The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering mammalian brain circuitry. The aim of the project, founded in May 2005 by the Brain and Mind Institute of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, is to study the brain's architectural and functional principles. The project is headed by the founding director Henry Markram and co-directed by Felix Schürmann and Sean Hill. Using a Blue Gene supercomputer running Michael Hines's NEURON software, the simulation does not consist simply of an artificial neural network, but involves a...

The crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis), also known as the long-tailed macaque, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. It is referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories. It has a long history alongside humans; they have been alternately seen as agricultural pests, sacred animals in some temples, and more recently, the subject of medical experiments. The crab-eating macaque lives in matrilineal social groups with a female dominance hierarchy, and male members leave the group when they reach puberty. They are opportunistic omnivores and have been documented using tools...

Nafovanny in Vietnam is the largest captive-breeding primate facility in the world, supplying long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) to animal testing laboratories, including Huntingdon Life Sciences in the UK and Covance in Germany. == Background == Nafovanny was set up in 1994 by Vanny Chian Technology, a Hong Kong company, according to Reuters. The company is reported to have set up a U.S.$2 million joint venture company, called Nafovanny, with Vietnam's Forestry Ministry, with the intention of creating a network of monkey farms in southern Vietnam. Responding to criticism of the project...

A few animal studies have suggested that prostitution exists among different species of non-human animals such as Adélie penguins and chimpanzees. Penguins use stones for building their nests. Based on a 1998 study, media reports stated that a shortage of stones led female Adélie penguins to trade sex for stones. Some pair-bonded female penguins copulate with males who are not their mates and then take pebbles for their own nests. Chimpanzees who appear to be trading food for sex have also been described as engaging in prostitution. == PenguinsEdit == Prostitution in animals was first reported...