New answers tagged biology
4
Is there a species of locust-eating wasp that will check its burrow repeatedly if its food is moved?
It seems that Fabre's original claim has been greatly exaggerated by subsequent writers, and that the wasps are not nearly as stereotyped as those subsequent authors have claimed; Fabre's own description noted that not all wasps of the species showed this rigid behavior, and later studies have not supported it.
The Sphex story is an anecdote about a ...
0
Extreme stress and/or psychological neglect can certainly deeply affect the development of a young child in a way that can't be completely reversed. This stress does not mean physical abuse or starvation but simply ignoring kids for long periods or not showing them love.
Such children can sometimes actually become dwarfs because their bodies do not produce ...
16
In addition to the other answers I would like to clarify that Salimbene indeed described an experiment in which the children died of social isolation. Here is the original excerpt1:
Secunda eius superstitio fuit quia voluit experiri, cuiusmodi linguam et loquelam haberent pueri, cum adolevissent, si cum nemine loquerentur. Et ideo precepit baiulis et ...
20
Not directly related to your source(s), but see the article pit of despair on Wikipedia. Warning, the article and the experiment itself can be rather disturbing.
Harlow's first experiments involved isolating a monkey in a cage surrounded by steel walls with a small one-way mirror, so the experimenters could look in, but the monkey could not look out. The ...
59
We cannot be sure exactly what happened 7 centuries ago; we only have the one account. However something akin to this experiment did occur, albeit without the controlled conditions. In Romania during Communism thousands of children were consigned to orphanages where they were grossly neglected (warning: the linked article contains distressing details).
Many ...
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