Chimps are upping their tool game, says study

WASHINGTON - "Planet of the Apes" may have been onto something.Chimpanzees are steadily honing their tool-using skills -- a process unfolding over millennia, driven by the exchange of ideas through migrations between populations, according to a new study published Thursday in Science.The finding in chimps -- humans' closest living relatives -- holds relevance for us too, as it supports the idea that, deep in the mists of time, our own ape ancestors leveraged social connections to improve their technologies, lead author Cassandra Gunasekaram told AFP.Scientists have long marvelled at chimps' ability to pass down intricate behaviours, like tool use, from one generation to the next.Yet while human civilisation has leapt from the Stone Age to the Space Age, chimpanzee "culture" -- defined as socially learned behaviours -- seemed to have remained static.Gunasekaram, a doctoral student at the University of Zurich, set out to challenge this assumption.She and colleagues combined genetic data tracing ancient chimpanzee migrations across Africa with observations of 15 distinct foraging behaviours across dozens of populations and the four subspecies.These behaviours were categorised into three levels: those requiring no tools, those with simple tools, like using chewed leaves as a sponge to absorb water from tree holes, and the most complex,...
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Scientists Reverse Parkinson’s Symptoms in Mice: ‘We were astonished by the success’

By Anna ShvetsGroundbreaking research by the University of Sydney has identified a new brain protein involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease and a way to modify it, paving the way for future treatments for the disease.With the aim of finding new treatments to slow or stop its progression, the research team has spent more than a decade studying the biological mechanisms underpinning the condition—which is the second most common neurological condition after dementia.In 2017, they identified for the first time the presence of an abnormal form of a protein—called SOD1—in the brains of patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.Normally, the SOD1 protein provides protective benefits to the brain, but in Parkinson’s patients it becomes faulty, causing the protein to clump and damage brain cells.The newest study by the same team, led by Professor Kay Double from the Brain and Mind Centre, was just published in Acta Neuropathologica Communications. It found that targeting the faulty SOD1 protein with a drug treatment using copper improved the motor function in mice.“We hoped that by treating this malfunctioning protein, we might be able to improve the Parkinson-like symptoms in the mice we were treating – but even we were astonished by the success of the intervention,” said Professor Double in a media release.“All the mice we...
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