06Nov 2023 by Post

The Superior Programming that Makes Plants Look Smart

animals, anthropomorphism, bacteria, behavior, biology, Chapman University, Curiosity rover, Darwinians, Duke University, ethylene, flowers, herbivores, Ian T. Baldwin, intelligence, Intelligent Design, ivy, leaf senescence, leaves, Life Sciences, memory, Michael Pollan, Nature (journal), nitrogen, programming, Richard Karban, self-awareness, strigolactone, synthetic organic chemistry, tendrils, tentacles, The New Yorker, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, trees, Wesley Smith
Two signaling molecules — strigolactone and ethylene — can work independently to begin the process of leaf senescence. Source
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03Oct 2023 by Post

Dreaming Animals and Human Exceptionalism

abstractions, American Kennel Club, animals, bird song, birds, cats, cuttlefish, David M. Peña-Guzmán, dolphins, dreaming, horses, human exceptionalism, information, jumping spiders, learning, Life Sciences, memory, Neuroscience & Mind, rapid eye movement, sleep, Smithsonian Magazine, spiders, symbols, Teresa Iglesias, thought, whales
Researchers have detected something like REM (rapid eye movement) sleep — which is associated with dreaming in humans — in jumping spiders. Source
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01Aug 2023 by Post

Clues About Consciousness from Dementia Research

Andrew Peterson, brain, Cait Kearney, Canada, consciousness, deeply forgetful, dementia, Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People, euthanasia, lucidity, Medicine, memory, neurobiology, neurodegenerative diseases, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, paradoxical lucidity, Parnia Lab, Penn Memory Center, Stephen Post, Stony Brook University
The phenomenon is called "paradoxical lucidity" because it is unexpected and we know very little about its causes. Source
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