What Makes Humans Special? [Video]

Psychologist/primatologist Michael Tomasello explains

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Homo sapiens may be as much socialus as sapiens. See what I mean in my article, “The It Factor,” in the September Scientific American, which describes how chimpanzees and children just a bit beyond their second birthdays have about the same level of certain types of cognition—the kind of quantitative and spatial reasoning abilities that typically appear on IQ tests.

The psychologist/primatologist who spearheaded this research is Michael Tomasello of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Watch Tomasello describe his work during a video interview made in conjunction with his reception of the Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science 2010.

Gary Stix, senior editor of mind and brain at Scientific American, edits and reports on emerging advances that have propelled brain science to the forefront of the biological sciences. Stix has edited or written cover stories, feature articles and news on diverse topics, ranging from what happens in the brain when a person is immersed in thought to the impact of brain implant technology that alleviates mood disorders such as depression. Before taking over the neuroscience beat, Stix, as Scientific American's special projects editor, oversaw the magazine's annual single-topic special issues, conceiving of and producing issues on Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, climate change and nanotechnology. One special issue he edited on the topic of time in all of its manifestations won a National Magazine Award. With his wife Miriam Lacob, Stix is co-author of a technology primer called Who Gives a Gigabyte? A Survival Guide for the Technologically Perplexed.

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Scientific American Magazine Vol 311 Issue 3This article was originally published with the title “What Makes Humans Special? [Video]” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 311 No. 3 ()
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican092014-a4ZzaWi2GPK0fmMV38P89