Monkeys to the Rescue!

It's hard to be everywhere, monitoring everything that needs monitoring in the wake of the giant tsunami and the nuclear generation disaster it caused. There aren't enough scientists to go around, so the scientists are enlisting some funny allies.

Why not? When the world goes to pot, everyone suffers, even the monkeys.

Here's what today's Japan Times online and Kyodo news have to say about monkeys and monitoring.

Wild monkeys to carry forest fallout monitors

FUKUSHIMA, Kyodo — Fukushima University researchers plan to measure forest radiation levels in Fukushima Prefecture by placing special monitoring collars on wild monkeys, in light of the nuclear crisis.

Each of the collars contains a small radiation meter and a Global Positioning System transmitter, and can be unclipped by remote control. This will allow a team led by robotics professor Takayuki Takahashi to recover the collars and collect the data within one to two months after the monkeys are released back into the wild, they said.