大象传媒

Face Recognition in Chimps
How many people can you recognise by face? It鈥檚 one of the things we humans are good at - and it鈥檚 a talent we share with chimpanzees. But what鈥檚 going on in their brains? More specifically, do we and they both use the same brain processes during face recognition? Some experiments carried out by Dr Lisa Parr and reported this week in the journal Current Biology have now answered the question.

Pedigree genetics
The 大象传媒 decision not to televise Crufts follows public discussion of an issue that鈥檚 long troubled some vets and breeders: that certain pedigree dogs suffer chronic problems of ill health. Leading Edge looks at the science that underpins dog-breeding with Dr David Sargon of the Cambridge Veterinary School, and Professor Matthew Binns of the Royal Veterinary College in London.

Hobby-Eberley Telescope
Dr Chris Lintott reports on the Hobby-Eberley Telescope in Texas.

Dinosaur Extinction
The commonly held theory on the mass extinction of the dinosaurs is that it was caused by an asteroid hitting earth 65 million years ago. Princeton palaeontologist Gerta Keller has contested the asteroid claim for more than 20 years. She argues instead that the extinction resulted from the eruption of many huge volcanoes. The controversy flared up again at a recent San Francisco meeting of the American Geophysical Union, shedding light not only on the contending theories, but also on the way that scientific ideas compete for attention. Molly Bentley reports.