Oh Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ. "Chimps Are More Evolved than Humans"?! I expect to see this sort of stupidity in the Times, but I hold a higher standard for any publication MIT attaches it's name to.

it is an important point on highlighting the cognitive constraints in how we view the world. the press just can't get rid of an idea is irrelevant to the science.... (even adaptationists who accept a macroscale increase in complexity as a function of time would not endorse this line of thinking IMO)

to the anonymous commenter who i deleted cuz you're anonymous: yes, i know of the gene is ASPM, but i figured readers would know that and i didn't want to be TS's copy editor.

yes, i know of the gene is ASMP...

as your copy editor, I suggest you substitute ASPM for ASMP... :)

damnit! commenting on the fly....

My experience with and knowledge of chimps is extremely limited but I thought I'd pass it along.

In 1956 (damn--over 50 years ago!) I bought an adult female chimp named Nancy from a tourist zoo in York Beach, Maine--on behalf of a similar zoo in Maggie Valley, NC--and she was shipped there.
I was in upstate NY at the time and the deal was by phone. The seller mentioned that Nancy had bitten children (not severely) a couple times, after years of being quite tolerant of them. He also mentioned that she was accustomed to being dressed in a different set of clean clothes each day and would sulk if these weren't provided. Before having Nancy shipped to NC, I explained these things to the people managing the NC property (Soco Zoo). Several months later, I had occasion to go to NC and so met Nancy.

A spacious cage had been provided. Inside there was a small house in which she slept, a swing, a slide, and some other things to play on. But what caught my attention was that Nancy had a washtub, a wash-board, a bar of soap, and a clothesline and pins. First thing each morning, she'd take off the set of clothes she was wearing (each set was a pullover shirt and a pair of shorts with over-the-shoulder straps), wash it, and hang it on the line. Then she'd take the clean set from the line and dress herself. I asked how they'd taught her to do this. The guy managing the place said, "Well, you said she liked to wear clean clothes every day, so we gave her those things--figured she already knew how to use 'em."

A few times, we took Nancy out for rides in a car, which she enjoyed immensely. Except that she didn't like sitting (in front) in the middle because she couldn't see out the windows too well--she especially liked to wave and make faces at people in other vehicles. A few times we took her to drive-in restaurants--she loved sodas and ice-cream sundaes--spoons and straws seemed almost second nature to her. She also enjoyed smoking either cigarettes or cigars.

I have a friend named Manuel King (lives now in Houston--about 84 years old--and operates a large pet grooming and boarding business). In the '30s, he played all over the world as the "world's youngest lion-tamer." Started with 8 lions at 8 years of age--finished up 6 years later, adding a lion each year. Gave command performance for Q of E and was billed above Bob Hope at Steel Pier in Atlantic City.

In the '50s, after some years out of the business, he dreamed up a publicity stunt involving chimps. He got about 6 or 8 of them to sit at a long table and to do things with paper and cardboard boxes--to look like they were "packaging" various merchandise. They really weren't, of course; it took a lot of bananas just to get them to do a few simple things. But the newspapers loved it and wrote far-fetched stories (with plenty of photos). But Manny got more publicity than he bargained for. Unions got after him, threatening lawsuits (and worse). It was months before they'd believe it was just a publicity stunt and not a threat against workers' jobs.