Friday, June 5th, 2009

Tickling Gorillas and the Evolution of Laughter

How did laughter evolve? Photo by Flickr user makelessnoise.

It sounds like the setup for a joke: what do you get when you tickle a baby gorilla? Writing in the journal Current Biology, researchers give the answer: data on the evolution of laughter among the primates. The authors of the paper recorded the sounds made by tickled gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and human infants, and analyzed them for similarities and differences. We'll talk with the lead author of the report about what she found, and what the work can tell evolutionary biologists about laughter and other social behaviors.

Guests

Marina Davilla Ross
Research Fellow, Department of Psychology
University of Portsmouth
Portsmouth, UK

Related Links

• Wired Science: Human Laughter Echoes Chimp Chuckles
• Discovery News: Chimps, Other Apes Laugh Like People

Segment produced by:Charles Bergquist

Friday, June 5th, 2009

• New Fusion Facility
• Future of Nuclear Energy
• Tickling Gorillas and the Evolution of Laughter
• Newton and the Counterfeiter
• Cancer Vaccine Update

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