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Humans and chimpanzees are almost identical genetically, andwe often act alike as well. We recently wrote aboutants that aresuper-efficient farmers. Now it turns out there are primatepolice. Monkeys also like to scratch each other?s backs ANDmonkeys are willing to pay for sex.

Bjorn Carey writes in LiveScience.com about new researchthat reveals that monkey cops help make their fellowprimates behave through intimidation and seniority (likehuman police). If you remove the primate police from agroup, the rest of the groups gets more violent andaggressive. One of the ways they keep order is by getting inbetween warring groups or by chasing misbehaving monkeys away.
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Half the people in the world have brains that are infected with Toxoplasma parasites. The eggs of this parasite live in the guts of cats until the parasites hatch and make their way up to the cat’s brain. Are they dangerous? They can be, but in very subtle ways.

Bill Christensen writes in LiveScience.com that at first scientists didn’t think these parasites were a problem, because when they intentionally infected rats with them, the rats seemed fine. But then they found that the brains of these infected rats were subtly different from those of ordinary rats.
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We’ve been wondering if the familiar man in the moon image will become disfigured when Russia, China and the US arrive on the moon and start scooping up the valuable Helium 3 fuel lying on the surface. Former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer has warned that the US plans to build a defense against alien intruders on the moon. Now NASA has announced plans to construct a base on the moon’s far side. NASA says this base will be used for Earth studies, but the Earth cannot be seen from that side.
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First it was Katrina in New Orleans, then it was a category 5 hurricane in Australia. Last week tornadoes swept the Midwest while fires burned nearly a million acres in North Texas. Now it’s flooding in North Texas and Springfield, Ill., which was smashed by tornadoes, is suffering a severe blizzard. All of this can be traced, in one way or another, to global warming.

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.read more