The Genius of Dogs

Most ants are programmed to follow the scent trails of the ants ahead of them. In the tropics, you can find an ‘ant mill’ where hundreds of thousands of ants walk in a perfect circle that resembles a crawling black hole. Ant mills have been observed up to 350 metres in diameter, with a single lap taking up to two and a half hours to complete. These ant mills are also known as ant death spirals, because often the ants mindlessly follow one another in tightening circles until they exhaust themselves and di

The genius of dogs – of all animals, for that matter, including humans – has two criteria:

1. A mental skill that is strong compared with others, either within your own species or in closely related species.
2. The ability to make inferences spontaneously.

Disagreement and debate in science are healthy and exciting. Disagreement often drives research that leads to advances in our understanding. Scientists rely on scepticism and empirical debate as a road to the truth

Kaminski received a phone call one day from a very nice German lady saying she had a Border collie who understood more than two hundred German words, mostly the names of children’s toys.