My grandfather may have been a monkey, but my cousin isn't

While visiting the zoo today, I encountered the same pet peeve that bothers me whenever I go through the primate exhibits. Parents point to the chimpanzees and say to their kids, "Look, a monkey!" It would be acceptable if they called it a primate, unnecessarily vague but technically accurate. Call the animals what they are. There are even little signs to help you.

Monkey is a broad term that applies to any one of a number of species within the Order Primates. While they are related to the Great Apes, the Parvorder level (Catarrhini, which includes old world monkeys) is as close as any of them will come. Chimpanzees are a species (actually two) within the Family Hominidae, which also happens to include us.

I think it is important to use the correct terminology; our closest relatives in the animal kingdom deserve that. This is why I make sure to correctly name them chimpanzees when pointing them out to my daughter, no matter how many times she calls them monkeys.

It begins ...

Now I’ve done it. All I did was say, “Hey, if you get into graduate school, maybe you should start a blog. Because you would have something to talk about other than The Cat in the Hat and Duplo blocks.” I sent my acceptance of an offer today, which is why I am writing this now.

What can you expect here? Hopefully not the same stuff that other sites have, but invariably there will be overlap. I don’t even know myself. We will just have to see what it evolves into.

The lead will be played by science in general and neuroscience in particular; as interesting stories come up in the news or in scientific journals I will try to post and comment on them. Religion will probably be a secondary lead, especially its siege upon the search for knowledge (see previous sentence). Politics will be the fleeting love interest, of tertiary concern but important to the first two players. Parenting, which is the primary facet of my private life, will play a supporting role, maybe second man in elevator.

With that I shall begin.