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In this recent TED talk, top primatologist Frans de Waal discusses his early years and the disquiet he felt at the prevailing obsession with aggression and dominance in defining primate social behaviour. Social interactions within many species, but particularly primates, is in reality a complex mosiac of different dynamics, most of which have nothing to do with competitiveness and dominance. Perhaps this provides some evolutionary signposts as to the origin of moral behaviour in humans?
This month has been a difficult one for me, and it’s meant that I haven’t been able to publish my usual two posts. But rather than not publishing anything this month, I thought I’d provide a short but hopefully interesting post about the remarkable structure and behaviour of the domestic cat’s tongue – this is a must for all cat lovers who haven’t spent too much time reading up on their physiology, or anyone who’s ever wondered why cat’s licks can feel so rough on human skin.
The best part about discovering unusual and remarkable new things about animals we otherwise think we know so well is that it allows us to see them in a totally different light.. even if only for a while. I hope you enjoy these pictures, links and videos:
Despite their unparallelled popularity amongst humans, until the end of last century there had been very little dedicated scientific inquiry into the domestic dog. Not into its behaviour, the beguiling history of its domestication or even that ubiquitous bond they seem to have forged with our species.
Nowadays it doesn’t take too much effort to find snippets of useful information on the internet, but it’s often the same old stuff. However, this programme “The Secret Life Of The Dog“, an episode of the popular BBC series Horizon, should be required viewing for anyone with a real interest in dogs, and their unique relationship with us. Those from the UK have probably already seen it, but for the rest of us it’s a real treat.
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So far I haven’t posted any multimedia other than the usual photos that accompany my written posts, but I hope the following videos will provide an informative follow-on from my last piece on core emotions. As fascinating as the subject is, Neuroscience is by definition a really obtuse and complicated field. And Affective Neuroscience – the study of those very basic, biological emotional systems that lie at the very foundation of consciousness – is even more so.
So in search of the most informative but least technical of the various online interviews with Dr Jaak Panksepp (the most influential researcher in the field, and the man who coined the term ‘Affective Neuroscience’), this episode from the ‘Professions… Enterprise 101′ video series (a single interview broken into 4 short segments), seemed the most accessible. I hope you find it stimulating and informative.
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