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Octo smarts! 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. …
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Intelligent insects? 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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In search of intelligent animals 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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Can plants remember? 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 …
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A few final bits of brain business We’ve been talking about the brain for over nine months now. It’s time to play with some other subjects. Join us as we wrap up our look at the various bits and pieces of the brain, and consider what we’ll dive into next. We reserve the right to …
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Will you remember this episode? Your hippocampus, brain cells, molecules mind and memory. From your entire brain and all your senses, to specific areas of your brain, to braincells, to synapses, to a little dance of molecules to form the memory, and even your DNA to help make the memories last, remembering isn’t simple.
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The front of the front of the front of your brain Located at the very front of your brain, your prefrontal cortex is vital for things like your memory, morality, sense of time, and personality. Phil and I talk about, but do not understand, your prefrontal cortex.
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Third eyes, pineal glands, and your thalamus Phil and I get back to the brain and brain bits, by talking about bits of your brain. Today is the diencephalon, with extra attention paid to your thalamus, a part of your brain that passes information around to just about every other part of your brain.
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Our two year anniversary show! Our show has made it to the two year point. So, we did an episode that doesn’t really have a point. We drift passed history, blackholes, astrology, Chinese emperors, waterclocks, and eventually land on an explanation of time dilation. From Einstein’s theory of special relativity, find out why the faster …