Bonobo aggression minor compared with chimps
You report on a study that says “peaceful” male bonobos may be more aggressive than male chimps. On behalf of the Australian branch of the organisation that has been the long-term sponsor of the Congolese trackers who follow, monitor and protect the bonobos referred to in the article, and having tracked and filmed these bonobos in 2007/2008, I feel more depth is needed.
We need to distinguish between the mere volume of so-called aggressive incidents and their severity. By conflating various lower-grade niggles, such as “pulling” and “kicking”, with more brutal violence, the reader is left uninformed on the vast difference in intensity of aggression between chimp males and bonobo males.
Unlike chimp males, bonobo males have never been seen to commit infanticide, wage deadly in-group violence, hunt monkeys for meat or mount coordinated fatal raids against neighbouring groups.
Time to tackle the root cause of this anxiety (1)
In your look at anxiety in children, you mention Rebecca Anthony’s finding that lower socioeconomic status is the highest risk factor. Put that together with personal satisfaction being influenced by those around us 鈥� we feel worse off as the gap widens between what we have and what we see others have 鈥� and we must conclude that reducing the risk for the next generation lies not with cognitive behavioural therapy, virtual reality, medications or other individual interventions. It needs social change that reduces the gap between haves and have-nots and tackles poverty as a priority.
Time to tackle the root cause of this anxiety (2)
Your coverage serves as a warning on rising stress and anxiety. We are all more worried than we used to be. Work is done with machine-like efficiency. There is a growing feeling of not wanting to keep people waiting. Those behind us in queues at supermarkets and cash machines make us feel hurried. Maybe we can all try to be more relaxed and reassuring, calmer and more easygoing. Just saying “no hurry” may help.
Getting to grips with the demographic timebomb
With reference to the gathering demographic problem of falling birth rates in many nations, I can see ramifications, such as the need to welcome young immigrants to places such as the UK, rather than trying to stop them, and a need to use robotics to fill labour gaps.
Some countries may offer bonuses to families for having more children, others may build baby factories akin to giant orphanages, but I don’t see either of these as long-term solutions.
Tea or coffee? One universe or two? (1)
In “Multiplying the multiverse”, the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum world is illustrated with an example where a decision is made 鈥� in this case whether to choose tea or coffee 鈥� and this “decision” causes the wave function to collapse. I was under the impression that it was “observations” that did this job. Are decisions and observations somehow equivalent from a quantum perspective?
Tea or coffee? One universe or two? (2)
So every time I choose tea or coffee, a new universe is produced. The observable one I inhabit has a mass of 1053 kilograms, so every time I make a decision, I make this many more kilos. Really?
Deal with arthritis to make ageing better
Andrew Scott is right about the need to promote ageing well over chasing greater longevity. I’m painfully aware that arthritis is a hindrance to successful ageing while at the same time viewed as inevitable for older people. Arthritis doesn’t kill, it is just a gateway condition to things that do 鈥� dementia, cancer, stroke 鈥� because exercise can reduce the risk of all those and arthritis stops us exercising. When I used to ask doctors how to avoid arthritis, they said “exercise”, so I did lots of exercise. When I later got arthritis and asked “why me?”, they said, “wear and tear 鈥� too much exercise”. Any ideas, anyone?
On the many upsides of spending time alone (1)
I was fascinated by your article on the benefits of time alone, taking away some of the guilt I often feel when turning down social events in favour of a quiet night in. As an only child, I probably grew up spending more time alone than those with siblings running around. I wonder if this has any link to my relatively low tolerance to “social fatigue”, craving a night of reading at home over a night out with social-butterfly friends?
On the many upsides of spending time alone (2)
Heather Hansen’s insightful article on solitude cites Robert Coplan’s search for a new word for solitude-seekers, with “soloist” in the lead. As this is an existing word with a different meaning, why not use “solitudist”? Also, his neologism “aloneliness” for the feeling of being denied time alone could be bettered by “alonelessness”.
Marine conservation in the UK isn't too great
You report that fish stocks in marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Caribbean Sea aren’t recovering as expected, possibly because of poor enforcement.
Now, where have I heard that story before? Ah yes, here in the UK where bottom trawling, an environmentally destructive kind of fishing, still takes place in many MPAs, Marine Conservation Society. Conservation in the UK is a joke.
If it acts like a pheromone, it probably is a pheromone
The story on odours of very young children and teenagers makes me wonder if researchers live in a bubble. I looked at the published study and they don’t ever mention pheromones. The sweet smell of infants is, as they say, designed to promote parental affection. It is a pheromone. The musky smell of teenagers is a pheromone to attract affection of a different kind, and it works.