Science talk at St Matthew’s

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Published: 28 Mar 2015 19:000 comments

The next event in the Irvine Bay/Royal Society of Edinburgh ‘Talk Science’ series will be on ‘the cultures of the apes’ at St Matthew’s Academy on Monday.

The event is free, but booking is required. Go to royalsoced.org.uk and select 'Events'.

The next event in the Irvine Bay/Royal Society of Edinburgh ‘Talk Science’ series will be on ‘the cultures of the apes’ at St Matthew’s Academy on Monday.

The talk will given by Professor Andrew Whiten, Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology and Wardlaw Professor of Psychology at the University of St Andrews.

Just 50 years ago we knew next to nothing about the lives in the wild of our closest animal relatives.

Now, excitingly, we have the benefit of decades of fascinating discoveries about their behaviour.

One surprise was that chimpanzees in different parts of Africa show different customs, just as people do.

In other words, they have their own cultures, with different feeding techniques, tool use and social interactions.

Come along to this lecture to discover what we have learned about the evolution of these ‘cultures’ in apes, monkeys, and other species of animal, and what these discoveries tell us about the origins of our own special cultural nature.

The event is on Monday, March 30 at 7pm – refreshments from 6.30pm.

It is free, but booking is required. Go to royalsoced.org.uk and select 'Events'.

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