Anthropology News, Science News

Troy, N.Y. – Since the idea of using DNA to create faster, smaller,
and more powerful computers originated in 1994, scientists have been
scrambling to develop successful ways to use genetic code for
computation. Now, new research from a professor at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute suggests that if we want to carry out artificial
computations, all we have to do is literally look around.

Assistant
Professor of Cognitive Science Mark Changizi has begun to develop a
technique to turn our eyes and visual system into a programmable
computer. His findings are reported in the latest issue of the journal Perception.

Harnessing
the computing power of our visual system, according to Changizi,
requires visually representing a computer program in such a way that
when an individual views the representation, the visual system
naturally carries out the computation and generates a perception.

Ideally, we would be able to glance at a complex visual stimulus
(the software program), and our visual system (the hardware) would
automatically and effortlessly generate a perception, which would
inform us of the output of the computation, Changizi said.

Changizi
has begun successfully applying his approach by developing visual
representations of digital circuits. A large and important class of
computations used in calculators, computers, phones, and most of
today’s electronic products, digital circuits are constructed from
assemblies of logic gates, and always have an output value of zero or
one.

"A digital circuit needs wire in order to transmit
signals to different parts of the circuit. The ‘wire’ in a visual
representation of a digital circuit is part of the drawing itself,
which can be perceived only in two ways," said Changizi, who created
visual stimuli to elicit perceptions of an object tilted toward (an
output of one) or away (an output of zero) from the viewer. "An input
to a digital circuit is a zero or one. Similarly, an input to a visual
version of the circuit is an unambiguous cue to the tilt at that part
of the circuit."

Changizi used simple drawings of
unambiguous boxes as inputs for his visually represented digital
circuits. The positioning and shading of each box indicates which
direction the image is tilted.

He also created visual
representations of the logic gates NOT, which flips a circuit’s state
from 0 to 1 or vice versa; OR, which outputs 1 if one or both inputs
are 1; and AND, which outputs 1 only if both inputs are 1.

"Visually
represented NOT gates flip a box’s perceived tilt as you work through a
circuit, and OR gates are designed with transparency cues so that the
elicited perception is always that the box is tilted toward you, unless
overridden," Changizi said. "The AND gate is similarly designed with
transparency cues, but contrary to the OR gate, it will always favor
the perception that it is tilted away from you."

By
perceptually walking through Changizi’s visual representation of a
digital circuit, from the inputs downward to the output, our visual
system will naturally carry out the computation so that the "output" of
the circuit is the way we perceive the final box to tilt, and thus a
one or zero.

"Not only may our visual system one day give DNA
computation a run for its money, but visual circuits have many
potential advantages for teaching logic," Changizi said. "People are
notoriously poor logical reasoners — someday visual circuits may enable
logic-poor individuals to ’see their way’ through complex logical
formulae."

Although Changizi’s visual stimuli are successful
at eliciting viewer perception, he says there are still serious
difficulties to overcome. The visual logic gates do not always transmit
the appropriate perception at the output, and it can be difficult to
perceive one’s way through these visual circuits, although Changizi
argues we may have to train our visual system to work through them,
similar to the way we need to be taught to read.

Additionally, building larger circuits will require smaller or more specialized visual circuit components.

"My
hope is that other perception and illusion experts will think of novel
visual components which serve to mimic some digital circuit component,
thereby enriching the powers of visual circuits," Changizi said.

Source

Although Second Hand Smoke (SHS) is widely
accepted as a risk factor for coronary heart disease, there have been
few studies investigating the association of SHS and stroke risk. In a
new study, published in the September 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers report on evidence of increased risk of stroke for spouses of smokers.

For
those who never smoked, being married to a current smoker was
associated with a 42% increase in risk of stroke compared to being
married to a never-smoker. For former smokers, being married to a
current smoker was associated with a 72% increase in risk compared to
being married to a never-smoker. Being married to a former smoker was
not associated with any increase in risk compared to being married to a
never-smoker. This suggests that although stroke risk is elevated if
your spouse smokes, that risk is eliminated if your spouse stops
smoking. For example, never-smokers married to former smokers had
nearly the same stroke risk as never-smokers married to never-smokers.
Current smokers had significantly elevated stroke rates compared to
never-smokers, and spousal smoking status did not affect this risk
among current smokers.

