Give the Nobel Prize to Jane Goodall

There are several Nobel Prizes - Medicine or Physiology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Literature, and Peace. Jane Goodall studied the chimpanzees, their behaviors, their complex social organization as no one had done before, and what she found in them was incredible and dethroned ourselves from the very special (and even arrogant) place until the 60s of the last century. No, we are not that special. And, yes, the chimpanzees are much more special than we thought, they are a mirror of humans in many things, good and bad.

What Jane Goodall discovered is that this ability we claimed to be unique to the human species - the use of tools - chimpanzees, after all, had it too. The use and construction of tools by chimpanzees is one of the great discoveries. Another that Jane Goodall witnessed, and very surprised and shocked, was when she saw them killing themselves in a planned way. And that reminds me of someone, does not?

The discovery that they use tools and transmit that knowledge to subsequent generations - which means they have what is called "culture." And each community of chimpanzees has its own culture: for example, there are chimpanzees in Guinea-Conakry who break nuts with stones and others in Tanzania know nothing of such thing.

Many studies have been published since the pioneering works of Jane Goodall, which confirm how extraordinary chimpanzees are. We know, for example, that they help each other. They bounce back many questions about ourselves and our evolutionary history because, after all, we shared a common ancestor only six to eight million years ago.

And if none of this is enough to protect them, because they are really in danger, like other great apes - the gorillas and orangutans - seeing them may help us to see how they look like us.

By her discoveries, Jane Goodall deserved the Nobel. But none of the Nobel prize this kind of work. Like, among other areas of knowledge, it does not prize math.

It turns out that Jane Goodall did not dedicate herself "only" to science, and the second part of her career is as extraordinary as the first. It has been around the world since the middle of the 80s, committed to raising awareness about how important it is to preserve the planet we have, nature, humans, and animals.

She dedicated herself to the chimpanzees of Tanzania for about three decades, then to a better planet. It's a political message.

Science, as well shows what we learn about and with chimpanzees, teaches us lessons of humility. Jane Goodall too. For her, the Nobel Peace Prize.

Images source: 1, 2, 3

Reference:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall