Science: Are Those Apes Really Talking?

Skeptics say it is mostly a lot of monkey shines

Laura, the teacher, and her young pupil are romping playfully on the lawn in front of their classroom:

Pupil (rolling on ground): You tickle me.

Laura: Where?

Pupil (pointing to leg): Here.

Laura (after tickling him): Now you tickle me.

Pupil (tickling her): Me tickle Laura.

This dialogue between Laura and her charge might not seem unusual, except for one thing: the pupil was not a human child but a young chimpanzee named Nim. Like several others of his primate kin, Nim had been taught to communicate...