Orangutans are highly intelligent. And while they don't speak,
they boast impressive manual dexterity -- which has meant that
they've been able to communicate with humans, in a limited but
still meaningful way, using sign language. It turns out, though,
that there's another way to use your hands to communicate: using
iPads. The Miami Zoo, inspired by similar efforts with dolphin
communication, is experimenting with iPads as part of a
communications and "mental stimulus" program with its
orangutans. The program would be fantastic if for no other
reason than its production of the above picture of an orangutan
playing with an iPad. But the kind of computer-assisted
communication it's experimenting with could prove an important
development -- for science, and for our ability to commune with
our Darwinian kin. Tablets could serve as another kind of
missing link. Linda Jacobs, who oversees the program, "hopes the
devices will eventually help bridge the gap between humans and
the endangered apes."