The data were drawn from the Health
and Retirement Study (HRS), a National Institute on Aging sponsored
longitudinal survey of U.S. adults nationwide aged ≥50 years and their
spouses. Enrollments occurred in 1992, 1993, 1998 and 2004 and final
analyses included 16,225 respondents. Spousal smoking status was
assessed at the time of enrollment and participants were followed an
average of 9.1 years after enrollment for the incidence of stroke. All
models were adjusted for age; race; Hispanic ethnicity; Southern
birthstate; parental education; paternal occupation class; years of
education; baseline income; baseline wealth; obesity; overweight;
alcohol use; and diagnosed hypertension, diabetes or heart disease.

Recent
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) findings for
women also suggested that a husband’s smoking increased the wife’s risk
of stroke, but in NHANES this applied only among smoking women and not
among nonsmoking women. The current study found that never-smoking
women married to currently smoking husbands had an increased stroke
risk, compared to never-smoking women married to never-smoking
husbands. This apparent discrepancy may arise from sampling
differences, where NHANES participants are younger and stroke rates are
lower than in HRS. Because nonsmokers have lower overall stroke risks,
spousal smoking may increase stroke risk for current smokers at younger
ages but emerge as a detectable risk factor for nonsmokers only at
older ages.

Writing in the article, M. Maria Glymour, ScD,
Harvard School of Public Health, states, "These findings indicate that
spousal smoking increases stroke risk among nonsmokers and former
smokers. The health benefits of quitting smoking likely extend beyond
individual smokers to affect their spouses, potentially multiplying the
benefits of smoking cessation."

With thanks Elsevier Health Sciences

Former EPA official highlights shortcomings of current federal oversight

Washington,
DC — Nanotechnology will significantly change virtually every facet of
the way we live. The next president has the opportunity to shape these
changes and to ensure that nanotechnology’s benefits will be maximized
and its risks identified and controlled. A new report by former EPA
official J. Clarence (Terry) Davies lays out a clear roadmap for the
next presidential administration and describes the immediate and longer
term steps necessary to deal with the current shortcomings of
nanotechnology oversight.

"The
future of the technology is in the hands of the incoming
administration. The shape of the future will depend significantly on
what the new government does," says Davies, whose report,
Nanotechnology Oversight: An Agenda for the New Administration, was
released today.

In the report Davies calls for the White
House and federal agency policymakers to maximize the use of existing
laws to improve nanotechnology oversight. Such measures include
defining nanomaterials as "new" substances under federal toxics and
food laws, thereby enabling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to consider the novel
qualities and effects of nanomaterials. Davies also calls for federal
pesticide and workplace safety laws to be used to protect against
potential adverse impacts of nanomaterials.

Immediate policy
changes, however, need to be followed by longer-term changes to
existing oversight laws. For example, two major high-exposure
applications of nanotechnology – cosmetics and dietary supplements –
are essentially unregulated. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
needs to be amended to deal with these applications. Other laws
important to nanotechnology, such as the Toxic Substances Control Act
and the Consumer Product Safety Act, also need radical revision, Davies
says.

Without increased funding and staffing for relevant agencies many of the actions called for in the report will not be possible.

"In
order to ensure the safe development of this rapidly advancing
technology, which is projected will enable 15 percent of globally
manufactured goods worth $2.6 trillion by 2014, there needs to be an
increase in nanotechnology risk research monies in the fiscal year 2009
budget to $100 million and in FY 2010 to $150 million," says David
Rejeski, the director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

The
report highlights the importance of creating sensible nanotechnology
oversight policies that will help ensure the safe and sustainable
application of nanotechnologies to climate change, food security, water
purification, health care, and other pressing global problems.

"Potential
risks of nanoscale materials have already been identified, and for the
world to realize the benefits of this technology, the next
administration must act swiftly and carefully," Rejeski says. "This
will be a challenge, but one that could have limitless opportunities to
improve the world in the 21st century."

The report is available at: www.nanotechproject.org/n/oversight/

Scientists at The University of Manchester are striving to discover
how the body’s natural sugars can be used to create stem cell
treatments for heart disease and nerve damage – thanks to a £370,000
funding boost.

