[BERG] Life Scientific: Frans de Waal

BERG folk might be interested in Frans de Waal on Life Scientific: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wt6bj "Charles Darwin first alerted us to our ape ancestry. Genome analysis tells us we share 99% of our DNA with our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, the chimpanzee and the bonobo. And yet we seem surprised to learn that apes are kind and clever, traits we tend to like to think of as being uniquely human. Behavioural biologist and best-selling author, Frans de Waal has spent many years in offices overlooking chimp colonies, observing their behaviour on a daily basis. He pioneered studies of kindness and peace-making in primates, when other scientists were focussing on violence, greed and aggression. Empathy, he argues, has a long evolutionary history; and he is determined to undermine our arrogant assumptions of human superiority. Frans talks to Jim Al-Khalili about growing up on the Dutch polders, chimpanzee politics, and the extraordinary sex lives of the bonobos."