Videos

• 

  Interpreting Animal Dreams

  While it may be impossible to wake up a rat, hand it a notebook, and have it write a bleary-eyed account of its dreams, scientists can instead try to go to the source. Matthew...

• 

  Understanding Monkey Talk

  We humans have the incredible ability to use sounds to communicate, via language. Of course, many other animals makes sounds, but do these sounds have meaning? Can animals...

• 

  Thinking about Thinking

  Animals may not understand English or Chinese, but can they read our body language? Can they get inside our heads? Brian Hare demonstrates tests with dogs that assess their...

• 

  What Bonobos Can Teach Us

  Bonobos share 98.7% of our DNA. Physically, they resemble chimpanzees. But something remarkable sets them apart from their primate cousins, making them an altogether different...

• 

  Doggone Devious

  A mother turns her back for a moment, and her naughty child jumps at the opportunity to dip his hand in the cookie jar. The ability of humans to deceive our neighbors hinges on...

• 

  Sharing Is Caring?

  “Share your toys and your treats!” Sharing is just about the first priority on the curriculum of life and school. But is that why we do it, because we’re told to? Or are there...

• 

  The Social Neuron

  Spindle cells are special neurons in the human brain that serve as the hub of higher-order cognitive processes: judgment, emotion, morality, recognition, self-awareness. ...

• 

  All Creatures Great and Smart

  Does your dog really think and feel like a human? Do our closest primate relatives have brains and emotions similar to ours? What about the storied intelligence of dolphins and...

Blog Posts

• Thinking About Thinking

  If you have a dog at home, you know that they take notice when you point out something. But did you know that this is a fairly unique trait in animals?

• All Creatures Great and Smart LIVE at 3:00pm

  We'll be streaming the animal cognition program live from the Skirball Center in NYC, featuring Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods, Jeremy Niven, Patrick Hof, and Klaus Zuberbühler. And moderated by RadioLab's Jad Abumrad.

• Animals Like Us

  What is it that makes us humans unique? Is it our capacity to learn language? To cooperate on a vast scale and build civilizations? To make fun of celebrities? To answer all those questions (except maybe the last one), scientists don't limit their research to our own species. We...