31Jan 2025 by Post

Science Writing Tries to Smash Human Exceptionalism

Africa, Amanda Richardson, animal behavior, antiquity, BBC News, Bronze Age, chimpanzees, Claire Asher, Côte D’Ivoire, Culture & Ethics, England, Homo sapiens, human exceptionalism, human mind, humans, Ice Age, Merlin, metal tools, monkeys, Neuroscience & Mind, New Stone Age, paleontology, polar bears, Royal BC Museum, Salisbury, Stone Age, stone tools, vultures, walruses
Stone tool use among animals versus the Stone Age provides a useful illustration of the tendency. Source
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17Dec 2024 by Post

What Does Your Brain Do? And What Can It Not Do?

Aristotle, augustine, blood, brains, carbon dioxide, Denyse O'Leary, emotions, free will, heart, Intellect, kidneys, mathematics, Medicine, memories, Montreal Neurological Institute, muscles, Mystery of the Mind, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, oxygen, pain, philosophy, Plato, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Aquinas, urine, Wilder Penfield
A surprising result of pioneering neurosurgery was the discovery that some mental processes could be stimulated in the brain but others could not be. Source
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14Dec 2024 by Post

Brain Imaging Shows Intelligence Uses the Whole Brain

brain, brain imaging, cerebellum, coordination, fMRI, Kirsten Hilger, Medicine, Michael Egnor, mind, movement, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, neurosurgeons, PNAS Nexus, strokes, textbooks, The Immortal Mind, thinking, tumors
A focus on specific regions like the prefrontal cortex can mislead. When we are thinking, we use brain-wide connections between many parts of the brain at once. Source
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07Dec 2024 by Post

Who (or What) First Used Tools?

abstract ideas, algae, birds, blanket octopus, chimpanzees, Christophe Boesch, crows, decorator crab, Egyptian vulture, Hedwige Boesch-Achermann, invertebrates, Jane Goodall, Lucy, Max Planck Institute, Neuroscience & Mind, octopus, orange-spotted tuskfish, ostrich eggs, otters, paleontology, Taï National Park, tools, Tracy L. Kivell, Tremoctopus violaceus
It’s not stone tool use that is exclusive to humans; vultures can do that too. It’s the ability to form abstract ideas. Source
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06Dec 2024 by Post

More Discoveries Point to Neanderthal Intelligence

Abric Pizarro, Annemieke Milks, Australian National University, cave lion, Clive Finlayson, cognitive ability, feathers, Gabriele Russo, Gibraltar, Gibraltar National Museum, glues, Gorham’s Caves Complex, Günter Bechly, Human Origins, Le Moustier, Middle Palaeolithic, missing link, Neanderthals, Neuroscience & Mind, New York University, pitches, Radu Iovita, resins, Sofia Samper Carro, Spain, Universität Tübingen, University of Reading, Vanguard Cave
This very ancient people we know the most about can’t be the missing link that many paleontologists are looking for. Source
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02Dec 2024 by Post

Now It’s “Whale Rights”

animal standing, anti-Western ideology, conservation, courts, Culture & Ethics, emotionalism, indigenous wisdom, industrialization, Legal Cheek, legal person, legal standing, London, Michelle Bender, national defense, nature rights, Neuroscience & Mind, Ocean Vision Legal, Pacific Whale Fund, rights, River Thames, shipping, Simmons and Simmons, whale rights, whales, windmills
As often is the case in nature rights activism, “indigenous wisdom” is invoked as somehow superior to modern conservation. Source
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