Lucy

What makes a species different from other species? In a two part Radiolab pod cast, this idea is pondered and explored as the story of a chimp named, Lucy is told. Lucy was a chimp raised in a normal human household for around the first eleven years of her life. The human 'parents' of Lucy intended to see just how human they could raise Lucy to be. Over time, Lucy began to do some remarkably human things such as, making tea, eating with silverware, and even using sign language to communicate with her parents. Eventually the time came where Lucy was just too big and strong to keep in a house, so the owners decided to let her go. A human friend of Lucy's decided to stay with her. After around a year or so, Lucy's friend left her to live life as a normal chimp in the wild. Lucy's friend would visit her every so often until one time, she came to visit but was only able to find the skeleton of Lucy. It was concluded that she had been killed by poachers as there was no sign of any skin or hair. Lucy was able to teach us that chimpanzees are magnificent creatures. They are very smart and are fast learners. Most of all, Lucy taught us that humans are not the only species that are capable of feelings strong enough to dictate actions and even lying. Being human can mean many things, it can mean being one of the smartest animals on the planet, it could mean being able to do what is necessary for enjoyment or survival, and it could even mean being able to quickly adapt to what is around you. Lucy showed us that there is even more about being human. She showed us that being human doesn't always mean being in a human body. Some would argue that Lucy was more human than she was chimp. After hearing the story of Lucy told, i realized that humans may not be as far ahead as previously thought. Chimps are fascinating, to say the least. The experiment of Lucy was very worthwhile because it was able to bring to light the fact that not everything is as straight forward as most think it to be. This experiment showed that feelings and actions are never determined by what species you are, it's all universal. Hearing how Lucy died was obviously not a happy moment seeing as how she must have been terrified when it happened. Hearing this kind of stuff makes me more angry than sad because Lucy was brilliant! Humans are incredibly smart but often times too stupid to realize what they do to anything around them.