The evolution of eusociality, here defined as the emergence of societies with reproductive division of labour and cooperative brood care, was first seen as a challenge to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Why should individuals permanently forgo direct reproduction to help other individuals to reproduce? Kin selection, the indirect transmission of genes through relatives, is th...

Synopsis-In the history of the concept of gender, through the work of Margaret Mead, sex role theorists, and Ann Oakley, we find a progressive denaturalisation of the division of labour and psychological differences between men and women, and a stress on cultural variation. But none of these authors, nor most recent feminist work, has questioned the assumption that gender is based on a natural,...

Individual specialization in the use of foraging tools occurs in hunter-gatherer societies but is absent in non-human primate tool use. 'Parallel tool industries' in hunter-gatherers are mainly based on strict sexual division of labour that is highly reliant on social conformity. Here, we show that 12 individuals in a population of New Caledonian crows on Maré Island had strong preferences for ...

Insects are at the dawn of an epigenetics era. Numerous social insect species have been found to possess a functioning methylation system, previously not thought to exist in insects. Methylation, an epigenetic tag, may be vital for the sociality and division of labour for which social insects are renowned. In the bumble-bee Bombus terrestris, we found methylation differences between the genomes...

In this study I examined how the paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus, defends a colony when faced with a vertebrate attack. I looked for a division of labour in defensive behaviour within a colony and examined whether this behaviour changes over the colony cycle. The colonies were presented with a model of an adult red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, and a speaker that vibrated the comb. There...

  Healthcare professional education is the undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development for doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals. Labour economics is the relationship between workers and employers, and the resultant effect on employment and wages.   Healthcare professional education ultimately produces a workforce, and that workforce is governed by the rule...