Stories by Jason G. Goldman

That frog totally rocks my world.

It’s amazing how much you can learn about an animal’s mind by a simply watching it. Video 1: Gratuitous video of octopuses never hurt anyone.

Figure 1: Research Sausage indeed. (Source) Bloggy News:

Happy Earth Day, everyone! In honor of the day, here’s a modified re-post of piece I wrote recently for LAist. Figure 1: Photo by poloroid-girl via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr.

Animals dream, too! It’s definitely not a seizure, and it’s definitely not random motor actions. Those actions are totally coordinated.

The question is: what do you use to study the health of whales in the wild? The answer is: not what you’d think. Unlike smaller sea mammals like seals or sea lions, it is very hard to obtain blood samples from whales without first killing them.

This seems to have become unofficial volcano week, here at ScienceBlogs. If you haven’t been following the coverage of the Eyjafjallaj

As Psychology and Neuroscience Editor for ResearchBlogging.org, each week I choose 3-4 of the best posts from around the blogosphere in those categories.

First, this dude is hilarious: Then, get this, once the baby gets to be about, say, baby-sized, it has to come out. At this point, it’s WAY bigger than the orifice that lets it out.

Dog owners have a way – sometimes within DAYS of first becoming dog owners – of becoming EXPERTS on animal behavior. It blows my mind.

Didn’t mean to put post two CSN(Y) jams in a row, but apparently this has been a CSN weekend.

What is science? Fundamentally, science is a process of hypothesis-testing. Scientists observe phenomena, propose hypotheses to explain or account for some observed phenomenon, and design experiments to test those hypotheses.

A recent paper from the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy came across my desktop yesterday called e-Reading and e-Responding: New Tools for the Next Generation of Readers.

Music for Brainvoyaging: Crosby, Stills, and Nash – Daylight Again. Filmed live in 1982 at L.A.’s Universal Amphitheater

Figure 1: The Borg isn’t so bad, after all. Blog News: What a fantastic first week in the Borg ScienceBlogs. Welcome, again, to all the new readers.

Do animals create art? So far, this seems a uniquely human ability. But do animals have a sense of the aesthetically pleasing? What about the ability to judge and critique art?

I have a new Scibling! I only got to retain the title of newest blog here for about 24 hours, because yesterday Alex Wild’s blog, Myrmecos, was assimilated into the Borg.

Rarely does country music make me wish youtube had an auto-repeat function. “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum. Live at the 2009 Country Music Awards.

What are the cognitive and neural systems that allow us to build buildings, play checkers, do multivariate statistics, receive DVDs by mail, follow Dr.

Any artists out there? As my Photoshop skills leave something to be desired, I am opening up a contest for any reader who would like to send me ideas for banners, as well as a square logo, for the Thoughtful Animal.

As Psychology and Neuroscience Editor for ResearchBlogging.org, each week I choose 3-4 of the best posts from around the blogosphere in those categories.

The party isn’t over yet! Here’s another helping of Monday Pets. Enjoy! Wild Dog crawled into the Cave and laid his head on the Woman’s lap… And the Woman said, “His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend.” –Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling.

The party continues! Today you get a double-dose of Monday Pets. Here’s one from the archives. Later today, you can expect a new one.

Welcome to the new home for The Thoughtful Animal! The main focus of this blog is animal cognition. Animals do some pretty cool things, and there are some clever ways for figuring out how an animal thinks.