The Georgian Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy is in talks with Russia's Cosmonautics Academy about starting a program to train monkeys for an eventual journey to Mars. The Institute supplied monkeys to the Russian space program in the 1980s, when Russia began sending monkeys into orbit. Now Russia is considering sending monkeys to Mars before putting human cosmonauts at risk. Because a round-trip voyage to Mars would take an estimated 520 days and would subject cosmonauts to high levels of radiation, there are concerns about sending humans on the initial trip. Instead, we may get to see how other primates fare first.

If Russia does decide to begin a Martian monkey program, a biosphere would be constructed at the Institute to allow for simulated missions. While on these faux missions, the monkeys would interact with a robot instead of their human handlers. The Institute is looking to train the monkeys to cooperate with such robots, which would feed and clean up after the monkeys.

Monkey to be sent to Mars [Telegraph]

Sugimoto's "The TV Show" is a feast for the eyes from the get-go, but watch all the way through to see its multiple realities bleed into one another.

An earlier video, "Full Moon Party," replays human history with furrier primates in the starring roles:

[via Metafilter]

A research team led by Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St. Andrews has been studying the calls of the Campbell's monkey, a primate found in the Ivory Coast. The team looked at how the calls of adult male monkeys vary in response to various stimuli. Campbell's monkeys have six different types of individual calls, each of which has a distinct meaning. What's surprising, however, is that these monkeys actually string together multiple types of calls to create communications with entirely new meanings. Zuberbühler and his team claim this is a form of syntax, suggesting that Campbell's monkeys have developed a sort of sentence structure. Other primates, such as chimpanzees, have shown an understanding of language, able to connect words and symbols with specific meanings, but haven't been able to combine those words into sentences.

The team has identified the meanings of the individual calls, as well as how they can be combined to form completely different communications:

The "boom-boom" call invites other monkeys to come toward the male making the sound. Two booms can be combined with a series of "krak-oos," with a meaning entirely different to that of either of its components. "Boom boom krak-oo krak-oo krak-oo" is the monkey's version of "Timber!" - it warns of falling trees.

Combining the "boom-booms" and "krak-oos" with a third sound, "hok-oo," warns monkeys of the presence of other monkey groups. It appears that initially, the monkeys developed the calls to warn each other of specific predators, such as leopards and eagles, but their anti-predator vocabulary has evolved into something much more sophisticated.

Boom! Hok! A Monkey Language Is Deciphered [NY Times]

Muscle disease specialists at Ohio State University have been studying myostatin, the protein that regulates and curbs muscle growth. Their research found that a second protein, follistatin, can bind to myostatin, preventing myostatin from stopping muscle growth. They decided to test whether artificially introducing follistatin to the body would lead to an increase in strength and muscle mass. Using a common cold virus as a carrier, the researchers injected the follistatin gene into the thigh muscles of six macaque monkeys. The monkeys' thigh muscles grew an average of 15 percent as a result of the treatment, and one monkey experienced an incredible 78 percent increase in strength. The researchers reported in Science Translational Medicine that, after 15 months, the increases remained and that the monkeys experienced no visible side effects.

The researchers hope to start clinical trials on humans next year, with an eye toward helping people with degenerative muscular diseases. But for healthy individuals looking to increase their strength, the treatment would come at a cost: immunosuppressant drugs are a necessary component of the therapy.

Gene therapy may be used to treat muscular dystrophy [Times Online via Next Big Future via Reddit]

Charles Snowdon, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and David Teie, a musician at the University of Maryland, have been testing the responses of cotton-top tamarins to different kinds of music. In the past, psychologists trying to examine the evolutionary roots of music have played music for primates, but with little response from our hairy cousins.

The problem, Snowdon and Teie claim, is that human music is designed for human enjoyment; different species interpret rising and falling pitches, and the duration and volume of sounds differently, so what's melodious to human ears may sound like random noise to a monkey or an ape. They tried instead to compose music based on tamarin calls, and, sure enough, when monkeys heard music based on the "fear" sounds, they became agitated and nervous, but when they heard music based on the "friendly, happy" sounds, they became visibly calm and relaxed. They hope their study will open a new door in animal communications research, one in which behaviorists not only communicate information to animals, but also use sounds to change their long-term behavior.

Like earlier psychologists, Snowden and Teie played human music for the tamarins, to no effect — with one exception. They reported that the monkeys did, in fact, respond to Metallica, though it's not clear whether they saw it as "fear" music or "friendly" music.

You can hear samples of David Teie's monkey music compositions at PhysOrg.

Monkeys get a groove on, but only to monkey music (w/ Audio) [PhysOrg]

The Daily Mail has the report on why three parents are better than one. Four monkeys have been wiped clean of any mitochondrial genetic diseases, by swapping out the nuclear DNA from the mother's egg with that of another egg donor. See the graph:

Fascinating stuff, but we say why just three? Why not go a third step and gestate the swapped egg in a surrogate, whose body chemistry affects how the genes are expressed in a variety of ways? That way, you increase your chances of having a genetically superior offspring.

I'm for any kind of Nuclear DNA sucking where the child retains the physical characteristics of the original parent, but ditches genetic diseases. Mainly because one, I know I'll be long dead before any serious GATTACA shit will hit the fan, two the more superior my offspring are the better chance I have to live off the money from their future achievements as an athlete or super brain, and three I'd love to see diseases that are possibly stemmed from mitochondrial malfunction gone forever, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and osteoporosis.

Phillips' series "Steampunk Monkey Nation" is available on Etsy for $18 a print, or $8 for the entire pack of collectible cards, each containing the respective monkey's bombastic name, favored technologies, and backstory. Phillips also has a second simian series, "World War Monkey."

[Chet Phillips' Etsy via Drawn!]

Xander Tiberius Crushington
Thaddeus J. Malarky
Hester Farklebot
Enrique Crimsonpoole
Eduardo Blacklard
Bertram Vendetta
Obediah Krinklenut
Phineas H. Flabbergast
Theodosia B. Smirch
Sebastian Cluttermuck
Gregor Bravadoclod
Parthenia R. Poppycog
Ezekiel M. Nightshade
Henrich Waddlerot
Horatio Sprocketnotch
Zebulon T. Viperfang
Hans Von Grubmunch
Edwina Hornswoggler
Meriwether Ironcrumpet
Archibald T. Gasketlatch

Vanguard Entertainment, who produced Valiant and Happily Never After, is animating the film, and Brash Entertainment is making the game. They're also working on games based on Saw and 300, so you've got visceral gore and bloody battles on one end, and happy-go-lucky flying space monkeys on the other. We think the monkeys should just rebel against what the humans have put them through and they create a supercool simian space rocket and use it to fire missiles containing their own poo at the planet.

News-Space Chimps Movie Game Confirmed [Pariah's Guild]