Just the Facts

Orangutan Engineers
They may not have degrees from MIT, but orangutans do have advanced engineering skills. Scientists from the University of Manchester found the apes of Sumatra have impressive and well-developed nest-building and construction skills.  

Death Wish
A woman in her 40s was hospitalized after suffering a medical emergency at Las Vegas’s Heart Attack Grill, the second in recent months. The restaurant is known for its Quadruple Bypass Burger, which has about 10,000 calories. Customers weighing more than 350 pounds eat for free.

Vegan Food Delivered Nationwide!
With the click of your mouse, you can have an entire week’s worth of low-fat, whole-food, plant-based meals delivered to your home. Julieanna Hever, R.D., just launched the Plant-Based Dietitian’s Gourmet To-Go at PlantBasedDietitian.com.

India Bans Animal Use in Education
India’s government has banned the use of live animals in experiments at educational and research facilities. The experiments will be replaced with nonanimal methods, including computer simulations.

Toxic Chicken
New evidence shows that a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinones is still being used in the poultry industry, despite being banned by the FDA in 2005. The antibiotics are intended for use in humans.

Go, Nuts!
Researchers at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center found that people who eat tree nuts have a lower risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. About a quarter of an ounce per day does the trick.

Fungus Among Us
Four distributors have been charged with scraping the mold and fungus off more than 100,000 pounds of decomposing Mexican cheese, and returning the cheese to retailers. The FDA found salmonella, E.coli, and other bacteria on the cheese samples.

Less Meat, Better Environment  
Meat consumption is contributing to the hole in the ozone layer and global climate change. Scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center say the developed world needs to cut meat consumption in half to curb emissions of dangerous greenhouse gases.

Maybe They Are Bilingual, Too
Baboons can tell the difference between real words and nonsense combinations of letters on a computer screen. A study found baboons learn to recognize patterns of letters that show up in the English language. Even more impressive, the study using English words was conducted in France!

Ravens Forget Nevermore
New research finds ravens remember friends or foes. The birds recall prior interactions with humans and vary their calls based on those earlier experiences. The ravens’ call characteristics are lower in tone with foes than with friends.

Illustrations Doug Hall/PCRM