Neurobiology

Biodiverse tropical ecosystems are a treasure trove for comparative studies of the body-mind, as home to organisms of all sizes and an enormous range of survival skills. By comparing the abilities of monkeys, wild pigs and kinkajous (members of the raccoon family), to make mental maps of constantly shifting fruit resources in the forest canopy we gain insight into the evolutionary relationship between diet and intelligence. Ant colonies rival mid-sized human cities and reveal the efficiency of a superorganism’s large-scale healthcare, waste removal and farming systems. Brittle stars that sense light through their whole-body nerve web and nocturnal sweat bees that process images in near-total darkness have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of animal vision.