The Myth: 100th Monkey takes its name from the contemporary myth "The Hundredth Monkey". The story was based on scientific observations of monkey colonies in Japan. Off the shore of Japan, scientists had been studying monkey colonies on many separate islands for over 30 years. In order to keep track of the monkeys, they would leave sweet potatoes on the beach for them to eat. The monkeys would come out of the trees to get the sweet potatoes and would be in plain sight to be observed. One day an eighteen-month-old female named Imo started to wash her potato in the sea before eating it. We can only imagine that it tasted better without the grit and sand; maybe it was even slightly salty. Imo showed her playmates and her mother how to do it, and her friends showed their mothers. Soon the observers saw that all the monkeys on that particular island were washing their potatoes. Although this was significant, what was even more fascinating to note was that when this shift happened, the behavior of the monkeys on al