Nature Monkeys Around

While perusing PLoS ONE recently, I noticed something that was quite frankly surprising. Under the New and Noted section of the front page, I saw an interesting article entitled Preference Transitivity and Symbolic Representation in Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella).

The research team, led by by Elsa Addessi , found that Capuchin monkeys could comprehend symbolic representations of food. A different “token” gained a different treat, and soon the monkeys began to synthesize this mental association. Each monkey had individual tastes, and chose the item that represented its preferred treat. This is surprising news, given the significant evolutionary divergence between humans and Capuchin monkeys and is all in all a profound discovery.

Despite the ground-braking nature of the work, I found that its most interesting aspect concerns its coverage in NatureNews of Nature Publishing Group, publisher of the journal epitomizing closed access elitism (Nature). In fact, Nature had recently published a letter disparaging the entire open access (OA) philosophy, declaring it harmful and counterproductive. I could not help but notice that Nature Publishing Group nearly simultaneously prints a scathing attack and a subtle affirmation of the merits of OA. Perhaps they should make up their minds.

Nathan