Removal of an offender’s hand, tongue or ear: punishments described in Babylon’s Hammurabi Code, depended on the nature of the crime. Published in 1771 B.C., the code set the first formal standards for business interactions. But scientists disagree about whether punishment is necessary to maintain mutually-beneficial interactions between animals and plants in nature. In a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in China discovered the exception that clearly demonstrates that sanctions enforce cooperation in the fig-wasp mutualism.
Click here for original story, Punishment enforces cooperation in the fig-wasp mutualism: The exception proves the rule
Source: Phys.org