Of hair pins and road trips

Ever searched frantically for a hair pin and used your pen to tie it up instead? Well, you’ve just about tumbled onto the idea behind the rich and complex history of tool-use by the Nicobar long-tailed macaque - a research presentation by Jayashree Mazumder which won the second prize at our flagship event, Talk Your Thesis, last year. Turns out the Nicobar long-tailed macaques do with their tools exactly what we unconsciously do with our pens - use a common object for completely different purposes.