Audrey Dussutour is speaking about the blob: Blobs on the Mind Lots of other people are speaking about the blob, too—about the blob and intelligence. The blob is also known as “slime mold.” Intelligence is known to make people curious. Lots of this talking was inspired by the work of Toshiyuki Nakagaki and his colleagues, […]
Tag: intelligence
Professor(?) Richard Lynn – a profile
Those who have been watching the scholarly career of Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus, at the University of Ulster [Note: See item 2 below], there are two recently published items which might be of interest. The first, [1], is a new paper published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, November 2018, Pages 275-277 (written along […]
Brain size in birds and their deaths in traffic accidents? (new study)
If a species of bird has a relatively small brain [compared to other avian species] is it likely to be less intelligent ? And, if so, might it be more likely to be involved in a traffic accident? A team from Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, France and the House of […]
Do a person’s genes predict how high they will go in school? — The 3.2% solution
Scholars have wondered whether (and in some cases, assumed that) success in schools comes largely from the good genes a person inherits. A new study of scholars and their genes provides evidence that YES, IT DOES, sort of, a little bit, maybe. The study is powerful — its authors tell us exactly how powerful. The study is “Genome-wide association study […]
What is stupid(ity)?
Despite many decades (or some might say centuries) of concerted scholarly effort towards answering the question ‘What is intelligence?’ there still isn’t an answer that everyone can agree on. Perhaps then, the time has come to tackle the problem from another direction and ask instead ‘What is stupid(ity)?’ ? A team of researchers from the […]
Dignity and intelligence of plants
Plants not only have dignity, as enshrined in Swiss law and explained in the pamphlet The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants. Plants are intelligent, in ways some humans are slow to recognize. That first notion was honored with the an Ig Nobel Peace Prize, the second notion is explored in a new book called Brilliant Green: The […]
Emotional intelligence does but does not predict success in med school
The conclusion reached in this study seems to rather contradict the study’s headline: “Emotional Intelligence Predicts Success in Medical School,” Nele Libbrecht, Filip Lievens [pictured here], Bernd Carette, Stéphane Côté,” Emotion, epub Nov 11 , 2013. The authors, at Ghent University and the University of Toronto, explain that: “Emotional intelligence did not predict performance on […]
Taking the MIQ to new levels
There’s a famous un-PC rock&roll musician’s gag from the 1980’s . . . Q. “Which is more intelligent, a drum-machine or a drummer?” A. “A drum-machine. You only have to punch in the information once.” Jokes aside, the heated scholarly debate rolls on (and on) about whether a machine can ever be truly ‘intelligent’. Perhaps […]
Announcing: a courtesy for intelligence agencies the world over
We are pleased to introduce @IG_NSA — a Twitter feed supplying background info and secrets of the Ig Nobel Prizes. @IG_NSA is intended as a courtesy for intelligence agencies the world over. It is meant to express the good wishes of the Boston/Cambridge area technology/science/medical community. AND COMING SOON… We will also soon announce [watch this space and/or follow the Twitter […]
A clever new claim that we are less intelligent
Yet another claim, from smart people who want to instruct us about intelligence, that we (if not they) have probably become less intelligent than many of those who preceded us: “Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple reaction time,” Michael A. Woodley, […]