All cells that make up the tissues of the body
– such as skin, liver, brain and blood – are surrounded by a layer of
sugars that coat the cells.

These sugars help the cells to
know what type of cell they are and to respond to the other cells which
surround them and the chemical messages that pass between cells.

Now
Dr Catherine Merry from The School of Materials has been awarded a
prestigious New Investigator Research Grant by the Medical Research
Council (MRC) to investigate how different cells make different sugar
types and to test out theories on how sugars can influence cell
behaviour.

Dr Merry, who is leading the research, said: "At
present, the way in which cells make these sugars is not well
understood. From the little we do know, we believe isolated fragments
of these sugars could be used to instruct cells to behave in particular
ways.

"We also think we might be able to force cells to make
one particular type of sugar and not another, thereby influencing the
way in which that cell grows and interacts with other cells.

"This work is important in helping us understand how the sugars made by the cells change during this process.

"We
also believe our research might suggest how sugars can be used to help
embryonic stem cells grow in the lab – or how they can be instructed to
become cell types which could be of use in human therapies to treat
problems with nerve, heart muscle or blood cells.

"Although
the prospect of creating cells from embryonic stem cells for use in
humans is still a considerable time away, research such as ours helps
move towards this goal."

Dr Merry’s research will take place
over three years in newly refurbished high-tech laboratories in the
Materials Science Centre at the University.

A recent £300,000
upgrade to five laboratories has led to a new biomaterials and tissue
engineering research facility being established – and has helped
transform what was a very small interest in The School of Materials
into a major focus of future work.

The upgrade, funded by the
Royal Society Wolfson Foundation, is paving the way for cutting-edge
research in the fields of molecular biology, stem cell culture and
nanofabrication,

A new confocal microscope that produces
high-resolution 3D optical images has also been installed thanks to
£250,000 funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC).

The new labs in the Materials
Science Centre form part of the UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration,
which was established in 2006 with a £1.5 million grant from the
Northwest Regional Development Agency and involves researchers from
across the university

A team of London scientists have found clues for the potentially
therapeutic benefits of nicotine on learning, memory and attention
while minimising the risk of addiction. The research announced in
Geneva today will assist the search for new drugs for dementia.

The pharmaceutical industry has striven to discover nicotine-like
substances for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Nicotine itself
is difficult to administer by conventional means. The differences
between doses that produce cognitive and toxic effects are small and,
most significantly, there is also high risk of addiction. The balance,
however, between costs and benefits is much more favourable for people
with serious illnesses such as dementia.

“Nicotine, like many other drugs, has multiple effects some of which
are harmful whereas others may be beneficial,” said Professor Ian
Stolerman from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.
Previous research has revealed these cognitive effects in humans and in
laboratory animals. “They are small effects and,” he warned, “for
healthy people they do not outweigh the harmful effects.”

Speaking at Europe’s biggest neuroscience conference, Professor
Stolerman explained that newer substances are based upon the chemical
structure of the nicotine molecule. Research in rats has shown a
nicotine-induced improvement in sustained attention to visual stimuli.

The King’s College team studied the underlying mechanisms that
produced this change and have helped to identify the roles of nicotinic
receptors – the proteins on cells that respond to nicotine – as well as
the involvement of several chemicals in the brain, including dopamine,
noradrenaline, glutamate and serotonin.

“We found several similarities and only small differences between
the cognitive mechanisms and those involved in the addictive effects of
nicotine,” said Professor Stolerman. “The cognitive ‘boost’ that many
smokers experience from nicotine probably contributes to the reason
people smoke cigarettes, so it may not be possible to totally prevent
addiction. Nevertheless, the potential for abuse of a medicine based on
a pure nicotine-like substance is likely to be very small.”

The new knowledge about mechanisms of nicotine action may speed the
discovery of agents that are more effective as cognitive enhancers than
nicotine itself, with longer-lasting effects. “This is a promising
stage in the years of research that have endeavoured to separate the
beneficial from the harmful effects of nicotine,” Professor Stolerman
concluded.

