Are Plants Cognitive, Intelligent Beings?

audible range, botany, cognition, Darwinism, David G. Robinson, ecologists, EMBO Reports, emotions, Frantisek Baluška, infection, intelligence, Life Sciences, Louvre, mathematics, Neuroscience & Mind, panpsychism, plants, random mutations, spirituality, Tel Aviv University, teleology, Third Way of Evolution, University of Heidelberg, water deprivation, ZME Science
Some plant biologists want to see them that way; others continue to insist on a Darwinian view. Source
Read More

For Males, an Engineering Marvel that Originates in the Brain

Actin, bioactivity, brain, calcium ions, corpus cavernosum, ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, erectile tissue, erection, guanylate cyclase, human physiology, humans, Irreducible Complexity, irreducibly complex systems, Life Sciences, Medicine, motor neurons, muscles, myosin, Neuroscience & Mind, nitric oxide, nitric oxide signaling pathway, pelvic floor, penis, physiological processes, prostate gland, reproduction, seminal fluid, seminal vesicles, smooth muscle cells, sperm cells, vaginal cavity, vas deferens
The male erection and ejaculatory reflex require multiple physiological processes to work together in an incredible coordinated manner. Source
Read More

Study: Brain Is Still Active After Death

brain, consciousness, cosmic fine-tuning, CPR, Dartmouth College, Durham University, Elsevier, hospitals, Langone Medical Center, Marcelo Gleiser, Medicine, near-death experiences, Neuroscience & Mind, NYU, oxygen deprivation, persistent vegetative state, Philip Goff, Rachel Nuwer, researchers, Resuscitation (journal), Sam Parnia, Scientific American, wrongthink
Obviously, these experiences point to something that is irrelevant to claims about evolution. Source
Read More

Inferring the Best Explanation via Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, Bayesian analysis, blues, boogie-woogie, ChatGPT, ChatGPT4, chess, country music, Culture & Ethics, Erik Larson, Google Bard, gun, hiccups, inference to the best explanation, musicians, Neuroscience & Mind, Noam Chomsky, piano, Stockfish, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence
The analogy with chess is apt — computers play chess but in ways different from us by being able to brute force their way through millions more positions. Source
Read More

Is the Cell a Machine, or More Like a Mind? 

Barbara McClintock, cell, cellular architecture, cellular behavior, cellular cognition, Chance and Necessity, circuitry, cognition, conformation, Daniel Nicholson, DNA, electronic circuitry, function, functional promiscuity, Intelligent Design, intracellular transport, Jacques Monod, Journal of Theoretical Biology, lymphotactin, machine, machine conception of the cell, machine metaphor, membranes, molecular biology, neural circuitry, Neuroscience & Mind, nucleic acids, proteins, self-assembly, Sewall Wright, wiring
At least as we’re accustomed to thinking in our age of AI, the alternative to a machine is a mind. Source
Read More

By Using Floor Buttons, Can Dogs Talk?

abstractions, animal behavior, Bunny (dog), Carl Sagan, chimpanzees, confirmation bias, crows, Dogs, emotions, floor buttons, gibberish, humans, language, Life Sciences, marine biologists, Neuroscience & Mind, puppies, Sarah Sloat, Scientific American, sheepadoodle, Stephanie Pappas, Thomas Fudge, TikTok, Washington State, wolves
The latest fad in the “Talk to the animals” arena appears to be a classic in confirmation bias. Source
Read More

Right Brain Vs. Left Brain? It’s Murky

brain, brain correlates, Creativity, Healthline, Iain McGilchrist, language, learning styles, left brain, left-handedness, lobes, Medicine, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Neuroscience News, personality, preferences, right brain, Robert H. Shmerling, Scott Barry Kaufman, The Matter with Things, vertebrates, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Vertebrates generally have brains divided into two lobes, an arrangement that may go back half a billion years. Source
Read More

What Deep Social Change Underlies the War on Math?

algebra, algorithm, ancient Greeks, Arabs, average, azimuth, California, cipher, Colin Wright, cube, Education, illiteracy, Jerry Coyne, Kari Kokka, literacy, math teachers, mathematics, Max Eden, Neuroscience & Mind, pi, pizza, private truth, Pythagorean Theorem, Richard Dawkins, Rochelle Gutierrez, Social justice, University of Nevada, Urban Education, whiteness, zenith, zero
The universal language of science is sinking under the weight of claims about trauma and privilege. Source
Read More