The A﹠P Professor Science & Education Updates - Issue #204

Life Science

Summary: Researchers say laughter may have been preserved by natural selection to assist with human survival. A woman in labor is having a terrible time and suddenly shouts out: “Shouldn’t! Wouldn’t! Couldn’t! Didn’t! Can’t!”

In mock-ups of the female reproductive tract, bull sperm cluster in groups of two to four, which seems to help them swim upstream

A mucus-wicking robotic pill may offer a new way to deliver meds.

The multivitamin-sized device houses a motor and a cargo hold for drugs, including ones that are typically given via injections or intravenously, such as insulin and some antibiotics.

If people could take such drugs orally, they could potentially avoid daily shots or a hospital stay, which would be “a huge game changer,” says MIT biomedical engineer Shriya Srinivasan.

Neanderthals have long been seen as uber-masculine hunks, at least compared with their lightweight human cousins, with whom they competed for food, territory, and mates.

But a new study finds Homo sapiens men essentially emasculated their brawny brethren when they mated with Neanderthal women more than 100,000 years ago. Those unions caused the modern Y chromosomes to sweep through future generations of Neanderthal boys, eventually replacing the Neanderthal Y.

Researchers made the find using an algorithm that purportedly distinguishes between mutations that were selected for and those that came along for the ride by coincidence, a feat that has long eluded scientists.

Officials may have given up, but we still need healthcare providers' help.

COVID-19–associated orphanhood and caregiver death has left an estimated 10.5 million children bereaved of their parents and caregivers.

Teaching & Learning

The formation of long-term memory relies on intrinsic neurological learning processes and the repetition of events.

TAPP News & Notes

Benefits to A﹠P Faculty Taking Courses | How Olfactory Adaptation Really Works | Young Cerebrospinal Fluid Makes Us Remember Better

A Collection of Simple Things We Can Do to Improve and Maintain Access and Inclusion in the Anatomy & Physiology Course (Part 1 of 2)