Yin et al. show that paternal exercise improves offspring endurance capacity and metabolic health via sperm microRNAs that reprogram gene expression in early embryos, revealing how exercise benefits c...

The Institute's philosophy of science-focused colloquium is back for the new semester!

Philosophers and scientists propose the idea that plants are cognitive, which has been met with criticisms. These criticisms focus on the fact that plants do not possess the properties traditionally associated with cognition. By contrast, several proponents introduce novel ways to conceptualize cognition. How should we make sense of this debate? In this paper, I argue that the plant cognition debate is not about whether plants meet a set of well-delineated and agreed-upon criteria according to which they count as cognitive. Rather, many proponents are hypothesizing about cognition. They construe COGNITION not as an expression of what cognition is, but rather as a conjecture about what cognition might be. These conjectures orient research that can uncover novel similarities amongst the phenomena to which these concepts extend. In defending this view, I argue that investigating plant cognition is valuable, even if the results of these investigations lead us to reject the claim that plants are cognitive.

Cognition lacks a standard definition. A clearer understanding of it and its evolution in animals is key to unlocking the mystery of consciousness, with implications for AI.

A brief history of memory — in cells, worms, and beyond the brain.

The International Memory Reading Group is an all-virtual group that addresses controversies in memory from philosophical, historical, and scientific perspectives. Our mission is to promote dialogues...

A small but enthusiastic group of neuroscientists is exhuming overlooked experiments and performing new ones to explore whether cells record past experiences — fundamentally challenging what memory is...

Mazviita Chirimuuta (Edinburgh) is the winner of the 2025 Lakatos Award. Chirimuuta received the award for her book, The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience ...