Altruism Begets Altruism1

Atrial fibrillation begets trouble.

Hypertension begets hypertrophy begets atrial fibrillation? Insights from yet another sheep model.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects approximately two million patients in the USA and an equal number in Europe and increases morbidity and mortality in affected patients and population worldwide. Although acute conversion of AF to sinus rhythm can be achieved in almost all patients, therapeutic options to maintain sinus rhythm (repeated cardioversions, anti-arrhythmic drugs, catheter ablation, or...

Tropical rainforests: Diversity begets diversity

Tropical rainforests exhibit an extraordinarily high level of biological diversity. A new study shows that the patterns of seedling survival surrounding parent trees are responsible in large part for this amazing diversity.

Altruism

What is altruism? Altruism is a type of social behaviour. From an evolutionary point of view, a behaviour is social if it has consequences for both the actor and another individual — the recipient. Social behaviours can be categorized according to whether their consequences for the actor and recipient are beneficial, increasing fitness, or costly, decreasing fitness (Figure 1). Altruism is when...

Altruism

Altruistic actions are generally seen as 'noble'. Yet some 'lowly' organisms are apt to match the most heroic human acts of devotion and self-sacrifice. To use a widely-quoted example, consider Dicrocoelium dendriticum, also known as brainworm. These parasites spend some of their stages in the innards of cows, exit in the feces and, in the form of cercaria, are eaten by ants a few stages later....