Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature
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Lars Chittka

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Photo credit: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Bee-ing There: Innovative Behavior by Bees

The design of organisms that have sufficient brain complexity and that produce these goal-directed behaviors requires an intelligent agent. Read More ›
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Yellow-Crested Cockatoo Bird
Image Credit: THP Creative - Adobe Stock

What Is Consciousness For? Sixteen Theories Take a Crack at the Question

It sounds like we do not really know what we are looking for, which will doubtless complicate efforts to find it. Read More ›
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Photo credit: Flocci Nivis, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sophistication of Bee Decision-Making Is a Mystery, Unless Design Hypothesis Is Permitted

Distinguishing a real flower from a flower print on a woman’s dress can come into play, possibly requiring some experimental probing. Read More ›
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Photo credit: Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Evolutionary Biologist Defines Goldenrod Plant as “Intelligent”

The media release for the journal paper, sponsored by Cornell University, illustrates the growing comfort of science with panpsychist ideas. Read More ›
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Photo credit: Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Bees with Feelings? A Darwinist Winces

Most naturalist philosophers of mind have held that human consciousness — maddeningly mysterious — is an illusion. Read More ›
honey bees
Photo credit: Cesare Barillà, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

New Study Reveals Secrets of Honey Bee Waggle Dance

There are several factors that make detecting direction challenging for the observing bees. One is that the dances take place inside a dark hive. Read More ›
honey bee
Photo credit: Wolfgang Hasselmann via Unsplash.

What Do Bees’ Joy and Pain Really Tell Us About Insect Minds?

Efforts to relate insect to human consciousness are doomed because the distinguishing features of human consciousness are abstract thinking and moral choice. Read More ›
black garden ants
Photo: Black garden ants, by Katja Schulz from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Pushing Insect Welfare

Of course, we know that insects are not inanimate. A fly senses when you try to swat it. Read More ›
honey bee
Photo credit: Wolfgang Hasselmann via Unsplash.

What Is It Like to Be a Bee?

What, exactly, does “consciousness” or “feel and think” mean when applied to a bee? This usage is no remote outpost. Read More ›

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