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science

going ape over burgers

atlanta - For the first time, researchers have taught apes how to speak through a computer. Two animals, a pygmy chimp and an orangutan, have been able to hold conversations with researchers at Georgia State University's Language Research Center by pressing symbols on a keyboard that produces a synthetic voice. The chimp, named Panbanisha, has a vocabulary of 3,000 words. The breakthrough challenges the notion that only humans can express thoughts through speech. Among the first words spoken by the orangutan to his keepers: "Please buy me a hamburger."

ENVIRONMENT

No more oil overboard

BATON ROUGE, LA. - All it took was goodwill to make environmental change in these remote bayous and small bays. The temptation for small commercial fishing boats to dump used oil overboard is high. But thanks to a public-awareness program by the Louisiana Sea Grant and local volunteers, oil-recycling centers have sprung up in even the most remote areas. The program has all been funded by citizens and private dockside businesses. What's in it for them? Goodwill, according to The American News Service.

Geese fly off endangered list

WASHINGTON - Pushed to the brink of extinction 25 years ago by non-indigenous foxes, the white-necked Aleutian Canada goose has recovered enough to be removed from the US threatened species list. As one of the first species put on the endangered list in the 1970s, the goose now joins a growing list of once-imperiled species that have recovered in recent times, including the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, and the Columbia white-tailed deer.

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society