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The largest creatures on the planet also have some good-sized brains. Why? What do they do with such large brains and how did they get them in the first place?
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It’s a rough life. With no shell, octopuses are a delicious boneless morsel, just waiting for some big something or another to gobble them up. This bite-size snack uses its ability to hide, squeeze into the tiniest of hiding places, and its brains to find something to eat, and avoid being someone’s dinner. Join us as we consider the octopus, along with its relatives the squid and cuttlefish; their intelligence; and where they came from.
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Building homes, farming crops, herding animals for milk and meat, and using tools—some of the insects do some impressively clever things. Join us as we examine the smartest of the bugs, and what might have made them that way.
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We spent nine months looking at the human brain, and one episode looking at the cognitive abilities of plants. Today, we try and figure out how to figure out whether or not an animal is intelligent.
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It was a throw away question from Phil, something he said in the middle of an episode as a joke. Obviously plants have no memory—how could they when they have no central nervous system, no brain with which to learn. However, a bit of digging and the answer turns out to be a bit stranger than expected. Join us as we talk about plant communication and memory.
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