Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and they will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare. This theory is most often attributed to Thomas Huxley, a 19th century nut who passed himself off as a scientist, and, as absurd as it sounds, is accepted as fact by a segment of the population, probably the same segment that invests heavily in lottery tickets.

The idea that a group of monkeys pecking away at random on a typewriter, or these days, a computer keyboard, would produce anything resembling literature intrigued researchers at Plymouth University in England. They did not have an infinite amount of any of the components of an experiment – monkeys, typewriters or time – so they had to test the theory on a somewhat smaller scale.

The Paignton Zoo in Devon provided a family of six Macaque monkeys. A computer was placed in their living area, and they were given four weeks to produce a novel. The resulting manuscript will not be a bestseller.

At first the monkeys sat and stared at the computer. Then the dominant male picked up a rock and began beating the computer with it. Someone had apparently thought ahead, and the computer had been enclosed in a plexiglass case, preventing damage. The keyboard was covered with flexible plastic cover, and it is a good thing, because the monkeys began using it for a toilet.

Eventually they did produce a five-page document, consisting mostly of the letter S, with the letters A,J,L and M occasionally appearing in later pages. Overall the monkeys did not spend a lot of time with the computer, preferring their toys, ropes and climbing apparatus. Or maybe they just had a collective case of writer’s block.