How to jam with an ape
QUESTION Did a monkey play the piano on one of Peter Gabriel’s albums?
No, but Peter Gabriel has jammed with a pair of bonobo apes.
In 2001, he took part in an interspecies music session with Congolese bonobo apes at Georgia State university’s Language Research Centre in Atlanta. bonobos and humans are closely related, sharing 98.4 per cent of their DNA.
Gabriel was invited by Sue SavageRumbaugh, a psychologist and primatologist renowned for her work with brother and sister bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha. She uses lexigrams — symbols representing words — to communicate with the bonobos.
Gabriel played with the bonobos on four occasions. While jamming with Panbanisha, the musician stipulated that she played the piano with one finger on each hand, using only white keys, while he played chords in A minor on a synthesiser in another room. the ape picked out a basic melody that clearly fitted with Gabriel’s accompaniment.
the experience inspired the joyous song Animal Nation (‘ I didn’t meet you in the jungle/Swinging from a tree/I sat down at the piano/You were playing with me’), which he recorded for the 2002 film the Wild thornberrys and performed on his 2003-2004 tours.
Gabriel has also been involved in ApeNet, where scientists encourage bonobos to go online, communicating by means of lexigrams.
Gina Christian, Sheffield.
QUESTION Why was forensic scientist Loic Le Ribault hounded out of France?
IN 1981, French forensic scientist Loic Le Ribault set up a laboratory to use his knowledge of sedimentology and electron microscopy to help police investigations.
In one of his biggest cases, he proved that soil on a spade in the van of suspected serial killer Pierre Chanal was identical to that in the shallow grave of murder victim trevor o’Keeffe. However, Le Ribault went bankrupt in 1991 when the French police began doing their own forensics in regional labs.
He then claimed he had discovered a water-soluble silica molecule which he marketed as having medicinal properties. After his medical claims were challenged by the Council of the order of Physicians in France and by the National order of Pharmacists in 1997, he moved to Ireland and sold his remedy by mail order under the names G5 a and Silonol.
A warrant for his arrest w was issued in France for illegally practising medicine.
Le Ribault was arrested in Switzerland and extradited to France in 2003, where he was prosecuted for selling medicine without proper authorisation.
Having served six months in prison, Le Ribault returned to Ireland, proclaiming: ‘For me, France no longer exists. I left it in 1997. I will soon leave it by the first plane to Ireland and I will never set foot there again.’
However, he did return to France, where he died in 2007. IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT. You can also email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published, but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.