Ask a sixteen-year-old about a social media ban, and you get an answer sharper than most adults arguing about bans. She says, “It doesn’t prepare us for the real world when we will have to deal with these distractions in our life”. The teenager’s response strikes at the core of the ban vs
How I got hooked on chasing solar eclipses Traveling the globe for celestial events may seem downright loony—until you get a taste of the addictive world of ‘eclipse chasing’ Published on: Aug 23, 2026, 18:30:10 IST WSJ Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link ‘It was glorious
Made-in-India semiconductor chips are now powering key Indian space missions. These domestically manufactured components support lunar and solar exploration efforts. Specialized chips from Mohali's Semiconductor Laboratory are used in Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1
India's space program began with a small rocket range in 1962. It progressed to launching its first satellite and developing indigenous launch vehicles. Chandrayaan-3's lunar landing marked a significant achievement for the nation. The program now includes private sector involvement and ambitious
India plans to establish its own space station by the year 2035. The first module for the Bharatiya Antariksha Station has already received approval. This ambitious project aligns with the nation's growing space capabilities and aspirations. National Space Day celebrates India's achievements and
Chimps imbibe two cocktails’ worth of ethanol daily from ripe fruits
Chimps imbibe two cocktails’ worth of ethanol daily from ripe fruits Premium
While humans have been drinking alcohol for thousands of years, some scientists think this history could go back millions of years. According to the drunken monkey hypothesis, humans' taste and indeed preference for alcohol may have evolutionary roots, shaped by our primate ancestors consuming small doses of alcohol found inside ripe fruit. Our bodies may also have evolved to metabolise alcoholic compounds more effectively as a result.
In a new study in Science Advances, researchers at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, analysed ripe fruits eaten by wild chimpanzees, the closest living relatives of humans, to discover that chimpanzees could be ingesting as much alcohol as in one to two glasses of wine every day.
Chimpanzees share about 98.8% of their DNA with humans, making them an excellent model for exploring questions about human evolution. Their fruit-heavy diet is also believed to resemble that of our last common ancestor. By estimating the chimpanzees' daily alcohol intake from these fruits, researchers can gain insights into the levels that may have been ingested by this ancestor as well.
The researchers conducted their studies in two forests in Africa: one in Ngogo in Kibale National Park in Uganda, home to one of the world's largest known chimpanzee communities; and the other in the Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire.
From previous observations, the researchers had already identified the fruit varieties the chimpanzees consumed. They collected ripe fruits from these feeding sites — sometimes plucked directly from branches, at others scooped up from the ground just after they dropped — and tested them in the lab for their alcohol content. Since they also knew the approximate quantity of fruit a single chimpanzee ate, they were able to estimate the amount of alcohol the individual ingested in a single day.
The lab results confirmed that the fruits the chimpanzees consumed did contain small amounts of ethanol. The microbe yeast, which is used to brew beer and wine, is naturally present in fruits. When the fruits ripen, their sugar content increases and the yeast ferments these sugars into alcohol.
The lab results also showed that ripe fruits contained less than 1% alcohol. To compare, a pint of beer (473 ml) typically contains 4-6% alcohol by volume. However, unlike humans, a large portion of a chimpanzee's diet consists of fruits: nearly three-quarters of their intake, amounting to around 4.5 kg per day.
“The chimpanzees are eating 5-10% of their body weight in a day in ripe fruit, so even low concentrations yield a high daily total, a substantial dosage of alcohol,” Robert Dudley, an evolutionary physiologist at UC Berkeley, and coauthor of the study, said.
Researchers calculated that the total alcohol intake from consuming fruits amounted to roughly 14 grams — equivalent to a glass of wine, or two when adjusted for a chimpanzee's body weight.
“Across all sites, male and female chimpanzees are consuming about 14 grams of pure ethanol per day in their diet, which is equal to one standard American drink,” Alexsey Maro, a PhD researcher at UC Berkeley, and the first author of the paper. “When you adjust for body mass, because chimps weigh almost 40 kg versus a typical human at 70 kg, it goes up to nearly two drinks.”
