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"How baby orangutans become master treehouse builders."

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Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.blogspot.com).

July 15, 2024: We're covering "meteor-wrongs," orangutan treehouses and lab meat that tastes like real meat.  —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor

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Orangutan Architecture

Orangutans are known for building elaborate sleeping nests nearly every day in trees. Made of branches, twigs and sometimes broad leaves, the nests can feature pillows, blankets and even roofs, suspended dozens of feet above the ground, ensuring that orangutans can get a good night’s sleep. The nests must be strong enough to bear the great apes’ weight—adult orangs weigh about the same as adult humans. Young orangutans practice nest-building daily, studying their mothers’ nest-building activities. The task is so complex that it takes the young ones seven years to grow sufficiently strong, dextrous and skilled to make their own nests, new findings reveal.  How they did it: For 13 years, the researchers observed 45 orangutans at Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park, reports freelance journalist Sierra Boucher. Orangutans as young as three years old were seen making functional nests. What the experts say: Young orangutans typically sleep alongside their mothers to the age of seven. “[They] have this seven- to nine-year dependency period where they are little babies, and after that they are on their own,” says primatologist Hella Péter. Human ancestors and orangutans evolved to become nest builders around the same time, suggesting that sound sleep plays a crucial role in the evolution of our brains and those of orangutans.

An orangutan and her daughter in their day nest. Anup Shah/Getty Images

Tastes Like…Beef

Lab meat, aka cultured meat, has been around for several years, but some reviews have been tepid. Now, researchers have found a way to make cooked lab-grown meat taste more like the cooked beef that carnivores enjoy. The solution is to enhance the animal cells that make up cultured meat with a compound containing a chemical associated with the cooking of real meat, reports science communicator Helena Kudiabor. The chemical, called furfuryl mercaptan, is a product of the so-called Maillard reaction, which occurs when the amino acids and sugars in conventional meat react with each other during cooking with high heat. The reaction confers appetizing aromas and flavors, and often a caramel color as well. Past efforts to produce cultured meat have focused on mimicking the structure of beef but not the flavor and taste, according to sources quoted in the story. How it works: Researchers found a way to integrate furfuryl mercaptan into the process used to culture the cells that make up lab meat. Lab meat has a different profile of amino acids so cooked lab meat does not undergo the Maillard reaction and thus has lacked the savory appeal of conventional meat. Why it matters: The more lab meat catches on with consumers, the fewer cattle and other livestock are slaughtered. Ultimately, especially in the case of cattle, this shift is expected to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with rearing livestock and producing conventional meat.

Cristina Pedrazzini/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

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EXPERT PERSPECTIVES

• An inadvertent discovery of a dense, eye-catching, cracked-open rock in the Sahara Desert led to an investigation to figure out whether the item was a meteorite, a dinosaur egg or an accumulation of cement that formed inside another rock’s holes, writes science journalist Bethany Brookshire. The rock turned out to be a “meteor-wrong,” that is, not a meteorite, gem or egg, a geologist tells Brookshire, but the rock still had a fascinating story to tell. | 6 min read

More Opinion

Over lunch today, I mentioned the orangutan finding to my spouse, Scientific American contributing editor Steve Mirsky. I highlighted the remarkable finding that it takes young orangutans seven years to learn to make their sophisticated nightly nests. Steve’s reply: “I never learned to make my bed.” If you’re a former reader of his allegedly humorous "Anti-Gravity" column in the magazine, this reply will not surprise you. Despite the similarities between orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans, I often have to remind myself that all of them and Steve are part of the taxonomic group known as great apes, or Hominidae. For more details on the evolution of apes, check out this 2006 essay, “Planet of the Apes,” by paleoanthropologist David R. Begun and artist John Gurche.

We always like to hear from you, our great-ape friends. Feel free to reach out to us: newsletters@sciam.com.

—Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor

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