A new study from Princeton suggests that fast-growing brains may explain why humans and marmosets are two of the only primates that learn to talk. Like babies, marmosets need caregiver feedback to develop their calls. Researchers found that in both species, brains grow especially rapidly in early infancy, outside the womb. This overlap may reveal an ancient origin for socially guided vocal learning and offer insight into how the brain becomes primed for plasticity.

The ability to detect vocal sounds, and the more specialized skill of recognizing calls from one’s own species, is supported by evolutionarily ancient brain mechanisms, according to a new study from the ELTE Department of Ethology, Hungary. In the first-ever direct comparison of companion dogs, companion pigs, and humans, researchers from the university’s Neuroethology of Communication Lab examined the neural correlates of voice processing across these three distantly related mammals.   

When we think of pollinating insects, bees, butterflies, or flies usually come to mind — but rarely true bugs. Yet it seems that in the past, they also played an important role in plant pollination. A Hungarian research group has now confirmed, based on an ancient bug preserved in nearly 100-million-year-old Burmese amber, that this behavior may have been more widespread among bugs in earlier stages of Earth’s history.

University of Iowa engineers have refined the design for an underwater vehicle to move more freely and with more maneuverability. The design changes mimic the octopus’ papillae muscles, which can be uncoiled on a moment’s notice for camouflage and to aid movement when flow conditions change in the water. Result published in the journal Robotics Reports.