Among the 21 fruit varieties the researchers identified in the chimpanzees' diet, the primates showed a strong preference for sticky figs (Ficus mucuso). Only 75 of these figs, which are abundant and sugary, can contain as much as 10 grams of alcohol — a significant amount when consumed in a single bout.
However, despite consuming as much as 14 g of alcohol in a day, the chimpanzees didn't display any obvious signs of intoxication. Researchers suggested this was because they didn't imbibe the alcohol in one go but spread it throughout the day.
The researchers also said such low-level exposure to natural alcohol may have influenced key physiological adaptations.
“Our research shows that chimpanzees in Cantanchez National Park in Guinea-Bissau share fermented fruits with each other and use leaf tools to access fermented palm wine harvested by humans, indicating an evolved attraction and tolerance to ethanol,” Kimberley Hockings, a primatologist at the University of Exeter who has been studying apes in West Africa, said. “These findings suggest that an attraction to ethanol is deeply embedded in animal and human evolutionary history.”
This interpretation is aligned with research by Matthew Carrigan, an associate professor of biology at College of Central Florida, USA. His work has concluded that about 10 million years ago, the last common ancestor of living African apes and modern humans experienced a genetic mutation that increased the rate of ethanol metabolism 40-fold.
The UC Berkeley study also raises a few questions. Do chimpanzees actively prefer fruits with higher alcohol content, or are they simply attracted to the sweetness of ripe fruits?
Dr. Dudley, who first proposed the drunken monkey hypothesis in 2014, has theorised that alcohol in fruits could serve as a cue for ripeness — a signal of extra calories and perhaps enhanced taste that adds to the pleasure of eating.
While previous studies have documented alcohol use in chimpanzees, the UC Berkeley effort is the first to measure the alcohol content of the fruits they consume.
Tetsuro Matsuzawa, former director of the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, Japan, said, “These observations contribute to a growing body of evidence for the drunken monkey hypothesis. From tool-assisted palm wine drinking to the spontaneous consumption of fermented fruits, wild chimpanzees consistently show behaviours that suggest an evolved attraction to ethanol.”
Ipsita Herlekar is an independent science writer.
Published - October 22, 2025 05:30 am IST
flora and fauna / beverages
Source: The Hindu
Related Posts: Science
India observed its third National Space Day, commemorating the Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing. ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan recalled the agency's humble beginnings and current global standing. He highlighted Chandrayaan-3's soft landing near the Moon's south pole in August 2023
1 days ago
The Indian government created the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) to offer students an intellectually vibrant research environment and to bring them into research at a relatively — vis-à-vis the Indian milieu — early stage
1 days ago
Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to lure global expertise to India's expanding space landscape. He identifies the private sector's potential as a crucial asset for global competition. Key advantages include India’s affordability and its appetite for innovation
1 days ago
The Northeast India Space Workshop 2026 will convene in Guwahati to explore regional transformation. This event aims to leverage space technology for global reach and economic growth. Stakeholders will discuss Northeast India becoming a developer and testbed for space solutions
1 days ago
The dramatic 1° Celsius rise in global temperatures since industrialisation has already proved to have upended the lives of wild flora and fauna: that of at least 15,801 species on the Red List of Threatened Species, according to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
2 days ago
India faces a substantial cost gap with the United States for launching payloads. A recent study estimates India's cost at over $13,000 per kilogram by 2025. This contrasts with the United States' estimated cost of $3,225 per kilogram. The study highlights scale and experience as key factors for
2 days ago
Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged young space entrepreneurs to innovate for agriculture and daily life. He highlighted the potential of India's private space sector for global impact. Startups were urged to engage with schools and inspire future generations
2 days ago
Rock-solid evidence for the origins of birds Stones in dinosaur stomachs may help understanding of avian evolution Published on: Aug 20, 2026, 21:09:09 IST The Economist Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link How do you know what a dinosaur ate? Guts rot away after death
3 days ago
Was it meat or glucose that fueled the growth of the human brain? If evolutionary science told us, hitherto, that human brain expansion relied on meat to grow, a new study has an interesting addition to this theory. Published in a recent issue of Science
4 days ago
