"The area in Yunnan is bigger than that of Japan, the gene bank in Yunnan is big," said Tetsuro Matsuzawa from Kyoto University on March 23. He was on his journey to Kunming to give lectures in some colleges and visit some institutes in the city.
Professor Tetsuro has published many papers and books, parts of which have been translated into Chinese. He won the Jane Goodall Award in 2001. He is also the president of Primate Research Institute.
Tetsuro Matsuzawa said: "the difference of base array between human being and chimpanzee is just 1.2 percent, which is less than the difference between a horse and zebra. I prefer to calling a chimpanzee he or she rather than it."
Tetsuro Matsuzawa imitated how a chimpanzee greet, which sounded really true to nature. Pictures, video and his motion simulation made the atmosphere of the lecture hall lively. A video of a computer controlled memory task is shown during the lecture. In the video, a chimpanzee named Ayumu was able to memorize all digits on a computer and sort them in numeric orders. It could arrange them correctly, even though the time given for memorizing is less than one second. "Wow, he(Ayumu) is smarter than me," said an audience in surprise.
The topic of the lecture is "what is uniquely human?" . Tetsuro Matsuzawa answer the question by comparing the differences of human beings with chimpanzees on many sides. "Firstly, human beings have the ability to imagine, but chimpanzees don’t. Secondly, human beings can recall the past, plan for the future, but chimpanzees live in the present."
Background Reading：
Tetsuro Matsuzawa studies chimpanzees intelligence in the laboratory and in the wild. Ai Project began in 1978 with research on language-like skills and number concepts in a single chimpanzee. Research on behavior of wild chimpanzees in their natural habitat in Bossou, Guinea,West Africa, has documented use of a pair of mobile stones as hammer and anvil to crack open oil-palm nuts, and has examined hand preference, critical periods, education by master-apprenticeship, and cultural variation across adjacent communities since 19886.
Audience’s Notes:
I went to an academic lecture today. I prefer to describe it as an amiable senior telling a story with two chimpanzees, remarkable for both voice and expression.
It has been the lecture on which I focus myself most ever. I thought it might be a litany, however, I understood almost 90 percent of them. I have never been puzzled by a technical term, except a few scientific names of chimpanzees. I venerate him telling such an abstract topic in an implausibly easy and lucid way.
I was overwhelmingly touched by his vivid intimation of cries of animals which has garnished his plain language throughout the lecture. “I do the research because of curiosity instead of social income. I want people to know more about chimpanzees.”
One cann’t become a luminary until he or she try it diligently.
(Editors:Lynn, Minnie Mao)
Click here to view Chinese report.
