Give unto others: genetically unrelated cotton-top tamarin monkeys preferentially give food to those who altruistically give food back

Give unto others: genetically unrelated cotton-top tamarin monkeys preferentially give food to those who altruistically give food back.

Altruistic food giving among genetically unrelated individuals is rare in nature. The few examples that exist suggest that when animals give food to unrelated others, they may do so on the basis of mutualistic or reciprocally altruistic relationships. We present the results of four experiments designed to tease apart the factors mediating food giving among genetically unrelated cotton-top tamar...

To give and to give not: The behavioral ecology of human food transfers

The transfer of food among group members is a ubiquitous feature of small-scale forager and forager-agricultural populations. The uniqueness of pervasive sharing among humans, especially among unrelated individuals, has led researchers to evaluate numerous hypotheses about the adaptive functions and patterns of sharing in different ecologies. This article attempts to organize available cross-cu...

To give or not to give probiotics to preterm infants.

Should probiotics be routinely used in preterm infants? This is one of the most common questions asked with regard to probiotics. In this issue of the Journal, Athalye-Jape et al. (1) present the results of a meta-analysis (search date: April 2014) that assessed the effects of probiotic supplementation on enteral feeding in preterm (gestational age ,37 wk) or low-birth-weight (,2500 g) infants....

Activated charcoal: to give or not to give?

There has been much debate about the use of activated charcoal in patients who have taken overdoses and then present to Emergency Departments. There are clinical trials, research and position statements that have examined the effectiveness of activated charcoal in a number of overdoses of different medications, but there is still a debate surrounding the evidence based practice of administering...

To give or not to give? That is the question.