© University of Sussex
A new University of Sussex study provides evidence that gorilla communication is linked to the left hemisphere of the brain - just as it is in humans.
A new University of Sussex study provides evidence that gorilla communication is linked to the left hemisphere of the brain - just as it is in humans.
Psychologist Dr Gillian Sebestyen Forrester developed a new method of analysing the behaviour of gorillas in captivity and found there was a right-handed bias for actions that also involved head and mouth movements. The right side of the body is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain, which is also the location for language development.
The findings could provide major clues as to how language developed in humans. Dr Sebestyen Forrester says: "We shared 23 million years of evolution with great apes and then diverged approximately six million years ago. Gorillas have highly-complex forms of non-verbal communication. I think we are looking back at what sort of communication skills we may have once had."
Comment: This is typical of the sort of pseudo-science that gets bandied around in relation to global warming. It escapes so many scientists - at least the ones that get airtime in the media and grants from government - that global warming is part of a natural cycle and has very little to do with man or the animals.
However, considering that the Great Chicago Fire is promoted as being started by the gaseous emissions from a cow, when it seems a comet was a much more likely candidate, it isn't really surprising that the increase in temperatures on Earth is also blamed on cows. But that does of course leave the question of how cows were able to heat up Mars and other planets in the solar system as popular science will not address the cosmic sources of this phenomena.
Given what passes for science on the matter of global warming it would not be surprising to read that a research grant has been awarded to a team of 'experts' who are investigating whether the warming of Mars is due to the gaseous emissions from the cow that jumped over the moon.