It’s an inevitable truth: as we get older, our muscles deteriorate
and we become weaker. Not only can this be an immensely frustrating
change, but it can also have many other, more serious implications. We
become clumsier and begin to have more falls, often resulting in broken
bones or even more severe injuries. There is wide interest in this
phenomenon, but to date, the majority of research has focussed on
therapies for older patients with advanced symptoms. Now one study, led
by Dr Alexandra Sänger from the University of Salzburg, is taking a new
approach: scientists are examining the effects of different exercise
regimes in menopausal women, with the aim of developing new strategies
for delaying and reducing the initial onset of age related muscle
deterioration. Results will be presented on Monday 7th July at the
Society for Experimental Biology’s Annual Meeting in Marseille [Poster
Session A5].

Dr Sänger’s research group has investigated two
particular methods of physical training. Hypertrophy resistance
training is a traditional approach designed to induce muscle growth
whereas ‘SuperSlow®’ is a more recently devised system which involves
much slower movement and fewer repetitions of exercises, and was
originally introduced especially for beginners and for rehabilitation.
"Our results indicate that both methods increase muscle mass at the
expense of connective and fatty tissue, but contrary to expectations,
the SuperSlow® method appears to have the greatest effect," reveals Dr
Sänger. "These findings will be used to design specific exercise
programmes for everyday use to reduce the risk of injury and thus
significantly contribute to a better quality of life in old age."

The
study focussed on groups of menopausal women aged 45-55 years, the age
group in which muscle deterioration first starts to become apparent.
Groups undertook supervised regimes over 12 weeks, based on each of the
training methods. To see what effect the exercise had, thigh muscle
biopsies were taken at the beginning and end of the regimes, and
microscopically analysed to look for changes in the ratio of muscle to
fatty and connective tissue, the blood supply to the muscle, and
particularly for differences in the muscle cells themselves. "The
results of our experiments have significantly improved our
understanding of how muscles respond to different forms of exercise,"
asserts Dr Sänger. "We believe that the changes that this new insight
can bring to current training systems will have a considerable effect
on the lives of both menopausal and older women," she concludes.

Source

The USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) today
announced that an SRS scientist and other researchers have officially
named the fungus responsible for killing redbay and other trees in the
coastal plains of northeastern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Lead author and Iowa State University Plant Pathologist Tom
Harrington, co-author and SRS Plant Pathologist Stephen Fraedrich, and
Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Researcher D.N. Aghayeva
unveiled the name, Raffaelea lauricola, in an article published in the April-June 2008 issue of Mycotaxon, the international journal of fungal taxonomy and nomenclature.

“Until now, the fungus was known as ‘the laurel wilt pathogen’
because of the devastating disease it causes in redbay trees and other
laurel species like sassafras and avocado trees in the Southeast,” said
Fraedrich, based in Athens, GA. “Now arborists, foresters, researchers,
and regulatory officials have a formal, scientific name and description
of the fungus, as well as a detailed explanation of how the pathogen
compares to similar fungi."

Raffaelea lauricola is one of many species of fungi carried
by ambrosia beetles, a group of highly specialized wood-boring insects
that feed on symbiotic fungi, which they carry from tree to tree in
specialized sacs. The beetles feed on their own special ambrosia fungi,
much as the Greek gods were believed to exist on their "ambrosia." R. lauricola
is the principle ambrosia fungus of an invasive species from Asia, the
redbay ambrosia beetle. R. lauricola is the only known tree pathogen
among the ambrosia fungi and differs from other Raffaelea species in its DNA sequence and spore sizes. The fungus also grows faster than similar fungi.

Ambrosia beetles introduce the fungus into redbay or other laurel
tree species by burrowing into the trees and laying eggs. The fungus
serves as a food source for beetle larvae. The pathogen moves through a
tree’s vessels causing a vascular wilt disease similar to Dutch elm
disease.

In an April 3 press release, SRS announced the first description of
the fungus and its association with the redbay ambrosia beetle and
laurel wilt. The press release, posted online at http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/news/153, provides more information about the fungus and the threat it poses to the laurel family.

Source

Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are
about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment
will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven
to be in mice.

The treatment will involve transfusing
specific white blood cells, called granulocytes, from select donors,
into patients with advanced forms of cancer. A similar treatment using
white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice has previously been highly
successful, curing 100 percent of lab mice afflicted with advanced
malignancies.

