The Importance of Empathy in Science

In the early 60s scientists were not supposed to get emotionally involved with the subjects they studied. Well of course I didn't know that when I began I hadn't got any degree of any sort. That's why Lewis chose me. He says you know I've watched animals all my life long before I watched chimpanzees. And it was an extraordinary feeling it was bridging these two worlds. It felt like interacting with equals because they were so smart but yet at the same time the world of the orangutans rests on such different assumptions about what is important and what isn't. So slow paced, hard to explain but it was like going into another universe.