Articles
You’ll find here three categories of articles:
(1) Blogs, which I refer to as “strøtanker” (a Danish word), based on my musings and ideas and intended for all who wonder and ponder.
(2) Science articles containing references for further study, based on theoretical and empirical research (more approachable for the beginner student).
(3) Journal-style academic papers that meet the strictest standards for validity and verifiability, with adequate references to allow you to evaluate my findings (for graduate students and fellow scientists).
May you enjoy your reading—and feel free to leave a comment. As a member, you are part of my team, and I value your input.
Most Recent
The Illusive Free Will—Do We Think Before We Act, or Do We Act Before We Think?
“Freedom is the individual’s capacity to know that he is the determined one, to pause between stimulus and response and thus to throw his weight, however slight it may be, on the side of one particular response among several possible ones.” This quote is from page 103...
A Dog Is Not a Wolf—Is It?
The question has popped up several times in discussions on social media, with one faction adamant that wolves and dogs have nothing or very little to do with one another. As a result, we should not make comparisons between them. As to how similar and different wolves...
A Girl and a Wild Mustang—or There Are Many ‘Right’ Ways to Train Animals
"A Girl and a Wild Mustang" by Elsa Sinclair is a beautiful documentary—and yes, I’m biased. I’ll explain why I find it beautiful and why I’m biased in a while. These days, a tendency prevails to claim there’s only one right way for us to interact with our animals....
Dogs Point North-South When They Pee and Poop
Dogs point North-South when they pee and poop. They use the Earth’s magnetic field when urinating and defecating, aligning their bodies in the N-S axis. If I wrote this on April 1st, everyone would take that for an April Fool’s prank. It is not. It is the conclusion...
Canine Epigenetics
Epigenetics | Epigenetics, Environment, Phenotypic Plasticity | Belyayev’s Experiments | Conclusions ______________ Epigenetics [Greek epi– ἐπι- = above, over, on, in addition to] is the study of heritable gene functions that cause stable phenotypic variations without...
Do Nonhuman Animals Show Altruism?
Introduction |Etymology | Definition and Problems | The Altruism Paradox- Group selection—Wilson | Kin Selection—Maynard Smith | Reciprocal Altruism—Trivers | Genetic Selfishness—Dawkins | Phenotypic plasticity | An Example We All Know—Do Dogs Show Altruistic...
Do Nonhuman Animals Have Consciousness?
Consciousness—Definitions | Private Experiences—Emotions | Self-awareness |The MSR (Mirror Self-Recognition) Test | Imitation | Awareness of Others—Empathy | Pain—Do Animals Have to be Conscious in Order to Suffer? | Consciousness as a Quantum State—Orchestrated...
“Please” in Animal Language
Saying ‘please’ to your animal in its language can make the whole difference between success and failure. The question is, how do we say that in animal language? Simplicity is a virtue in life as well as in science and communication. We should always keep that in mind...
Evolutionarily Stable Strategies and Behavior
Evolutionary biologists imagine a time before a particular trait emerges. Then, they postulate that a rare gene arises in an individual, and they ask what circumstances would favor the spread of that gene throughout the population. If natural selection favors the...
Champing Behavior: Origins and Function
Champing (or chomping) is a noisy chewing motion, despite there being nothing to chew. This behavior is associated with friendliness, pacifying of an opponent, insecurity, or submission, depending on degree and context. There is a pacifying element in all forms of...
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