All Creatures Great and Smart (World Science Festival)

Yesterday afternoon, I watched the livestream of the "All Creatures Great and Smart" session of the World Science Festival in New York City. The session was absolutely fantastic, and featured Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods, Jeremy Niven, Patrick Hof and Klaus Zuberbühler.

The conversation challenged long-held assumptions about the differences between "animal" and "human", and included fascinating discussion about pin-sized brains that can count, categorize, and hold a grudge against those who've tried to swat them. 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 singing humpback whales? And do other species hold surprises for us if we're willing to look closely?

There was even a hippo brain up on the big screen.

Here's the video from the session. Check it out. Totally worth it.

(video behind the cut)

Here are some links to studies I've covered that they spoke about, or similar to ones they spoke about:
Giant Birds and Terrified Monkeys - Evolution of monkey communication
Path Integration in the Desert Ant - Can a tiny nervous system of only a few thousand neurons really do a natural form of trigonometry?
Social Cognition in Dogs - Research from Brian Hare's lab
Whales, Dolpins, and Human Rights - On the issue of spindle neurons found in whales and dolphins
And of course, go check out Vanessa's blog, Your Inner Bonobo, and buy her amazing amazing book, Bonobo Handshake!

Follow the rest of the festival at the official festival blog, here on ScienceBlogs or follow #WSF10 on twitter.

More like this

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. Kick-off is at 3pm today. ScienceBlogs Editor Evan Lerner will be calling the game…
Meet Vanessa Woods... internationally published author, journalist, and [full disclosure] among my most interesting friends. I've just finished her latest book 'It's Every Monkey For Themselves: A true story of love sex and lies in the jungle' and cannot recommend it highly enough--An honest,…
Vanessa Woods (website, old blog, new blog, Twitter) will be reading from her new book "Bonobo Handshake" (comes out May 27th - you can pre-order on amazon.com) at the Regulator in Durham on May 27th at 7pm, at Quail Ridge Books on June 9th at 7:30pm, and at Chapel Hill Borders on June 12th at 2pm…
Vanessa Woods joins us from Your Inner Bonobo at Psychology Today. Vanessa is an award-winning journalist and author who studies the cognitive development of chimpanzees and bonobos at sanctuaries in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Join Vanessa and other leading…

I would be very interested in speaking with you. I spoke with Dr.Brian Hare about opening a Canine Cognition Center on the West Coast. He knew of no plans. He put me touch with UCLA...no plans there. At least research would be a wonderful beginning....I live in the area.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Barbara Johnson, CPDT-KA
AABP Endorsed Member
IAABC Associate
CCPDT