X

Posts

April 17, 2013

+
5:09 PM | Supervolcanoes in the Ancient World
Supervolcanoes are volcanic eruptions thousands of times more powerful than normal volcanic eruptions.  These types of eruptions cause significant local ecological disturbances and have profound effects on global climate.  On the scale of geological time they occur quite frequently. Volcanologists categorize eruptions by the amount of volcanic ash ejected upon eruption using the Volcanic Explosivity [...]
Scientific American - Guest Blog
General Science

February 13, 2013

+
11:30 AM | The Great (Ape) Taxonomy Debate
As an undergraduate studying primatology, I was always confused about great ape and human taxonomy.  Were we great apes?  Or were we hominids?  Or were we both?  What was the consensus and was there logical and scientific reasons for lumping or splitting?  To be completely honest, I never really resolved this internal dilemma.  In hindsight [...]
Scientific American - Guest Blog
General Science

January 16, 2013

+
12:06 PM | Universality of Preadaptation for the Human Condition
I have often wondered about whether key human adaptations (e.g., bipedalism, large brain size, opposable thumbs) represented universal traits for the development of high intelligence and technological complexity.  In The Social Conquest of Earth (2012) by evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson, he posits that they are.  Wilson argues that highly intelligent, technologically complex species have [...]
Scientific American - Guest Blog
General Science

December 13, 2012

+
12:50 PM | Are Western Chimpanzees a New Species of Pan?
What if I told you there were populations of chimpanzees that made spears to hunt, lived in caves, and loved playing in water?  These are behaviors usually associated with ancient humans, not chimpanzees.  However, recent research has revealed that there are populations of western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) that engage in all of these behaviours, [...]
Scientific American - Guest Blog
General Science
1
4 Results