Goffin’s cockatoo named third species that carries toolsets around in preparation for future tasks

By Rob Heinsohn, Professor of Evolutionary and Conservation Biology, Australian National University

From pocket knives to smart phones, humans keep inventing ever-more-sophisticated tools. However, the notion that tool use is an exclusively human trait was shattered in the 1960s when Jane Goodall observed our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, retrieving termites from holes with stripped twigs.

Tool use among non-human animals is hotly debated. It’s often thought a big brain is needed…

Read complete article

~	Mining, water and trust: how Namibia’s geoscientists see their role with communities

~	AI and blockchain are coming to African farms: 4 things must happen for farmers to benefit

~	US midterms: why a Democrat Congress could mean less political gridlock, not more

~	Why Trump, Xi, and Putin can’t carve up the world like the ‘big three’ leaders of 1945

~	International surrogacy and the narrow legal idea of what makes a family legitimate

~	The Democrats’ ‘blue tsunami’ is a strong repudiation of Donald Trump. Now, they will look to replicate it in 2028

~	Speaking in a second language may shift your moral compass – but it can’t overpower it

~	Why are Australians so interested in the US midterms?

~	Why an Ebola outbreak in Africa doesn’t mean an epidemic in Britain

~	Why so many British pubs are closing down