cooperation | Common News Update

Feb242021 by adminNo Comments

Outsider threats inspire bonding, cooperation among chimpanzees

Science

Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Humans are a social species -- the human success story is in many ways a story of cooperation and collaboration. But from the beginning, as evidenced by prehistoric skull fractures and ancient mass burials, the human story has also been marked -- and marred -- by violence. Advertisement Now, new research suggests the origins of this dichotomy between cooperation and conflict can be traced to our closest relatives, the great apes. In a first-of-its-kind study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, scientists found chimpanzees are more likely to cooperate and form tight in-group bonds after exposure to outsider threats. "The association between in-group cohesion and out-group aggression has long been recognized in humans, but the evolutionary background remains unde...

Nov192020 by adminNo Comments

The Latest: China’s Xi calls for cooperation on vaccine

Health

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping is calling for closer international cooperation on making a vaccine for the coronavirus available.Xi spoke Thursday in an address delivered via video at an event at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.Xi said: “To beat the virus and promote the global recovery, the international community must close ranks and jointly respond to the crisis and meet the tests.”He said cooperation would include closer coordination on policies for development and distribution of a vaccine.Chinese companies Sinovac and Sinopharm are in the late stages of testing vaccines, putting them among nearly a dozen companies at or near that level of development. That has introduced both commercial and political competition among countries and companies to be the first to off...

Mar42020 by adminNo Comments

Farming encouraged cooperation and violence among early humans

Science

March 4 (UPI) -- As hunter-gatherers settled down and took to farming the land, groups of people began gathering in larger numbers and cooperating. But new research suggests the adoption of agriculture encouraged violence between humans populations, too. "We were interested in understanding why people would make the shift from hunting and gathering to farming," Elic Weitzel, doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Connecticut, said in a news release. "Then I started to get interested in what happened in society after they made that shift and started farming on a larger scale." Weitzel and his colleagues used "ideal free distribution" to simulate the distribution of farmers in in eastern North America between 7,500 and 5,000 years ago, as well as to locate the most coveted l...

Nov142019 by adminNo Comments

China tests Mars lander in international cooperation push

Technology

China has invited observers to a test of its Mars lander as it pushes for inclusion in more global space projectsBy SAMUEL McNEIL Associated PressNovember 14, 2019, 8:01 AM3 min read China invited observers to a successful test Thursday of its Mars lander as the country pushes for inclusion in more global space projects. The demonstration of hovering, obstacle avoidance and deceleration capabilities was conducted at a site outside Beijing simulating conditions on the Red Planet, where the pull of gravity is about one-third that of Earth. China plans to launch a lander and rover to Mars next year to explore parts of the planet in detail. China's burgeoning space program achieved a lunar milestone earlier this year by landing a probe on the mysterious far side of the moon. It has developed r...

Aug92019 by adminNo Comments

Migration can both promote, inhibit cooperation among animals

Science

Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Migration can help species thrive by generating the ideal spatial distribution for cooperation, according to a new mathematical model. Migration can also, however, inhibit cooperation, fueling a species' downfall. Felix Funk and Christoph Hauert, researchers at the University of British Columbia, developed a mathematical model to better understand the evolution of migration and cooperation. For most species to thrive, a baseline level of cooperation is necessary. Every organism, from humans to microbes, must work to maintain shared resources, like potable water and available nutrients. If too many individuals pursue selfish ends, the entire population can suffer. "The effect of collective movement is especially significant when triggered in response to the generation of p...