Just three years after it was discovered, a new species of monkey is threatened with extinction, according to Wildlife Conservation Society researchers who have published the first-ever census of kipunjis — large, forest-dwelling primates whose range consists of just 6.82 square miles of remote highlands in Tanzania.

The total estimated kipunji population: 1,117 individuals.

Scientists say much of the monkey's limited habitat has been severely degraded by illegal logging and land conversion. The monkey is also a target of poachers.

"The kipunji is hanging on by the thinnest of threads," said Tim Davenport, Tanzania country director for the society. "We must do all we can to safeguard this extremely rare and little-understood species while there is still time."

The kipunji (Lophocebus kipunji) first made headlines in 2005 when Wildlife Conservation Society scientists announced its discovery. In 2006, DNA analysis revealed the species represented a new genus of primate, the first identified since 1923.

VERBATIM

You might as well be tagging a unicorn for the amount of information we know about these fellas.

— Jon Houghton of Queen's University in Belfast on research plans to tag jellyfish off the Welsh and Irish coasts

BRAIN SWEAT

Can you solve these rebuses?

1. sssssssssse

2. eyee cexcept

3. SEcu4rE

PRIME NUMBERS

2008 — Year of the potato, according to the United Nations

5,000 — Estimated number of potato varieties in world

320 — Global production of potatoes, in millions of tons, in 2007

99 — Percentage of cultivated spud varieties that are descended from a single indigenous subspecies found in south-central Chile

12 — Percent of potato species immediately threatened by climate change

200 — Number of potato species maintained in Peruvian "potato park"

Sources: United Nations; FAOSTAT; Global Crop Diversity Trust; International Potato Center, Quechua, Peru

BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER

1. Tennessee

2. i before e, except after c

3. foreign currency (4 in cur and SEE)

'TRUE FACTS'

Blue stars are among the hottest in the universe; however, at their surface, the temperature is only about as hot as a bolt of lightning on Earth, around 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Still, that's five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was walking one day when he saw a beetle and picked it up. He saw a second and picked that one up in his other hand. Then, he spied a third, really interesting beetle.

Not wanting to drop the two beetles he had already collected, Darwin placed one of the insects in his mouth in order to pick up the third. The beetle in Darwin's mouth immediately emitted a noxious spray that caused the inventor of evolutionary theory to spit it out and also drop the other two beetles. Darwin went home beetleless.

BLOGOSPHERE

blogSci

blogsci.com

A general blog about all things science, produced by Pierre Far, a bacterial geneticist in England. Far takes note of scientific happenings, offering straightforward explanations and insight. Includes many links to other blogs, websites and sources of news.

QUIRKS OF NATURE

Horses are unable to vomit.

SURELY YOU'RE JOKING

Q: How do you recognize a bald eagle?

A: All the feathers on its head are combed to one side.

PATENTLY ABSURD

Bra face mask

U.S. Patent No. 7,255,627

Patented last year by Avocet Polymer Technologies Inc. of Illinois, the "garment device converting to one or more face masks," is essentially a brassiere whose two cups can be separated and fitted over the faces of two people in case of biological or chemical warfare, nuclear accidents or pollution.

In such events, one of the two mask-wearers is presumably the owner of the bra. The other mask goes to whomever the bra-owner likes best.

WHAT IS IT ANSWER

Or rather, what are they? The distinct radiating beams of sunlight are called crepuscular rays. Or more informally: God's rays, Jesus beams or fingers of God. These rays, streaming through gaps in objects (such as clouds), appear to radiate from a single point. In fact, they are almost parallel. The divergence is caused by linear perspective.

Crepuscular rays are most often seen at dawn and dusk when contrasts between light and dark are most obvious. Various airborne compounds scatter sunlight, making the rays visible due to diffraction, reflection and scattering.

This photo was taken at sunset from Telstra Tower in Canberra, Australia.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.