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Crows Are Even Smarter Than We Thought

Could they help us understand intelligent life on other worlds?

Dirk Schulze-Makuch.
Schulze-Makuch

By Dirk Schulze-Makuch, professor at Technical University Berlin, Germany, and adjunct professor in environmental studies at Washington State University

In a fascinating paper published last year in Science, a team led by Andreas Nieder of the University of Tübingen in Germany showed that crows—already known to be among the most intelligent of animals—are even more impressive than we knew. In fact, the evidence suggests that they are self-aware and, in an important sense, conscious.

The corvid family of birds, which includes crows, ravens, jays and magpies, had been observed previously to use tools, as well as remember the faces of people they like or don’t like, or drop nuts on the road so that passing cars will crack them open. At a train station once, I watched a pair of crows team up at a water fountain. While one pushed the button with its beak, the other drank from the water that started to flow.

Nieder’s experiment showed that the birds were actively evaluating how to solve a particular problem they were confronted with. In effect, they were thinking it over. This ability to consciously assess a problem is associated with the cerebral cortex in the brains of humans. But birds have no cerebral cortex. Nieder found that in crows, thinking occurs in the pallium—the layers of gray and white matter covering the upper surface of the cerebrum in vertebrates.

Other studies support the notion that the bird brain can, in principle, support the development of higher intelligence. This idea had been dismissed in the past due to the small size of birds’ brains. But recent research has shown that in birds, the neurons are smaller and more tightly packed, which makes sense to reduce weight and make it easier to fly. The total number of neurons in crows (about 1.5 billion) is about the same as in some monkey species. But because they are more tightly packed, communication between the neurons seems to be better, and the overall intelligence of crows may be closer to that of Great Apes such as the gorilla.

The brains of dinosaurs—the ancestors of today’s birds—have been found to be astonishingly small. But if they had the same brain anatomy as birds, dinosaurs could have been much smarter than previously thought. As I speculated in my book about the Cosmic Zoo hypothesis, some of those who had a relatively large brain compared to their body size, such as the Troodons, could have been quite advanced.

This research has important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of higher intelligence.

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Smithsonian Magazine

4 Core Findings About Adolescent Narcissism

Chris Barry.
Barry

By Chris Barry, professor of psychology

Most of my research has been in the area of adolescent narcissism, as well as the connection between narcissism and social media activity. The topic of adolescent narcissism drew my interest due to several paradoxes that have been discussed in the past about youth self-perception and self-esteem, as well as the inclusion of narcissism in the psychopathy construct—an area I had previously researched. Additionally, I find the unique aspects of adolescent development intriguing, as they suggest that narcissism may be a normal part of being an adolescent and can even be adaptive in some ways.

After conducting research in this area and reviewing the work of colleagues with similar interests, we have arrived at several core findings:

  • Adolescent narcissism tends to fall along a normal distribution, meaning that most teens do not necessarily exhibit extreme levels of narcissism, and narcissism tends to decline somewhat as we get older.
  • Narcissism during adolescence is linked to aggression, delinquent behavior, and self-reported anxiety and depression, depending on the specific characteristics of narcissism.
  • Adolescents with narcissistic traits may be perceived negatively by their peers as manipulative, difficult to get along with, and likely to engage in future delinquency. However, they may also be viewed as competitive and good leaders.
  • Narcissism is not necessarily linked to the frequency or type of social media posts. However, certain social media posts, such as selfies, may be associated with a perception of narcissism among unfamiliar viewers.

As we continue to conduct research, we expect to gain more clarity and nuance on these issues.

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Psychology Today

Tire Wear Particles Become the Invisible Killer of the Earth, Endangering the Marine Ecology

The problem of marine waste pollution has drawn the attention of many environmentalists and ecologists, and plastic is a serious part. Scientists are worried that too much plastic waste and the plastic particles it decomposes will cause environmental and ecological problems. In recent years, environmental scientists have begun to notice another marine pollutant that seems inconspicuous, even invisible to the naked eye, which is “tyre dust” known as the invisible killer.

Tyre dust is black fine particles produced when tires are worn out. Usually, when the car turns, brakes, or accelerates, it is more prone to wear and tear, and tire dust will remain on the road. These particles flow into the ocean as the rain washes away, turning into pollutants that are difficult to clean up and becoming invisible ecological killers. Experts estimate that millions of tons of tire dust are generated in Europe every year. If the amount generated by other countries and regions is added, the overall amount will be quite staggering.

But now we found a small tire dust which has a huge impact on the ocean. Environmental scientists observed these tiny black particles in rainwater flowing through the streets, and after analysis found that they were the same as the material of tires. Unlike plastic waste, tire dust has a relatively high density. It will not float on the sea surface but will sink to the bottom. It will drift around the world with seawater, or enter the body of marine organisms, making it difficult to remove.

The death crisis of Coho salmon, an important fish in streams in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, is related to the toxic substances in tire dust. Scientists observed decades ago that coho salmon returned to Puget Sound on the west coast of Seattle from the Pacific Ocean to spawn often die collectively for unknown reasons after heavy rains, so they are trying to find out the possible reasons. Pesticides, metallic substances, and hydrocarbons were tested, but no evidence of death was found. They also researched in the direction of fish hypoxia or disease but still found nothing.

Jennifer McIntyre.
McIntyre

After 15 years of research, Jenifer McIntyre, assistant professor of aquatic toxicology at Washington State University, and her research team began collecting dust samples from roads near streams and placing them in the living spaces of coho salmon. It turned out that after a few hours, the salmon participating in the experiment died, and these dust samples were tyre fine particles.

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MerxWire
AZ Central
Big News Network

DOE funds new cooling loop at Nuclear Science Center

Washington State University’s nuclear reactor pool will be able to keep its cool longer, thanks to a $740,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The funds will pay for an upgraded, secondary cooling loop at the university’s Nuclear Science Center that will allow the 1 megawatt Triga Reactor to operate more often and longer in service of research projects.

The reactor rests about 25 feet deep at the bottom of a pool of 65,000 gallons of water, which helps dissipate the heat it generates when it is running. The current cooling system for the water is more than two decades old, and the new cooling loop will mean less thermal cycling in the reactor pool water. In other words, it will stay at a more consistent, cool temperature as opposed to going through cycles of heating up and cooling off.

“The goal is that when we get the system installed, we’ll be able to start up the reactor to a megawatt and the reactor pool water will hit an equilibrium temperature relatively quickly, and it will be stable for as long as we need to operate the reactor in support of all of our fantastic projects,” said Corey Hines, the Center’s director.

Planning and installation of the cooling loop will take place over the next two years.

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Mirage News
WSU Insider

Ask Dr. Universe: What diseases spread on pirate ships?

A pirate’s life was dangerous. They attacked other ships and battled other pirates as well as the law. But they were also at the mercy of another foe: sickness.

Lawrence Hatter.
Hatter

I talked about this with my friend Lawrence Hatter. He’s a history professor at Washington State University.

He told me the big era for pirates was 1710 to 1730. It was a time when lots of sailors were out of work. Some of them became pirates.

Here are four kinds of disease they might face on the job: scurvy, mosquito-borne diseases, infectious diseases and gangrene.

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Ask Dr. Universe