Chimpanzees Learn From Tool-Making Video

BBC article about recent research from St. Andrews University probing chimpanzees' capacity for imitation / emulation. The task - similar to one that pioneer psychologist Wolfgang Kohler gave to his prize chimp Sultan almost 100 years ago - was to allow chimps to watch various versions of a video showing another, trained, chimp assembling a long rod out of two connecting parts, to reach food outside their cages. Some chimps were shown the full video, others only part of the process. The latter group constructed a usable tool using the gist of what was shown them, those that witnessed the full assembly slavishly followed it even when the food was only a short distance from the cage, making the longer tool cumbersome to employ. Children seem to "anally" over-imitate like this and further comparative tests with chimps and children are underway. Why is there no such strong social learning documented in chimps in the wild? Perhaps, the researchers say, they suffer from a lack of tolerant teachers.

Palaeontologists Brought To Tears At Creation Museum

A group of palaeontologists thought it would be a bit of fun to cap off their conference with a giggle at the expense of the Creation Museum. What they found there, however, reduced some to anger - others to tears. According to this Physorg piece, not only was the Museum peddling its ridiculous nonsense that the Earth and the plant and animal kingdoms were created as described in the Bible, but, much worse, the message rampant was that Christianity was the only route to a moral society and that evolution, and evolutionists, have been responsible for the wars, famine and natural disasters that have afflicted human society. Lisa Park, a professor at the University of Akron, and a Presbyterian elder, is quoted saying "I think there's a lot of focus on fear, and I don't think that's a very Christian message...I find it a malicious manipulation of the public".

Can Humans Echolocate?

In chapter 2 of NOT A CHIMP I conclude that the fact that humans, birds and bats have all experienced evolutionary changes to the FOXP2 gene tells us as much, if not more, about the extraordinary neuro-muscular control of the pharynx that allows talking humans, singing birds and echolocating bats to produce the sounds, or ultrasounds, they make. Perhaps, in view of this, it is not so surprising to find this group of Spanish scientists helping to develop echolocation in blind humans, using a vocabulary of palate clicks. Apparently an American, Daniel Kish, was such a superb echolocator that he was awarded a certificate to act as a guide for blind people, while the acknowledged best human echolocator, Ben Underwood, died earlier this year.

Are Human Beings Impossible To Ape?

A nice article in today's Daily Telegraph by Sanjida O'Connell. In a previous existence as primate cognition researcher, Sanjida claimed to have shown that certain primates had substantial grasp of "theory of mind". While the book is very skeptical on this point she has written a very fair and even-handed piece. IMHO!