Monday, December 3, 2007

Young Chimps Beat Humans In Memory Game

Japanese researchers have put young chimpanzees (5 years old) against human adults in short term memory games. Guess who won? The chimps...

One of the memory tests was a game where three 5-year old chimps had been taught the order of Arabic numerals 1 to 9. The game was played by having the 9 Arabic numerals displayed on a computer screen. Once a participant touched a number the other numbers turned into white squares. The test was to touch all of the white squares in order of the numbers that used to be there. The results showed that in the first test the humans and chimps were on par for accuracy, but the chimps actually performed this test faster.

The next test had five numbers flashed on the screen and then they all turned to white squares. For the first test the numbers were displayed for for seven-tenths of a second, but the second test had the numbers displayed for four-tenths of a second. The chimps outperformed humans by scoring 80% in this quicker test while the humans dropped to 40%.

The next test would be to place this chimps against human kids rather than adults. The youth of our generation is said to have faster reflexes and response time to stimuli than older people so pairing this group with chimps will likely be a more true competition.

Chimp Memory

Mummified Dinosaur Faster than T Rex

A fossilized hadrosaur found in 1999 in North Dakota is now being touted as one of the most complete dinosaur mummies ever discovered. This is a fossilized mummy in stone so scientists are unable to extract DNA from it, but this dinosaur fossil contains a plethora of information.

It's so well preserved that the running speed of the dinosaur can be calculated just from the amount of muscle mass on the body. The estimated top speed of this dinosaur is 28mph, the T Rex is believed to have run 18 mph.

As of now the fossil is being analyzed in the world's largest CT scanner from the Boeing company. With this scientists can view the internal structure of the dinosaur with more detail and even get hints about organs.

This hadrosaur is going to change dinosaur exhibits across many museums around the world.

Washington Post