkers…
A heard of grieving elephants gathers round the lifeless body of Lola, a three-month-old calf, after she died of a heart defect. Lola was due to receive groundbreaking surgery for her condition but passed away during a preliminary scan. Keepers at Munich’s Hellabrunn Zoo decided to return Lola’s body to the enclosure so mother Panang, 22, could say her goodbyes in peace. Afterwards the rest…
Spanish affiliate of the conservation group WWF has removed King Juan Carlos as its honorary president for going on an elephant hunting trip in Botswana. The WWF’s Spanish chapter voted overwhelmingly to abolish the post, a statement said, adding that the safari did not sit well with WWF goals. King Juan Carlos was widely criticized after news of the trip emerged in April, in the middle of…
Scientists at the University of Cambridge suggest that abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts. The researchers found the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters. The study, published in the journal Science, suggested addiction is in part a “disorder of the brain”. Other experts said the non-addic…
…In another, males were locked up with females that had already mated and which thus roundly rejected the males’ attempts at sex. Offered either their normal food slurry or a version charged with 15% alcohol, the mated males avoided the alcohol, whereas the sexually deprived males went on a comparative bender. The team then went on a hunt for a chemical that could tie the two parts of this st…
A new research found that young people who smoke cannabis run the risk of a significant and irreversible reduction in their IQ. The findings come from a study of around 1,000 people in New Zealand. An international team found those who started using cannabis below the age of 18 – while their brains were still developing – suffered a drop in IQ. A UK expert said the research might expl…
…e following a corruption probe linked to his son-in-law, Inaki Urdangarin. It comes as fears rise that Spain will become the latest member of the eurozone to beg for a financial bailout – as its 10-year yield’s creep perilously close to the 7% level which saw Ireland, Portugal and Greece receiving a handout. The royal holiday last week would have remained secret if the king had not tri…
Five elephants have been killed after being hit by a passenger train in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. The animals were hit when their herd was crossing railway tracks in the Rambha forest area, a railway spokesman, RN Mohapatra, said. The state’s wildlife department said its warning asking trains to slow down because elephants were moving in the area was ignored. Nearly 300 elephants…
…le to clone a woolly mammoth within five years after finding well-preserved bone marrow in a thigh bone recovered from permafrost soil in Siberia For scientists involved in the research since the late 1990s, finding nuclei with undamaged mammoth genes has been a challenge. Mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago. The discovery in August in Siberia has increased the chances of a successful c…
A preliminary research suggests that web addiction is reflected in brain changes similar to those hooked on drugs or alcohol addiction. Experts in China scanned the brains of 17 young web addicts and found disruption in the way their brains were wired up. The researchers say the discovery, published in Plos One, could lead to new treatments for addictive behaviour. Internet addiction is a clinica…
…provides the first direct evidence of how alcohol makes people feel good.” The researchers used PET imaging (positron emission tomography) to observe the immediate effects of alcohol in the brains of 13 heavy drinkers and 12 matched “control” subjects who were not heavy drinkers. Scientists have discovered that drinking alcohol releases feel-good chemicals in an area of the human brain often ref…
…t examined the brains on autopsy found that participants who had high total cholesterol levels (over 224 mg/dL) in mid- to late life were seven times more likely than those with low cholesterol (under 173 mg/dL) to have the beta-amyloid plaques in their brain when they died a decade or two later. Eating low-fat or fat-free dairy products and limiting your intake of red meat can help lower choleste…
Sasha, a five-year-old boy from UK, has been raised by his parents, who kept his gender secret, as a “gender neutral” child. From the moment Sasha was born, Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper have been at pains not to lumber their son with the stereotyping they fear that gender brings. The parents simply called him “the infant” and kept his gender a secret from all but a few close friends and relative…
…g strong abdominal pains. The mother, who lives in a rural area of the state, had no ultra-sound scans during her pregnancy and only found out about the abnormality minutes before the baby was born at 1:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Claudionor Assis de Vasconcelos said: “When doctors scanned her they realized that the baby had two heads and that a normal birth would be a great risk both for mother an…
Experts from Edinburgh University found that exercising in your 70’s may stop your brain from shrinking and showing the signs of ageing linked to dementia. Brain scans of 638 people past the age of retirement showed those who were most physically active had less brain shrinkage over a three-year period. Exercise did not have to be strenuous – going for a walk several times a week sufficed,…
…h Professor of Anthropology at Florida State, told Science Daily . “These may have provided the neurological underpinnings for some of his visuospatial and mathematical abilities, for instance.” Using 14 recently discovered pictures of the genius’ brain, Dean Falk and her colleagues were able to describe Albert Einstein’s entire cerebral cortex. Albert Einstein’s extraordinary g…
…ntal lobes, associated with higher level thinking, before they spread across the globe. Eiluned Pearce of Oxford University decided to check this theory. She compared the skulls of 32 Homo sapiens and 13 Neanderthal skulls. She found that Neanderthals had significantly larger eye sockets – on average 6 mm longer from top to bottom. Although this seems like a small amount, she said that it wa…
…ainst the walls of the artery and enmeshes the clot in the wires, allowing doctors to pull the clot back out of the groin. Two similar devices were compared with the current coil methods. One trial of 113 patients showed 58% had good brain function after three months, compared with 33% of those treated with the coil method, as well as a lower death rate. Another study in 178 patients showed almost…
…wed the majority of men did feel more relaxed straight after sex. 80% of men said they felt able to drift off without any problems after making love, compared with just 46% of women. They were amongst 10,000 adults surveyed by organizers of The Vitality Show, Europe’s largest health and beauty exhibition. The survey also found 48% of men had actually fallen asleep during the act itself. And…
…rder a dog or chimp standing with its back to the objects, to fetch the correct one. If it did as asked, it was given some food as a reward. Babies are capable of following such orders from the age of 14 months, suggesting the task is relatively simple, at least for the human brain. In the study, the dogs did better than the chimps, despite the chimpanzee’s brain being the more similar to the hum…
Human brain actually has 86 billion neurons, not 100 billion, as previously thought, according to a Brazilian neuroscientist. With the help of colleagues, Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel found out the true figure in a rather grisly manner – by turning four brains into “brain soup” and counting the number of cell nuclei belonging to neurons. The brains belonged to four adult males aged 50, 51, 54 and…
Hilaria Baldwin joins husband Alec at Cannes Film Festival 2013 to promote his documentary Seduced and AbandonedAlec Baldwin famously lost his cool with film producer Harvey Weinstein at last year's Cannes film festival. But it appears that Alec Baldwin, 55, has managed to keep his…
Jennifer Lawrence wears blue body paint to portray X-Men's MystiqueJennifer Lawrence has hit the X-Men set like a bolt from the blue and her fans have been given a glimpse of the 22-year-old star in all her painted glory as she reprises her…
Ray Manzarek dead: The Doors co-founder dies aged 74 after long battle with cancerRay Manzarek, keyboardist and founder member of the 1960s rock band The Doors, has died after a long battle with cancer at the age of 74. He formed the band with lead singer…
Christine White dies in a nursing home in Washington at the age of 86Actress Christine White, who played a calming wife on a classic 1963 Twilight Zone episode that featured a young William Shatner, has died at age 86. Christine White…
Macaulay Culkin at risk of lung cancerMacaulay Culkin is said to be smoking a whopping 60 cigarettes a day, leading to new health fears for the troubled former child star. “He's put his nicotine addiction into…
Eurovision 2013: Azerbaijan inquiry into "nul points" for RussiaAzerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has ordered an inquiry into why his country gave Russia "nul points" at Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Voters and the official Azerbaijan…
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