The Show Place

Planning and worrying about the future has always been considered an exclusively human activity, but now at least one species of bird has also been found to plan for tomorrow. The finding also raises the intriguing possibility that, like humans, birds may get anxious about the future. Research published today (22 February) in the journal Nature shows that western scrub-jays are able to plan for future food shortages by caching food.

Flexibly drawing inferences about the intentions of other individuals in order to cooperate in complex tasks is a basic part of everyday life that we humans take for granted. [...]

If you point to hidden food, dogs often grasp what you are trying to tell them.

Research shows that rats are capable of reflecting on their own mental processes; first time ever shown for a non-primate species, opens new areas of study
Athens, Ga. – Let’s say a college student enters a classroom to take a test. The student probably already has an idea how he or she will do—knowledge available before actually taking out a pencil. But do animals possess the same ability to think about what they know or don’t know?

Whip spiders, considered by many to be creepy-crawly, are giving new meaning to the term touchy-feely.

In two species of whip spiders, or amblypygids, mothers caress their young with long feelers and siblings stick together in social groups until they reach sexual maturity. This is surprising behavior for these arachnids, long-thought to be purely aggressive and anti-social, according to a Cornell researcher.

Unlike most of our sensory systems that detect only one type of stimuli, our sense of smell works double duty, detecting both chemical and mechanical stimuli to improve how we smell, according to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers in the March issue of Nature Neuroscience.

A team of engineers have set a small robot climbing walls in order to compare how natural and artificial snail slimes work. [...]
A snail's slime acts as both a glue and a lubricant, allowing the snail to crawl up walls and across ceilings without falling off. [...]

brian wrote:Just a note to let everyone know to look for a new show on Discovery called PLANET EARTH. It started last night. The footage is incredible!!!

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pl ... earth.html

... Dr Chris Lowry, lead author on the paper from Bristol University, said: “These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health. They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt.”