It is publication day for The Organism-Environment Pairing (@mitpress.bsky.social)! This 📗 has been deeply formative for me as a scholar, and it owes so much to so many wonderful people. I truly hope it finds many readers! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #booksky #philsci #histsci #philsky #evosky

Even under anaesthesia, the human brain can still receive stimuli and actively process those signals go.nature.com/3ORS0DX

Even the unconscious brain can learn — and predict what you’ll say next

Nature - Neuronal recordings of people under anaesthesia show that their brains are processing words and sounds.

go.nature.com

Do bonobos have social norms? In my new paper, I argue that bonobos exhibit genuine forms of normativity regulated through shared social mechanisms. Their social life may be far closer to human normativity than we usually assume critica.filosoficas.unam.mx/index.php/cr...

Our ability to think abstractly about geometry did not arise with symbols or theorems; rather, it is the result of walking (of moving around), and other species also possess this ability. Language, however, enhances it. (paper) www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

New open access publication in Topoi! @kristinandrews.bsky.social and I explore the ethics of AI animal translation projects. 🖥️🐬Before we build it, we need to take stock of the ethical implications. rdcu.be/fbZwv 🧵👇1/13

Congratulations to this year’s Dobzhansky Prize recipient, Dr. Wendy Valencia-Montoya! She will give the Dobzhansky Prize talk at #Evol2026 in Cleveland, OH in June. Learn more about her work: www.evolutionsociety.org/news/display... @wendyssae.bsky.social

🦧Very sad news that Dr Birutė Galdikas, world-renowned anthropologist and orangutan researcher, has died at the age of 80 One of the Leakey Trimates she was the first scientist in the world to begin in-depth studies of orangutans The Loss of Professor Birutė Galdikas 👩‍🔬🏺🧪 www.vdu.lt/en/vmu-commu...

Great new article by @siobhanfgm.bsky.social in Biology & Philosophy: "Critical reflections on sex eliminativism" link.springer.com/article/10.1... #HPBio #PhilSci

Thank you NPR for this great coverage of our research!! you can read the paper here: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Humans and animals find the same sounds 'beautiful'

Charles Darwin theorized that a sound, smell or color that's attractive to one species can be preferred by others too. A new study finds humans and animals do share preferences for certain sounds.

npr.org

📢 @barnesandnoble.com is offering 25% off book preorders from today through March 26th, including my forthcoming The Organism–Environment Pairing! (@mitpress.bsky.social) 📗👇 www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-organi... If you were thinking about getting a copy, now is the perfect time! #HPS #booksky🐋🌱

Cooperative behaviours that can be costly to the individual but beneficial to others were discussed in a key 1981 publication go.nature.com/4c0jVdj

Forty-five years of progress after a key paper about the evolution of cooperation

A 1981 publication showed how cooperators can prevail over defectors, laying the foundation for how the evolution of cooperation between unrelated individuals is studied.

go.nature.com

When something doesn't work properly, can your dog tell if the object is broken or if you just don't know how to use it? I'm pleased to share my group @jhu.edu's first study with pet dogs (!!), now out in @plosone.org Led by Amalia Bastos: Do dog rationally infer the causes of failed actions? 1/4

Imagination in bonobos! I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko

Apes Share Human Ability to Imagine

YouTube video by Johns Hopkins University

youtu.be

I'm touched by the incredibly generous assessments that some of the first readers of "The Organism-Environment Pairing" (@mitpress.bsky.social) have offered! I'm excited to exchange ideas with everyone once the book is published in May! 📗 mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #HPbio #HPS #evosky #philsky

1/7 Look, Mom, no hands! They have studied the age at which chimpanzees take the most risks (jumping and doing crazy things from tree to tree). It turns out that they have a peak in childhood, and it decreases as they grow older. This tells us something very interesting about ourselves.

Loved this paper by @kristinandrews.bsky.social and Noam Miller. A very convincing argument for the function of consciousness.

