The Electronic Telegraph 20 April 1995 FEATURES
![[Science]](/view-riscdisc_n/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/graphicsH/sciH.gif)
Monkey business in Whitehall
COULD Sir Humphrey Appleby, the ficticious senior civil servant of Yes Prime Minister, learn a trick or two about survival in the Whitehall jungle from his wild relatives who roam the Serengeti in East Africa? Take Joshua, for example, the equivalent of a permanent secretary within his troop. This fine figure of an olive baboon preferred the company of females and would fight rival males only when he had to. The result: Joshua had the lowest levels of stress hormones, the longest stay at the top of the greasy pole and far outlived his peers. more
Life is not sweeter for the high-flying baboon
LOTUS could choose any one of the local studs for a fling each month, when her bottom became red and swollen. It was then that she was most receptive to the advances of the best-looking males. She was, after all, a large and unusually pushy female, the top-ranking baboon in her troop, in the Tanzanian bush. But only once had she become pregnant and that ended in miscarriage. more
In short
CLINICAL trials are about to start of the first cancer treatments in which genes that cause tumours are turned off. The approach uses compounds to block the action of a cancer gene called ras. more
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