Zheng Cui, Ph.D., lead researcher and
associate professor of pathology, will be announcing the study June 28
at the Understanding Aging conference in Los Angeles.

The
study, given the go-ahead by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
will involve treating human cancer patients with white blood cells from
healthy young people whose immune systems produce cells with high
levels of cancer-fighting activity.

The basis of the study
is the scientists’ discovery, published five years ago, of a
cancer-resistant mouse and their subsequent finding that white blood
cells from that mouse and its offspring cured advanced cancers in
ordinary laboratory mice. They have since identified similar
cancer-killing activity in the white blood cells of some healthy humans.

"In
mice, we’ve been able to eradicate even highly aggressive forms of
malignancy with extremely large tumors," Cui said. "Hopefully, we will
see the same results in humans. Our laboratory studies indicate that
this cancer-fighting ability is even stronger in healthy humans."

The
team has tested human cancer-fighting cells from healthy donors against
human cervical, prostate and breast cancer cells in the laboratory –
with surprisingly good results. The scientists say the anti-tumor
response primarily involves granulocytes of the innate immune system, a
system known for fighting off infections.

Granulocytes are
the most abundant type of white blood cells and can account for as much
as 60 percent of total circulating white blood cells in healthy humans.
Donors can give granulocytes specifically without losing other
components of blood through a process called apheresis that separates
granulocytes and returns other blood components back to donors.

In
a small study of human volunteers, the scientists found that
cancer-killing activity in the granulocytes was highest in people under
age 50. They also found that this activity can be lowered by factors
such as winter or emotional stress. They said the key to the success
for the new therapy is to transfuse sufficient granulocytes from
healthy donors while their cancer-killing activities are at their peak
level.

For the upcoming study, the researchers are currently
recruiting 500 local potential donors who are 50 years old or younger
and in good health to have their blood tested. Of those, 100 volunteers
with high cancer-killing activity will be asked to donate white blood
cells for the study. Cell recipients will include 22 cancer patients
who have solid tumors that either didn’t respond originally, or no
longer respond, to conventional therapies. The study will cost $100,000
per patient receiving therapy, and for many patients (those living in
22 states, including North Carolina) the costs may be covered by their
insurance company. There is no cost to donate blood. For general
information about insurance coverage of clinical trials, go to the
American Cancer Society’s web site at www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_6_2x_State_Laws_Regarding_Clinical_Trials.asp.)

For more information about qualifications for donors and participants, go to www.wfubmc.edu/LIFT
(Web site will be available the evening of 6/27.) Cancer-killing
ability in these cells is highest during the summer, so researchers are
hoping to find volunteers who can afford the therapy quickly.

"If the study is effective, it would be another arrow in the quiver of
treatments aimed at cancer," said Mark Willingham, M.D., a
co-researcher and professor of pathology. "It is based on 10 years of
work since the cancer-resistant mouse was first discovered."

Volunteers
who are selected as donors – based on the observed potential
cancer-fighting activity of their white cells – will complete the
apheresis, a two- to three-hour process similar to platelet donation,
to collect their granulocytes. The cancer patients will then receive
the granulocytes through a transfusion – a safe process that has been
used for more than 30 years. Normally, the treatment is used for
patients who have antibiotic-resistant infectious diseases. The
treatment will be given for three to four consecutive days on an
outpatient basis. Up to three donors may be necessary to collect enough
blood product for one study participant.

"The difference
between our study and the traditional white cell therapy is that we’re
selecting the healthy donors based on the cancer-killing ability of
their white blood cells," said Cui. The scientists are calling the
therapy Leukocyte InFusion Therapy (LIFT).

The goal of the
phase II study is to determine whether patients can tolerate a
sufficient amount of transfused granulocytes for the treatment.
Participants will be monitored on a regular basis, and after three
months scientists will evaluate whether the treatment results in clear
clinical benefits for the patients. If this phase of the study is
successful, scientists will expand the study to determine if the
treatment is best suited to certain types of cancer.

Source

A compound in marijuana may be a potent anti-inflammatory agent that won’t get people high, scientists say.

The finding could be a boon to sufferers of arthritis, cirrhosis, and other diseases. Existing drugs can be less effective for some people and can carry side effects, from stomach ulcers to increased risk of heart attacks.

