Free Republic

The four swine in the study always wanted to be the first at the computer each dayThere are three bright blue walls displayed on a black screen. Move the cursor to a wall, the computer goes bloop! and a treat pops out. After some success, one wall disappears. With only two walls, it’s a little bit harder. Then, after more bloops and treats, the screen drops down to one blue wall. For a pig moving the joystick with its snout, it takes serious skills to get the cursor to that one blue wall. Read More But four pigs, named Omelet,...

Scientists adding human brain genes to monkeys — it’s the kind of thing you’d see in a movie like Rise of the Planet of the Apes. But Chinese researchers have done just that, improving the short-term memories of the monkeys in a study published in March in the Chinese journal National Science Review. While some experts downplayed the effects as minor, concerns linger over where the research may lead. The goal of the work, led by geneticist Bing Su of Kunming Institute of Zoology, was to investigate how a gene linked to brain size, MCPH1, might contribute to the evolution...

SANTA FE, N.M. — Democrats in the New Mexico Legislature are preparing plans to ensure legal, safe access to abortions in case regulation of the procedure is returned to states. State Rep. Joanne Ferrary of Las Cruces said she plans to introduce legislation for the next session that removes the state’s criminal ban on abortion in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturns a 1973 decision that made the procedure legal nationwide. She said her cause has taken on new urgency with the addition of Republican-appointed justices under President Donald Trump. A 1969 New Mexico statute made it a felony for...