Ancestors of modern humans collected crystals for which they had no apparent use. A new chimp study could help researchers understand the roots of this infatuation Crystals have repeatedly been found ...

Researchers dubbed one experiment involving a roughly one-foot-tall crystal "The Monolith" in honor of Stanley Kubrick's iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Aden Kahr Humans have long been fascinated ...

In an attempt to understand our own fascination with the shiny minerals, researchers gave some to chimps. A chimp named Toti attentively observes a quartz crystal at a rehabilitation facility in Spain ...

Chimps repeatedly examined the crystals for hours. Sandy, for example, carried pebbles and crystals in her mouth to a wooden platform, where she separated them. "She separated the three crystal types, ...