Maternal and infant morbidity and mortality can be improved around the world. Flexible monitoring devices, among other new technologies, can help detect and prevent poor health outcomes in newborns and their parents.

Read my article in IEEE Pulse: Advances in Maternity Technology.

Coyotes are making their way into urban neighborhoods across the U.S. In the new book Coyotes Among Us, a wildlife ecologist draws from more than two decades of experience to dispel pervasive coyote myths and make the case for why humans should embrace living near coyotes.

Read my Q&A with Dr. Stanley Gehrt of the Urban Coyote Research Project: Learning to Live With the Coyotes Next Door.

To answer why larger brains evolved in some animals and not others, scientists looked at how different factors affect relative brain size across 1,176 bird species. They found that the amount of energy parents invested in their young played a key role in the development and evolution of larger brains among birds. The evolution of long-term parental care could also explain how the human brain grew so large.

Read the whole article at the Science Journal for Kids: What do parenting and brain size have to do with each other?

Are humans the only animals with a mischievous sense of humor? Where did our ability to joke with one another come from? In a new study, a team of scientists report evidence of playful teasing in four great ape species: orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. These findings suggest that the cognitive building blocks of humor were likely inherited by apes and humans from our last common ancestor at least 13 million years ago.

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: Teasing Apes Suggest Humor Has Deep Evolutionary Roots.

Chickens are experiencing a surge in popularity. In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 85 million backyard chickens, making them the third most common pet in the country. A new survey of chicken owners reveals the rising—yet still in-between—status of chickens in households.

Read the whole story at my Animal Minds blog: Backyard Chickens: Poultry, Pets, or Something In-Between?