Chimpanzees clasp hands while grooming one another, and each group has its own distinct grip, which researchers say is similar to a secret handshake in humans.
The apes are known to be a cultural species, and the new study by University of Antwerp scientists focused on hand clasping in two different groups over 12 years.
This is a peculiar social custom among the chimpanzee species which is linked to grooming, but only found in a relatively small number of chimp populations.
The team looked at different styles of handclasp between the two groups and found group belongingness is reliability identified based on the style of handclasp used.
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Universities, NGOs, public bodies and media partners launched the largest Brussels air quality measurement study to date on Saturday.
This participatory science project, called CurieuzenAir, aims to mobilise families, businesses, associations and schools to map air pollution at some 3,000 sites in the Brussels-Capital Region. Its launch coincides with preparations for EU Green Week 2021.
The initiative is part of the Brussels Clean Air Partnership, a collaboration that began in October 2020 between Bloomberg Philanthropies, the government of the Brussels-Capital Region and Brussels Environment, to encourage local partners to improve air quality through innovation, research and monitoring, citizen engagement and educational programmes.
Buildings, bridges and offshore infrastructure might one day stand on pilings modeled on snakeskin, based on research at the University of California, Davis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. With surfaces designed to move through soil more easily in one direction than the other, snakeskin pilings would be easier to drive into soil but difficult to pull out.
Views: Visits 5 In a time when the world is focusing on COVID-19 vaccines, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted the importance of routine immunisations for diseases such as measles, tetanus and polio. Although immunisation saves millions of lives each year, progress in vaccine coverage remains highly uneven, both between and within countries. Despite considerable progress over the past two decades, the situation is particularly worrying in Africa. Nearly half of the world’s unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children live in this region. Even where vaccines are available, one barrier to progress is vaccine hesitancy: the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate. In 2019, the WHO listed vaccine hesitancy among the top ten threats to global health. Building trust in vaccination is a key aspect of this year’s WHO immunisation campaign.