Termites are the oldest social animals, starting elaborate societies 200 million years ago—50 million years before ants and bees. They began agriculture with fungus farming before ants. Like ants and bees (described in previous posts Remarkable Bee Brain and Ant Intelligence Update), termites exhibit remarkable individual and group intelligence. The amazing behavior of termites is described in this termite intelligence update. Insect intelligence has been described in other p

Because of the remarkable intelligence of insects with tiny brains, such as bees, ants and termites, many ascribe their capabilities to the hive or colony. In fact, there is increasing evidence that individual ants, bees, and termites are very intelligent, which allows for intelligent actions of the colony. In the case of humans, the fact that the Internet is becoming a form of super-organism does not mean that individual humans are not intelligent themselves. A previous post

As more animals are found to have advanced cognitive ability, it is clear that the human brain is not the model for all advanced abilities. There are animals that have greater capacities; and those with similar capacities can use very different brain structures. Intelligence evolved a number of different ways. Last week 28 studies revealed unprecedented detail about the songbird’s brain. They, for the first time, compared vocal learning similarities in songbirds and humans. T

Flying overhead the scrub jay sees a comrade is dead. The observant bird continues to fly, but is now agitated and calling loudly enough for birds to hear far away. Others now call out and spread the word. The flock of jaybirds all come to sit near the dead bird, still making a very loud chaotic noise. The large congregation of birds then sits together observing the dead. Despite the need for food, the group doesn’t forage for up to 48 hours while they sit near their fallen b

From recent scientific findings, it is certainly possible that quite unusual talents and experiences could be available to everyone. This post will outline extraordinary talents and experiences that may be available to everyone under certain circumstances. It is a summary and update of a series of four posts on research into sudden changes in capacities for extreme memory, mathematics, art and music; changes in body consciousness, and out of body experiences; psychedelic expe

All of life is based on interactions of signaling entities—communities, people, organs, cells, and even viruses. Remarkable progress has been made in deciphering the conversations between cells, but it is much harder to track signals among organelles. Observation is much more difficult because they are so much smaller. It does appear that the same types of ongoing communication occur as in cells. Recently, signals have been found for organelle communication about building and

A previous post noted how microbes can help cancers in all stages of their development. Now, it has been found that the one-time microbe now the mitochondria is also vital for cancer to start, to grow, to survive and to metastasize. These microbes and the mitochondria use back and forth communication to help cancers in many ways. This post describes the recent research about mitochondria and its vital relationship to cancer. Mitochondria Joined Forces With Our Cells Two billi

One of the first discoveries about the unusual behavior and cognitive abilities of bacteria was a signal put out by many of the members of a community to make a group decision. This "quorum sensing" signal stimulates collaborative attacks and migration by sensing if there are enough providing signals to carry out the activity. Later, it was learned that each bacterium has many remarkable communication skills that allow them to manipulate the much larger and more complex human

Previous posts have described the very complex pathways that create membranes to surround the entire cell and to build vital cell compartments and well known organelles. A post noted how different types of fatty membranes are built for each organelle with many different complex shapes. These include mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, the nucleus and many kinds of vesicles. Vesicles are used for transport, to combat invading microbes and to send information such as with neur

It is quite remarkable how much viruses can accomplish with a very small number of genes and a handful of proteins. Previous posts have described the very elaborate lifestyle of HIV with only 9 genes, and Ebola with only 7 genes. Somehow, viruses are able to manipulate vast cellular machinery including organelles much larger than them. They are able to manipulate actin scaffolding for their purposes. They can fool the nuclear pores into allowing them in. They take over the en

Jumping off the cliff … lift off … flying … what a feeling ….weightless… looking back at my room… elation, sadness … who is back there … are they following me Suddenly waking up, I realize that it was “just a dream.” But, at that moment I recognize that the same self-identity, my self, my sense of “I” exists in these two states, dreaming and waking. Although quite different, it was me in the dream and it is now me awake. Feeling rested, I look at the clock and see tha

Daniel Tammet was asked to memorize the number Pi. As we may remember from school, Pi is an irrational number that is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter of the circle. It is also related to many other different mathematical equations including those that define “fractals” called the Mandelbrot set (above picture). The number has an infinite series of digits with no discernable pattern, starting with 3.1415926358979... Tammet was able to r