Marijuana supporters have long argued that the plant’s active ingredients, known as cannabinoids, are safe and effective treatments for pain, nausea, and other ailments. y 2015.

The most active cannabinoid—delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC—is known to have anti-inflammatory properties. But it is also responsible for the plant’s psychotropic effects.

Now researchers say that another cannabinoid, called beta-caryophyllene, or (E)-BCP, helps combat inflammation without affecting the brain. (E)-BCP is already part of many people’s daily diets, the researchers note. Foods that are particularly high in the compound include black pepper, oregano, basil, lime, cinnamon, carrots, and celery.

Essential oils from cannabis plants whose leaves and flowers are used to make the marijuana drug contain up to 35 percent (E)-BCP.

But even after decades of cannabis research, scientists hadn’t previously known that the compound had anti-inflammatory properties. Jürg Gertsch of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said "This is because the focus was on the classical cannabinoids [rather than (E)-BCP],"

Lone Receptor
Cannabinoids in marijuana are known to primarily affect two of the many molecular receptors in the human body. The CB1 receptor is found in the brain and central nervous system and is responsible for the high people experience when they smoke pot.

The other receptor, called CB2, is found in tissues in the rest of the body and triggers a cascade of biochemical reactions that can help combat inflammation.

"Our interest is to exploit the pharmacological nature of the CB2 receptor," because it does not have psychotropic side effects, Gertsch explained in an email.

"Targeting the CB2 receptor could be a therapeutic strategy to prevent or treat diseases like Crohn’s disease (inflammation of the intestinal tract), liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis, and therosclerosis."

THC activates both receptors, so it won’t alleviate inflammation without also making people high.

But (E)-BCP affects only the CB2 receptor, according to the new study, which appeard in yesterday’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As part of their research, the scientists engineered a strain of mice that lacked the CB2 receptor. The team then fed the modified mice and normal mice a diet rich in (E)-BCP. When the scientists induced inflammation with chemicals, normal mice experienced an anti-inflammatory effect while the genetically
engineered mice did not.

"This experiment shows that the anti-inflammatory effects are mediated via the CB2 receptor," Gertsch said.

Drug Building Block?
Stephen Safe, director of the Texas A&M University’s Center for Environmental and Genetic medicine, said he is impressed by the team’s results both in mouse cells and in live mice.

"They did a good study," said Safe, who was not involved in the research.

He also noted that a lot of other studies have been finding that fat-soluble chemicals from plants activate many receptors in the body.

"A lot of these [come from plants that] have been used in traditional
medicine," he said. "This is another example of that—but a bit of a
sexy one."

In this case, he noted, Gertsch’s team has identified some "petty good" activators of the CB2 receptor.

"Can they be further developed and modified into better anti-inflammatory drugs?" he asked. "Maybe. [(E)-BCP] could be a new model [compound] for drug design."

National Geographic

I was browsing the web for something that would interest me and came across the following video on www.ted.com (click link to view video). This intrigued me into looking more closely at the part of evolution that humans could well have been at this stage, however we did not have the interaction from more advanced species as the bonobo have had.

In this 17 minute long video Susan"Savage" Rumbaugh asks whether uniquely human traits, and other animals’ behaviors, are
hardwired by species. Then she rolls footage out that will make you think again:
maybe not.

The bonobo apes she works with understand spoken English.
One follows her instructions to take a cigarette lighter from her
pocket and use it to start a fire. Bonobos are shown making tools,
drawing symbols to communicate, and playing Pac-Man — all tasks
learned just by watching. Maybe it’s not always biology that causes a
species to act as it does, she suggests. Maybe it’s cultural exposure
to how things are done.

Having us "humans" interact with the bonobo could have been the breaking point for a new cultural community that should be viewed and studied, from a distance. This could answer some questions have only had suggestive answers to in the past.

In more recent articles on chimps, It has shown that they have an incredibly memory and other than the need to breed, the male chimp must impress or overpower the female before the mating can begin. Isnt this what humans used to do with big clubs during our part of evolution?

Unfortunately i will have to end this post here but ill re edit this with more links to information later tonight.

Scicornwall.com