Intelligent Animals

1. You never worried about it, but speech could have its origin in cheating (Hmmm, politicians are the most evolved species, then- vocalisationwise)- "“It may have started as cheating,” says Fernando Nottebohm, head of the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at The Rockefeller University. “By generating a diversity of calls, young birds may trick their parents into losing track of whom they last fed, in effect creating the impression of several individuals.”- Science Daily

2. Larry Greenemeier thinks that Man as an animal, is several rungs below the Dolphin in the evolutionary ladder. He writes about his encounter with dolphins on a magical night of bioluminescence- "It was like watching an animated movie with special effects—surreal!"- Scientific American

3. Make me come home by a new route, and I am almost certain to lose my way. But when asked to solve The Hamiltonian Path Problem- whether there is a route in a network from a beginning node to an ending node, visiting each node exactly once- Bacteria solved it ((the very ordinary E.Coli at that!)) and bragged about their success by fluorescing both red and green. Scientists hope to enlist Bacteria and try to solve tough maths problems- Science Daily

4. In article of BioMed Central , we read that scientists have identified the genes that help clever Arctic springtails (Megaphorura arctica) to dehydrate themselves just before the coldest winter sets in, and having survived the freezing temperature, hydrate when the weather gets warm- EurekAlert.

5. We are all aliens- "Life on Earth came from other planets" reports EurekAlert (The link is broken: All I could salvage through what was stored in Reader is this- "The Earth too, is an island, orbiting in a sea of space, and living creatures and their DNA have been washing to shore and falling from the sky since our planet's creation; and this is how life on Earth began.")

6. You think anyone would party with manioc, potato, chili pepper, arrowroot and algarrobo on the menu? Scientists are sure people did- 4000 years ago, and they have the leftovers to prove that- Science Daily

7. Evolution without Brains: like everything on Earth, some trees (Araliaceae tree (P crassifolius) in particular, that has its home in New Zealand) used Camouflage to defend themselves against predators (predators now happily extinct, thanks to Man): they made changes in the colour of their leaves as they grew, and escaped the Moa's attention- Science Daily

8. Perhaps we are more closely related to Symonds than you think: Science Daily reports that the Australians Aborigines are settlers from South-Asia, to be more particular India, and I suspect, Tamil Nadu, and to be more exact, I have seen people who could well be their cousins.

9. This is controversial: remember how guilty Gandhiji felt for having had sex while his mother or father was in her/his death-bed and had, in fact, died even as the Father of our Nation 'died', to put it Shakespearically...? Freshwater snails would have  spared him from life-long pain of guilt. Apparently, these snails can reproduce  sexually or asexually, but are more likely to indulge in sex if they live in the shallows, where they could well die sooner from trematode parasites than others who live in deeper waters. Sex helps us fight parasites, and in the long run, death (or something like that)- EurekAlert

10. If evolution and survival is all about adjustment, some people make a better job of it than others- you and I can't live with noise-generating compressors in gas wells, but EurekAlert reports than the house finch and black-chinned humming bird love to nest where the noise is- beats me, probably they know better than me..