"In the past, it was thought that one of the selective advantages of having a large brain is that it facilitates the development of new behaviour to respond to the ecological challenges that the individual has not experienced before, such as a sudden reduction in food or the appearance of a new predator ", Cesar Gonzalez-Lagos, main author of the study and researcher at the Centre of Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) associated with the Autonomous University of Barcelona, highlights to SINC.

The results, which are published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, reveal that "species which have developed large brains live for longer than those with small brains, as the protective brain theory suggests, and therefore, can reproduce more times", the researcher stresses.

If the animal is protected by a large brain, this results in greater survival and a longer life. "However until recently there has been little evidence and there had been no agreement on whether species with larger brains live longer", the scientist points out.

According to this hypothesis, the brain would adopt a "protective" role which would help to reduce mortality and lengthen the reproductive live of the individuals, thereby compensating the energetic and development costs associated with a large brain.

The evidence is correlative, not cause-effect

KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 21, 2010 (IPS) - The prospect of motherhood filled 17-year-old Fatimah's heart with dread.

This, the Muslim youngster told the magistrate she appeared before in March, is why she left her newborn baby to die in a garbage bag here in the Malaysian capital four months ago. "I feared punishment and condemnation from my family and teachers in college," said Fatimah (not her real name).

The teenage mother was charged with abandoning her baby - a crime in this moderate Muslim-majority country, whose public has been increasingly worried by a spate of media reports police finding dead or alive newborn babies in trash bins and public places, including convenience stores.

"I had nowhere to go. I hid the pregnancy by wearing loose clothes," Fatimah told the court when her case came up for trial in May. In the end, Fatimah, whose relationship with her boyfriend had ended, delivered a baby girl on the stairs of a shop, alone.

In Jerusalem, lying your way into a woman's bed can get you in big trouble. A court has convicted an Arab man of "rape by deception" and sentenced him to 18 months in prison after he posed as a Jew in order to have sex with a Jewish woman.

The details of the case are vague and bizarre: After a chance meeting, in which 30-year-old Sabbar Kashur introduced himself as "Daniel," apparently as a way of  tricking the woman into thinking he was Jewish, the pair stole away to a nearby office building and had sex. He left before she could even get dressed (which, you know, violates common decency but not any actual laws), but after the fact she somehow discovered that he wasn't Jewish. (Cue the politically incorrect jokes.) In the final ruling, Jerusalem District Court Judge Tzvi Segal wrote: "If she hadn't thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have cooperated." 

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A federal judge in Connecticut has ruled competitive cheerleading is not an official sport for schools looking for ways to meet gender-equity requirements.

U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill said competitive cheerleading is too underdeveloped.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by members of the volleyball team at Quinnipiac University. The players sued after the school announced last year that it would eliminate the team for budgetary reasons.

Astronomers have found one of the heaviest stars ever seen, helping to answer a question that has been a mystery for a century: just how big can stars get?

A story posted on the Daily Star about a brand-new Grand Theft Auto game based on real-life killer Raoul Moat has been pulled following an uproar over the fact that the U.K. news site made the whole thing up.

Sometimes it seems like the videogame industry just can't catch a break. Take, for instance, this story posted by the Daily Star with the blaring headline, "Raoul Moat: Videogame, Film and Book Plans Cause Fury." Moat, for those who don't know, was a 37-year-old U.K. man who shot his ex-girlfriend, killed her new partner and then shot and critically wounded a police officer before killing himself a few days later during a standoff with police. And while tragic, it would have nothing whatsoever to do with our little world of digital entertainment except for the efforts of the Daily Star, which dug up a fake cover for Grand Theft Auto Rothbury and proclaimed that work on the game was already underway.

Recently, I had the good fortune to be invited by NPR to submit an essay on a favorite thriller of mine. I decided to write about George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is both an excellent thriller and an increasingly powerful and relevant political warning -- a combination readers of my latest novel, Inside Out, will know I find appealing.

Milwaukee Road No. 261 has steamed more than a million miles since it rolled out of a factory in eastern New York state 66 years ago, but on Tuesday, it was the locomotive's trip of six feet -- straight up -- that made all the difference.

As volunteers, railroad hobbyists and the merely curious looked on, two heavy-duty cranes lifted the engine's boiler, cab and frames off the eight drive wheels.

The wheels, each of which is 74 inches tall and weighs 7 1/2 tons, must be refurbished, and lifting the engine's boiler and frames was perhaps the riskiest part of an 18-month overhaul of the steam locomotive that could cost $1 million.

"This is probably something that hasn't been done in the U.S. for 40 years," said Steve Sandberg, who was overseeing the operation at Minneapolis Junction for the nonprofit group that owns the engine, Railroading Heritage of Midwest America...

The engine can produce 4,500 horsepower and is capable of 74 mph.

Bill Withuhn, curator emeritus with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said that when No. 261 is running again, it will be the largest active coal-burning steam locomotive in the world...

When they lifted the boiler, the cranes were able to weigh it: 227,000 pounds, or 113 1/2 tons.

The Rainbow Gathering is this year in the forest of Northern Savo. Police Commissioner Jyrki Haapalan has apparently turned up, tuned in and jaw dropped. "It was a real eye-opener. Everyone should go and see it. Their lifestyle deserves real respect: they do everything together, they respect nature and take away their rubbish. I saw no drunks, everyone hugs each other and we police welcome them heartily."

Unlike the Fuzz, most downmarket Finnish media focus on the abundant nakedness at the camp.

You can't be me, I'm taken

An investigation is under way after police seized a photographer's camera and images were later deleted from it.

Paul King was taking pictures of a crash in Wokingham, Berkshire, when he was confronted by a traffic officer.

Mr King said he was acting within the law and the action, on Tuesday, cost him up to £400 in loss of earnings.

Thames Valley Police returned the camera with images they put on to a disc. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said it would investigate.

Mr King, who has 25 years experience as a news photographer, works across the Thames Valley supplying images to the media.