Researchers found capuchins had written elements from Hamlet, suggesting Borel\u2019s Infinite Monkey Theorum may be correct <\/p>

Researchers at the University of Stratford in England, were surprised when an experiment that involved highly intelligent capuchin monkeys and a specially adapted typewriter delivered a passage of Shakespeare within its first year.<\/p>\n

In the experiment, a typewriter containing 26 letter keys plus 10 numerical digits, was left in the capuchin enclosure at Oxford Zoo. Researchers checking the typed reels on 29^{th<\/sup> February this year discovered, typed in amongst a batch of typically nonsensical letters, the phrase \u201ctoo b R n0t 2222 bee\u201d, closely resembling Hamlet\u2019s famous soliloquy.<\/p>\n}

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$\""Barbary\"$ <\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>
And evidence from the experiment has left both scientists and mathematicians agog. \u201cWe used capuchins as they are known to be one of the cleverest primates,\u201d explained Dr Frances Baykon, who led the research. \u201cBut even then, we never expected to see actual Shakespearean passages in the results.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time researchers have attempted to put the Infinite Monkey Theorum into practice. In in 2003, scientists tried it with six Celebes crested macaques in Devon\u2019s Paignton Zoo<\/a>. However, these monkeys preferred to bash the keyboard with a stone, or urinate on it.<\/p>\n
In 2004, US computer programmer Dan Oliver ran a simulation<\/a> of the experiment, and after a simulated time of 42 octillion years, his virtual monkeys typed the words \u201cVALENTINE. Cease\u201d, which occur in this order in Shakespeare\u2019s Two Gentlemen of Verona.<\/p>\n
But today\u2019s announcement is the first time that real monkeys have typed anything resembling the words of the Bard.<\/p>\n
Daniel Bennett, editor of BBC Science Focus<\/a>, explains: \u201cThe thing with probability is that, just because something is incredibly unlikely, it still has a very real chance of happening. We\u2019ve all experienced the thrill of throwing a run of sixes when playing a board game, and this is the same thing, albeit scaled up drastically. Just because the odds are heavily stacked against something, people still put huge bets on it happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as some scientists have pointed out, this is all nothing new. After all, it was a simian that created the complete works of Shakespeare in the first place.<\/p>
Main image: a white-headed Capuchin (Cebus Capucinus). \u00a9 Kryssia Campos\/Getty<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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