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch the GISAT-1A satellite in September, in a mission that will be watched closely for many important reasons. Since the two successive PSLV mission failures, in 2025 and early 2026, ISRO had paused launches as it investigated the reason
4 days ago
The Hara forests are a vital ecological treasure of the Persian Gulf. Spanning the Strait of Hormuz, these mangrove forests consist mainly of grey mangrove trees (Avicennia marina), which have a special filtration system in their roots that allows them to thrive in saline conditions
5 days ago
India spends more to put a kilogram of payload into orbit than any other major spacefaring nation, marring its public image as a cost-effective launcher, according to a new peer-reviewed analysis of more than six decades of rocket launches published in Economics Letters
7 days ago
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there,” the English novelist L.P. Hartley wrote famously in his 1953 novel The Go-Between. In a peculiar twist, the same cannot be said of the Moon. It is not a foreign country, or even a foreign world: the U.S
7 days ago
The computer did not create a virus. It did not touch a test tube or handle a living cell. What it did may ultimately be more consequential: it helped decide what the virus’s genome should be. Researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute used artificial intelligence (AI) to design
8 days ago
Spectators across Spain watched in wonder, some whipping off their protective glasses and rising to their feet in unison, as a rare total solar eclipse swept across the north of the country on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) evening, plunging it into darkness
8 days ago
Japan's MMX mission will blast off soon to collect Martian moon samples. The spacecraft will orbit Mars for three years and land on Phobos. This mission aims to understand Solar System origins and life's emergence. A rival Chinese mission also plans to return Mars samples around 2031
8 days ago
Draft rules for the SHANTI Act, 2025, mandate financial security for nuclear damage. Operators must maintain insurance or financial security until spent fuel removal. Foreign reactor designs require certification by their country of origin's regulatory body
9 days ago
As a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Europe on August 12 for the first time since 1999, solar physicists at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru, along with collaborators, have predicted the magnetic structure of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or its ‘crown’
9 days ago
When a young man was brought to my clinic after his first episode of psychosis, his parents wanted to know when he could return to college. This is not an atypical first interaction. However, in many instances, after a few consultations later and especially once the immediate crisis had settled
11 days ago
Some people can live apparently ordinary lives even when both copies of a gene (one inherited from the mother and the other from the father) have stopped working. Until their DNA is sequenced, they may never know that this has happened. A large study from Pakistan, published in Nature (June 2026)
11 days ago
Physicist Deepak Dhar received the 2026 Dirac Medal for his statistical mechanics work. He shares the award with three other scientists for their complex systems research. Their contributions span biology, finance, computer science, and artificial intelligence
12 days ago
Colombia and Venezuela experienced deadly earthquakes due to tectonic plate friction. The Nazca plate sliding beneath the South American plate caused tremors. Earthquake magnitude and depth significantly influenced the destructive impact. Building codes and terrain also played crucial roles in the
12 days ago
India has been invited to join NASA's Moon Base program. Discussions focused on expanding civil and commercial space cooperation. Both nations agreed to advance open scientific data sharing under Artemis Accords. They also reaffirmed commitment to UN guidelines for outer space sustainability
12 days ago
A team led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has found that several inherited traits in the mouse genome break the rules Gregor Mendel laid down in the 19th century about how genes work. This is not because the genes mutate but because of chemical modifications of the genome
13 days ago
Urban India’s water emergency will not be fixed by better crisis management alone. Over the coming decades, hundreds of millions more people will live and work in Indian cities, driving a sharp increase in the urban water demand. And unless we change how we design, finance
15 days ago
IN-SPACe seeks private partners to manage ISRO's new launch complex. This facility will support small rocket launches and enhance launch efficiency. Private entities will handle end-to-end operations and maintenance of the complex. ISRO will provide initial technical and operational support for
15 days ago
NASA astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Meir on Friday (August 6, 2026) concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station to assemble the modification kit for its power channel that would allow addition of solar arrays. The spacewalk – 281st in support of the space station –
15 days ago
