ETCETERA
ARE MONKEYS BETTER IN MATHS THAN HUMANS!
New York: Go tell this to your kid who is throwing tantrums at learning maths. According to a new research, even monkeys have the ability to use numbers and symbols to add up, says IANS.
The scientists from Harvard University taught three rhesus monkeys the values of 26 distinct symbols – the 10 Arabic numerals and 16 letters. Each symbol was associated with zero to 25 drops of a reward of water, juice or orange soda. Given the choice of two different symbols, the monkeys chose the symbol that represented the larger reward with up to 90 per cent accuracy.
“The monkeys demonstrated the ability to not only differentiate between the symbols but also to add the values of two symbols at a time,” said Margaret Livingstone, a neuroscientist at Harvard University’s medical school.
The results suggest that the monkeys learned to distinguish the symbols and assign them specific values. Monkeys estimated quantity based on relative value rather than absolute value. This could give new insight into the evolutionary origins of our ability to count, the researchers added.
The team is now planning to see if the animals can multiply numbers too.
New York: Go tell this to your kid who is throwing tantrums at learning maths. According to a new research, even monkeys have the ability to use numbers and symbols to add up, says IANS.
The scientists from Harvard University taught three rhesus monkeys the values of 26 distinct symbols – the 10 Arabic numerals and 16 letters. Each symbol was associated with zero to 25 drops of a reward of water, juice or orange soda. Given the choice of two different symbols, the monkeys chose the symbol that represented the larger reward with up to 90 per cent accuracy.
“The monkeys demonstrated the ability to not only differentiate between the symbols but also to add the values of two symbols at a time,” said Margaret Livingstone, a neuroscientist at Harvard University’s medical school.
The results suggest that the monkeys learned to distinguish the symbols and assign them specific values. Monkeys estimated quantity based on relative value rather than absolute value. This could give new insight into the evolutionary origins of our ability to count, the researchers added.
The team is now planning to see if the animals can multiply numbers too.
GOOD SAMARITAN
The stray cats and dogs living on railway platforms from Marine Lines to Mahim must surely be a grateful lot. An elderly woman, who does not call herself an animal lover, comes every night from her home in Mahim to her select bench on each of the stations where she sits feeding the hungry animals after the rush hour has subsided. One can see especially cats hovering expectantly for their daily dose of fish which this lady gets for them abundantly from the Mahim fish market. The dogs get their biscuits and even curry rice, which this lady prepares at home. In fact, she comes with bags full of fish and other eatables for the felines and canines, a virtual Santa Claus for the lonely animals.
At a time when fish and everything else is so expensive, it is heartening to note that this Good Samaritan does this selfless service without a murmur or without a big show and that too on a daily basis. Now, this is one gesture which lives up to the Biblical saying that “the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing.”
LOST AND FOUND
It was around midnight at Churchgate station. While waiting for her train, a correspondent noticed a girl in her early twenties standing on the footboard of a train going to the car shed. The girl, who had Mongoloid features, seemed lost and scared, standing in a corner in the train while the lights were off.
Realizing the danger, this correspondent went up to her and stepped inside the train. As she went up to speak to the girl, the train started. She told her to jump but the girl was scared, so this correspondent caught her hand and jumped out of the train just in the nick of time.
The girl, who could hardly utter a word, was surrounded by curious onlookers. Some railway cops approached them while the girl was still in a state of shock. They assumed that she could not understand their language and started looking for someone who could help them with translations. Luckily, they found three young women with Mongoloid features who could speak English as well as Hindi. They requested these females to escort her home. After being seated in another train, the girl looked up to the cops and said, ‘Dhanyawad’, as the train left.
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