The social origins of consciousness | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

We present the social origins of consciousness hypothesis, according to which the ability to coordinate with group members was the original adaptive function of consciousness. We offer three arguments...

royalsocietypublishing.org

I am incredibly honored to have been invited as one of the keynote speakers for the XIV PBCS! This long-standing initiative is very supportive of graduate students & early-career researchers, so I encourage everyone to submit their abstracts! See you in Madrid next year! #HPS #HPbio #cogsci #philsky

#Primates #Anthropology

Chimpanzee calls trigger unique brain activity in humans, revealing shared vocal processing skills

The brain doesn't just recognize the human voice. A study by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) shows that certain areas of our auditory cortex respond specifically to the vocalizations of chimpanzees, ...

phys.org

For the first time, scientists have published a detailed report of adoption in these great apes. www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Orangutan adopts little sister after their mother's death

For the first time, scientists have published a detailed report of adoption in these great apes.

nationalgeographic.com

New Paper out in Proceedings of the Royal Society B! 🎉 Sequence organization of mother–infant interactions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the wild. See the thread below for a quick explanation, and check out the paper: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Sequence organization of mother–infant interactions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the wild | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Sequence organization is a fundamental feature of human communication, shaping our interactions. This organization underlies interactions with and without language, appears early in human development ...

royalsocietypublishing.org

On this day in 1859 English naturalist Charles #Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species," radically changing the view of #evolution and laying the foundation for evolutionary biology. #otd

Our New Paper is out in Nature Human Behaviour: 🚨 Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials! 🦧 www.nature.com/articles/s41.... See 🧵

Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials - Nature Human Behaviour

Howard-Spink et al. develop an empirically based model of orangutan diet development, which suggests that social learning is vital for orangutans to acquire varied diets.

nature.com

Maternal glucocorticoids and behavior shape offspring developmental trade-offs in wild baboons https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.18.689046v1

New paper! We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#Primates

New England Primate Conservancy@neprimateconsrv.bsky.social · 11mo ago

With more than 6,700 mammal species on Earth, what sets primates apart? Discover the features, behaviors, and incredible diversity that make primates truly unique. This video is part of our "Discovering Primates" introductory series for young learners. youtu.be/Ne_gzf2Ur4U

The ability to change your mind in response to better evidence is a hallmark of human cognition. Experiments now show that chimps are capable of rational thought too go.nature.com/3JVLhGk

Be rational: chimp decision-making is guided by the strongest evidence

The ability to change your mind in response to better evidence is a hallmark of human cognition. Experiments now show that chimps are capable of rational thought too.

go.nature.com

Excellent new preprint by Sarahanne Field and @maddipow.bsky.social argues “bias is not a contaminant to be purged; it is a constitutive element of research, shaping every decision from hypothesis formation to data interpretation.” Few quotes follow...🧵

Prof Madeleine Pownall@maddipow.bsky.social · last yr.

"Science is not, and has never been, a neutral endeavour... the notion that researchers can or should cleanse themselves of bias is untenable, potentially intellectually dishonest, and ethically fraught." New preprint with the (brilliant) Sarahanne Field #Metascience2025 osf.io/preprints/os...

If this doesn’t end bonobos’ reputation as the hippies of the great apes I don’t know what will. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Coalitionary intra-group aggression by wild female bonobos

Sonya Pashchevskaya and colleagues document a potentially fatal attack of a male bonobo by a group of females.

cell.com

Geschwisteradoption bei wilden Borneo-Orang-Utans 🦧👭 Scott et al. berichten den ersten detaillierten Fall einer Geschwisteradoption - nach dem Verlust der Mutter adoptierte die ältere Schwester das verwaiste Jungtier, förderte damit dessen Unabhängigkeit und sicherte sein Überleben. #OpenAccess

A Case of Sibling Adoption in Wild Orangutans: Accelerated Development of Independence Following Maternal Loss

Vanna/Ronnie lost her mother Veli when she was between 4.2 and 5 years old (pictured together on the left). Subsequently, Vanna/Ronnie was seen traveling with and sleeping in the same nest as her old...

doi.org