We Weren’t Meant to Be Alone All the Time Some days I go to a co-operative workspace for a few hours just to get out of my house. Yes, it costs money, which is calculated by the number of days a week one wants to occupy a temporary desk, but that seems a small price to pay for colleagues when your occupation is a solitary one, such as a writer. The idea behind cooperative open works spaces is not to spend so much time…
The Answer is No Humans have the largest brain-to-body ratio of any animal. We have giant, complicated, brains that should make us the smartest animals on Earth. But oddly, we spend so much of our time trying to dull that intelligence—we drink alcohol, take drugs, go shopping, have sex, watch TV, look at our phones for hours, read, talk to each other a lot, and spend most of the day with useless thoughts wandering through all those brain cells. In other words, we have big brains but can’t handle…
When the Public is Fed the Wrong Information About Primates A recent article about Japanese macaque monkeys went viral, even getting exposure on Stephen Colbert, because of its provocative headline: “Love Triangle Challenges Reign of Japan’s Monkey Queen.” But that idiotic headline, based on inaccurate reporting, was simply fake news. I know this because as an anthropologist, I spent many years observing and searching about macaques and the reporter doesn’t seem to have any idea how these animals operate. When someone is educated and experienced in a profession or a…
Male Chimpanzees Always Need Their Mothers Motherhood is intense. A new mom not only has to recover from the birth and start breastfeeding, which is behaviorally and physically demanding but she also (usually) becomes life for a growing toddler. Children start out greatly dependent on their mothers, but that attachment wanes as kids grow up and become independent. But mothers can have a deep and lasting effect later in life when they contribute financially, allow adult children to live at home, or give emotional support even when their kids are…