The question is, do we really need talking chimpanzees? The supporters of the project tell us they are unlocking the secrets of human language. But Sen. Proxmire—backed up by an eminent-scientist from...
The man was angry and acting like a bully, as policemen do. His name was Russo. Bill Russo. Well, I’d known Bill Russo for years, and he was a bit, shall we say, limited. He knew Sandy, or should have...
The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
The Lost City of the Monkey God is a throwback to the golden age of adventure archaeology, the thrilling true story of a group of explorers penetrating one of the toughest jungles on earth in search o...
So, after half a million, what did the chimps say? Well, not much, when you really analyze it. That wasn’t the point, for God’s sake! And the scientists who supported us were afraid to object. They di...
Our capacity for violence is greater, but not necessarily our desire.
Mr. Ozmian, said Pendergast, in his quietest, smoothest voice, we have bad news: your daughter is dead. The man looked as if he’d just been shot. He actually staggered and had to grip the side of a ch...
Jennie had a set of values, but she didn’t realize they were different values from the rest of us. She never could understand why she was always in trouble. In the end, I mean. She didn’t know what it...
In the twentieth century the Mormon Church sent a number of well-funded archaeologists to Mexico and Central America to try to confirm the stories through site excavations. Although this resulted in v...
In keeping with the methodical scientist he was, he had been jotting daily notes on his work. But underneath the entry for May 5, he had written two words only: HOLY SHIT!
If you have the golden chicken, the archaeologists don’t want the chicken to produce any golden eggs, but the tourist guys, they want to cut it open to get all the eggs at once. There should be a bala...
I believe that we humans, in teaching chimpanzees and gorillas ASL, stumbled upon a natural communication system already in use. We just enhanced it. This is just my opinion and I wouldn’t dare put it...
Here we were, spending all this taxpayer money teaching chimps a few hundred signs. They had no clue as to how this would illuminate our understanding of human linguistic development. Or the evolution...
He said he had been converted to atheism at the age of six, when his Sunday school teacher had described with relish the eternal fires of Hell.
Gideon, he said, think for a minute about the qualities that a leader—even a co-leader—is required to have. He’s a team player. He’s good at inspiring others. He’s able to hide his true feelings, put...
From many bragging inscriptions of glorious combat and deeds, we know the Maya city-states were belligerent and engaged in frequent battles with each other and with their neighbors. These conflicts on...
Forgive my skepticism. All the journalists I’ve dealt with have been so poorly informed. They don’t make the slightest effort to understand the science. Journalists are lazy and stupid. I won’t mentio...
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quotation: The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function?
Even with the intense excitement and high spirits, the hike back to camp was grueling, as the steep hillsides were impossible to descend except in a semi-controlled sort of falling slide.
Do what? Kill me? Then my blood would be on your hands—more than it already is—as well as that of your four dear friends. Because you, frater, are responsible for all this. You know it. You made me wh...