News Mash-up: Animal Research

レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

Kangaroos can communicate with us: scientists Kangaroos can learn to communicate with humans in a similar way that domesticated dogs do, by using their gaze to “point” and ask for help, researchers said in a study published on Dec. 16. The study involved 11 kangaroos that lived in captivity but had not been domesticated. Ten of the 11 marsupials intently gazed at researchers when they were unable to open a box with food, according to the report. Nine alternately looked at the human and at the container, as a way of pointing or gesturing toward the object. The findings challenge the notion that only domesticated animals such as dogs, horses or goats communicate with humans. (Reuters) Scientists help paralyzed mice to walk again German researchers have enabled mice paralyzed after spinal cord injuries to walk again, re-establishing a neural link hitherto considered irreparable in mammals by using a designer protein injected into the brain. Spinal cord injuries in humans, often caused by sports or traffic accidents, leave them paralyzed because not all of the nerve fibers that carry information between muscles and the brain are able to grow back. But the researchers, from Ruhr University Bochum, managed to stimulate the paralyzed mice’s nerve cells to regenerate using a designer protein. The paralyzed rodents that received the treatment started walking after two to three weeks, the researchers said. (Reuters) These articles were provided by The Japan Times Alpha.