New Study Proves Cats Have Always Been After World Domination - http://clapway.com/2015/08/14/new-study-proves-cats-have-always-been-after-world-domination123/

Researchers analyzing over 2,000 fossils of felines and canines in Asia have come to the conclusion that when ancient cats arrived, they kind of took over, causing about 40 species of dogs to go into extinction.

Fossils of Cats and Dogs Prove Felines Rule In Evolutionary Studies

The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed the fossil records of canines from three subfamilies of Canidae, or what we call dogs.

The researchers found that around 40 species of ancient dogs went extinct thanks to increased competition by none other than their natural sworn enemies: cats.

Well, technically, cats and other dogs were responsible for the competition that drove less successful breeds into the ground. The study results proved that competition among the same clades of animals was more important to extinction than other factors, including climate change and body size.

Competition, Not Climate Change or Body Size, Fuels Evolution Success

Although researchers studying evolutionary biology usually find a distinct change in the rise or fall of species due to climate change or body size, the researchers of this study found that competition among cats and dogs fueled the extinction of 40 canid species.

Between 40 million and 20 million years ago, canid species in North America had reached their evolutionary peak. But then, the feline species came around and proved to be a worthy carnivore adversary resulting in some dog species extinction, which is why we only have 9 native species in North America now.

Another common finding in evolution sciences is that a larger body size is better adapted to survival and thriving compared to smaller, less able bodies. However, as this study shows, ancient cats were smaller than their canid counterparts.

So how did these more diminutive carnivores win at the competition of survival?

Cats May Have Smaller Bodies, But More Warrior Like Prowess

Without the ability to use their size to overpower prey, ancient cats relied on their natural, warrior-like prowess, their cunning predatory hunting skills, and their sharp, retractable claws to take down their dinners.

The researchers believe that these attributes helped cats in terms of ambushing prey, whereas dogs did not have these advantages, most notably the retractable claws.

When supplies such as meat are limited and the number of carnivores is high, only the strongest, most adept hunters will live. With this new study, now the public will know what cat owners around the world have always suspected: cats were better at surviving than dogs and are most likely plotting to take over the world even now.

Additional Image Credit to Melissa Wiese

Additional Image Credit to Chris Erwin

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New Study Proves Cats Have Always Been After World Domination

What can chimp morality do for human morality? - http://clapway.com/2015/06/29/study-reveals-chimps-understand-right-from-wrong-much-like-humans-233/

Chimpanzees may understand concepts similar to human morality according to Swiss researchers. In the study, 17 chimps from two Swiss zoos exhibited qualities of knowing right from wrong within the social norms of aggressive behavior.

Study Examines the Question Do Chimps Understand Morality?

Researchers believe that chimpanzees may have a similar concept of right and wrong as humans. In a recent study published in the journal Human Nature, researchers observed 17 chimps from two Swiss zoos in Gossau and Basel. The primates watched film clips which showed animals engaged in either neutral or aggressive behaviors.

Neutral activities included chimps simply walking, while the violent activities ranged from a typical social aggression behaviors to a scene where a group of chimps hunted and killed a colobus monkey. Within the acts of aggression, one particular clip captured their attention for much longer. It involved chimpanzee infanticide and had held the chimps gaze for four times longer than any other clip.

Scientists carefully ruled out other factors that could have attributed to the increased attention for the infanticide clip, including the infant’s screams. Other videos featured similar noises to act as a control group while measuring the behavior of the animals.

Chimps Know Right From Wrong

Researchers believe this close scrutiny was due to the chimps viewing the infanticide as an activity that falls outside of normal aggressive behaviors.

“This result is consistent with the idea that severe aggression against infants did not match chimpanzees’ social expectations of a certain tolerance normally afforded to infants,” said lead researcher Claudia Rudolf von Rohr from the University of Zurich.

In other words, the chimps knew this particular behavior, the brutal slaying of a chimp infant, was not right.

Chimps Show No Emotional Response

The longer times spent watching the infanticide clip didn’t vary between male or female chimps. All groups and all chimps paid more attention to that particular scene. However, the scientists made an interesting observation about the chimps’ emotional arousal response. Mainly, the chimps showed no increased emotional response to the video.

The scientists believe their emotional distance was a result of not being able to empathize with the victim, an infant not part of their own group.

The results still point to their detection of a social norm violation says Rudolf von Rohr. Though the chimpanzees did not react, she believes an emotional response would be readily elicited if the act was occurring within their own groups.

Did Human Morality and Social Norms Evolve in Humans?

While researchers have concluded that chimps can in fact tell right from wrong, or at least discern a break within social norms, the question of whether social norms in humans have evolved over time remains unanswered for now.

With such varying cultures and beliefs, the answer may still be too diverse to pin down quite so easily for humans. However, researchers are hopeful for future studies that examine the evolution of human morality, especially with this new evidence seen within the study of the chimps and their understanding of right and wrong.

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Study Reveals Chimps Understand Right from Wrong Much Like Humans

VIDEO: MIT Builds AI Robot Cheetah That Jumps Hurdles - http://clapway.com/2015/05/29/video-mit-builds-ai-robot-cheetah-that-jumps-hurdles123/

One of the newest technological undertakings by scientists all over the world is the use of artificial intelligence. It comes as no surprise, then, that researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have constructed a robot cheetah that can both see and engage in athletic challenges. This technological creation is the first of its kind — the first four-legged robot powered by artificial intelligence known to man.

Jumping over hurdles like a human runner

The new cheetah machine acts like its namesake predator would in the wild: it is fashioned to be able to detect its surroundings and obstacles, and physically bound over them. In the conducted experiment, the robot cheetah was able to jump over hurdles that were 18 inches tall at the average speed of five miles per hour, with a 90 percent success rate. What’s fascinating is that the actual jumps weren’t programmed; merely the ability to jump was programmed into the mechanical cheetah. The robot is entirely self-ruling: it is equipped with a LIDAR system that enables it to “see” the obstacles, and then to jump over them. This is the same kind of system that is built in self-driving cars.

It works like this: lasers employed by the LIDAR system create a three-dimensional map of the robot’s surroundings, giving the robot cheetah its “eyes.” This allows the cheetah to “plan” its own path. It can approach an obstacle, and estimate its height and the distance between them. The robot cheetah can subsequently assess and adjust its position to jump, before increasing the power in its “kick” to cross the hurdle.

New AI strides: managing the balance and energy of the robot cheetah

Sangbae Kim, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, is part of the team that has designed and engineered this miraculous undertaking. To him, there is no physical behavior more dynamic than a running jump. The most important thing to keep in mind in the experiments is to manage the balance and energy of the robot cheetah, and to figure out ways for it to sustainably handle impact after it lands.

Currently, the team wants to optimize the robot’s energy efficiency. To do this, the robot cheetah would have to barely jump over the obstacle. A solution to this would most likely take more computation time.

The team at MIT plans to demonstrate the robot cheetah and its running jump next weekend at the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Pomona, California.

VIDEO: MIT Builds AI Robot Cheetah That Jumps Hurdles