Why are chimpanzees fascinated by crystals? Experiments led by Professor Juan Manuel García-Ruiz found that the apes carefully examined crystals, selected them from among ordinary pebbles and treated them as valuable objects—on one occasion, researchers even had to exchange bananas to retrieve one. Speaking to ORF Science, García-Ruiz explained how this striking behaviour could offer clues to the evolutionary origins of our attraction to transparency, symmetry and geometric forms.
