Ancient baby's teeth have revealed that Neanderthals followed today's breastfeeding guidelines. Scientists analyzed a fossilized baby tooth from a Neanderthal child, and found the infant was breastfed exclusively for the first seven months of life and given supplementary foods and mother's milk for another seven months before being weaned.

This fascinating discovery sheds light on the remarkable similarities between Neanderthal parenting practices and contemporary breastfeeding guidelines. By examining the composition of the fossilized baby tooth, scientists have uncovered valuable insights into the dietary patterns of our ancient relatives.

The Neanderthal infant's exclusive breastfeeding for the first seven months of life mirrors the advice ...

At least to some scientists it is. Scientists believe that catching a yawn is a sign of empathy, since it is more likely to occur between relatives than strangers. Plus, other social primates like chimps and bonobos do it, too. A new study suggests that women (traditionally branded the more empathetic sex) might be more susceptible to copycat yawning than men. Researchers surreptitiously analyzed more than 4000 real-world yawns on planes and trains, in restaurants, and in offices. They noted when someone yawned, and then whether a nearby acquaintance or friend did the same within a 3-minute period. Men and women spontaneously yawned with about the same frequency. But when someone else yawned first, women were more likely than men to follow ...

In a new study, scientists have discovered that early marijuana use may result in abnormal brain function and lower IQ. To conduct this study, four groups of teenagers were recruited:

• Those with depression who were not marijuana users
• Those with depression who were frequent marijuana users
• Frequent marijuana users without depression
• and healthy individuals who were not marijuana users

Participants were later divided into youth who started using marijuana before the age of 17 and those who began using it later or not at all.

These participants underwent psychiatric, cognitive and IQ testing as well as brain scanning. The study found no evidence that marijuana use improved depressive symptoms; there was no difference in psychiatric symptoms between ...

Early birds and night owls have radically different daily habits. But a new study suggests they both share one trait: As the clock ticks, their decisions get dicey. Neuroscientists examined the quality of moves in more than 1 million games of chess in an online database. They charted the decisions of 99 prolific players by gauging the time they took for each move and its usefulness in leading to a victory - factors that impact games like high-speed tiebreakers in the World Chess Championships.

As expected, early risers played more games in the morning, whereas night owls were active at dusk and beyond. But both sets of players took longer for each move and made better game choices early in the day and soon after they woke up. Come evening, ...

That's the longest string of words that Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who scientists raised as a human and taught sign language in the 1970s, ever signed. He was the subject of Project Nim, an experiment conducted by cognitive scientists at Columbia University to investigate whether chimps can learn language.

After years of exposing Nim to all things human, the researchers concluded that although he did learn to express demands - the desire for an orange, for instance - and knew 125 words, he couldn't fully grasp language, at least as they defined it. Language requires not just vocabulary but also syntax, they argued. "Give orange me," for example, means something different than "give me orange." From a very young age, humans understand that; w ...

The thalidomide ordeal that started in the 1950s is a tragic case of what happens when key players in the scientific community dismiss or ignore widespread correlations among two or more coinciding events. In the mid-century, a German pharmaceutical company named Chemie Grunenthal discovered and developed a synthetic sedative called thalidomide that was used to treat sleeplessness, and reduce morning sickness and nausea commonly experienced by pregnant women. While most countries around the world embraced and sold the product for a short period of time, including Canada, the United States’ Food and Drug Administration at the time, which was headed by a Canadian-born medical doctor named Dr. Kelsey, refused to approve its use in the countr ...

A new psychology study suggests that women are better than men at reading people's thoughts and emotions, just by looking at the eyes.

Researchers from around the globe tested the way genes influence a person's cognitive empathy; their ability to accurately recognise another person's emotional state. 90,000 people were shown different photographs of people's eyes and asked to determine their mood. Results showed that women more consistently picked the correct feeling when the participants had to select what emotion they perceived when shown a visual of a person's eyes.

This is the first big study on cognitive empathy and its relationship to gender. The international research team has also identified a potential genetic region that influences ...

We've all heard by now that dark chocolate is the healthier chocolate, while white chocolate lacks behind in essential nutrients. Let's break down what's myth and what's real so you know exactly what's good for you next time you treat yourself to one of these snacks.

First, a discussion on cocoa.

Cocoa – chocolate's main raw ingredient – naturally contains polyphenols, namely flavan-3-ols and flavonoids, which are antioxidants constantly being studied for their potential effects in the body. The following table shows the content of phenolics and flavonoids in the three different types of chocolate. Generally, the more antioxidants you consume, the more protection your body will have from the formation of free radicals, which are unstable mol ...