Jane Goodall

Chimpanzees are supposed to be the "good" apes, cute and funny, the hairy little people depicted in thousands of films and TV shows. But recent news out of western Africa shows they can be brutally fierce. A chimp attacked and killed a Sierra Leone man who was driving Americans to a wildlife refuge last month. Another man lost part of his hand in the attack. Some news reports said a group of up to 20 chimps that had broken out of their enclosures gang-attacked the men, while other stories have pinned responsibility on one animal, possibly a chimp named Bruno, the undisputed alpha male of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

Cool. That's what four kids at Federal Hill Preparatory School said when they learned they could leave school for a few hours last week for a sneak preview of the newly expanded Maryland Science Center. It would not be their last "cool" of the day. Fourth-graders Sydney Spann and Matt Ekey, both 9, and third-graders David Clark, 9, and Dominique Willis, 8, are what you might call budding science geeks. What better focus group, we thought, for a shakedown tour of the newly renovated (but still unfinished)

NEW YORK - Whatever their other contributions to politics and the nation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Barack Obama have been crack for the news business. Across the spectrum, viewership, Internet traffic and readership are way up during this interminable election season. But what happens when it's over? Will there be enough news to sustain the bounce? And that persistent obstacle: How can the mainstream media improve their image? These were some of the questions addressed by panelists at a Time Warner media summit here this week.

Daytona Beach, Florida. -- Most anthropologists say chimpanzees are our closest relatives, whether the chimps like it or not. Theory holds we have a mutual ancestor, making us almost kissing cousins. About 12 million years ago whatsoever had joined us together was put asunder, and we went our separate ways.Jane Goodall has studied our kinfolks for over 30 years. Her book ''The Chimpanzees of Gombe,'' gave us the gift to see ourselves as we once were, which is a lot like now. The main difference is our bigger brain makes us more intelligent; at least it is supposed to.Chimp males establish a rank order of high, middle and low. They uphold and challenge it mainly by spectacular displays in ++ which they charge, stomp and slap the ground, throw rocks, sway branches in a carnival of threatening acts.

First, there's a single galaxy - a voluptuous pinwheel of stars turning majestically in an inky sky. Then we see hundreds, thousands of them in a bewildering throng. And before we know it, we lurch forward and begin to fly through them, plunging deep into intergalactic space, toward the earliest moments of the universe. Galaxies whip by us like billboards on the highway. This race across space and time is playing at the Maryland Science Center at the Inner Harbor. It's an unheralded, three-minute IMAX short subject tucked in before Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees.

Small, eager hands reached for the bright yellow fishing rods on a picture-perfect Earth Day at the edge of the Magothy River. Young voices called out questions. Grins decorated carefree faces. Forty years after the first celebration April 22, we're still fouling the nest. That's the bad news. But for the good news, visit Eagle Cove School in Pasadena, where students talk the talk and walk the walk. In 2005, Eagle Cove -- then known as Gibson Island Country School -- was named a Maryland Green School for its extensive environmental science program.

The bronze chimpanzee sits in a studio in Pleasant Valley with its arms folded protectively around its body and gazes into the middle distance, creating a sense of sadness and loss.Like most of the birds and animals created by W. Barton Walter, the chimp, titled "Contemplation," will not be staying in the quiet studio, which is surrounded by a wildlife preservation area where the sculptor can watch many of his subjects in action.The chimp's destination is the entrance to the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation in Tucson, Ariz.

The art of literature took center stage yesterday in the heart of Baltimore's arts and cultural district.For thousands of book lovers, the Baltimore Book Festival in Mount Vernon Place offered a rare opportunity to meet lots of authors, buy lots of books and revel in all things having to do with words."

"Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings," by Virginia Morell. Illustrated. New York: Simon & Schuster. 638 pages. $30No other family has approached the importance of the Leakeys of Africa in illuminating our place in the world. When Louis Leakey was born in 1903, child of English missionaries in Kenya Colony, educated people had little shared idea of their common ancestry. Darwin had left the world in little doubt of our kinship with apes, but the details were nearly null.

The scientist squats on the ground and demonstrates a rudimentary use of tools. He digs into a nest of ants and deftly scoops the stick swarming with insects toward his mouth. Slurp! He gobbles the culinary treat and smacks his lips in pleasure."You can quite see why they like them," says anthropologist Dr. Richard Wrangham into the camera, as he wipes a stray ant or two from his chin.The moment comes late in tonight's fascinating new National Geographic special, "The New Chimpanzees" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11)