"Animal cultures matter first and foremost because they matter to the animals themselves." If you enjoyed our recent episode on the value of animal cultures, you may be interested in this new paper by @simonfitzpatrick.bsky.social & @kristinandrews.bsky.social! link.springer.com/article/10.3...

the new paper on bouba/kiki in chicks is utterly compelling canonical, elegant method from comparative cogsci & its partner in developmental science, ultra-simple design, ultra-clear effects, no need for fancy analyses, machine learning, or AI it appeared in an appropriately badass venue (Science)

I don’t know who needs to hear this but philosophy of animal minds is an actual field, and if you have an “idea” about animal minds that you want to publish you need to engage with the literature. Same with animal ethics. Signed: a frustrated reviewer.

I got a copy of the Chinese edition of my book and it is so cute!

My paper on 🌱🦧 ANIMAL MEDICINE 🐜🍄, written with Cristian Saborido (office mate and tip-top philosopher of biology and medicine), is finally out in Philosophy of Science. We offer a cool new framework for understanding medicine in different species, including our own. And it's ✨ OPEN ACCESS ✨

🎉 Great news! ⭐ Susana Monsó’s book Das Schweigen der Schimpansen (German edition of Playing Possum) has won the Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2026 award. Congratulations to @susanamonso.com on this well-deserved recognition! 👏📚

Imagination in bonobos! I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko

Totally unexpected but apparently my book Playing Possum has won the Austrian Science Book of the Year award for the category of natural sciences. ✨✨✨ Beyond thrilled and delighted at the excuse to return to my beloved Vienna for the ceremony!

Why does everyday psychotherapy language feel both empowering and troubling? TLDR: Because two practices are at play: mental health-speak, which empowers, and therapy-speak, which distorts. A summary of our paper (w/ @almagro.bsky.social) in the great Imperfect Cognitions blog. 🙌

🔔 We're launching our Bluesky account today! Can you help us spread the word by retweeting this post? 😀 #Theoria #diamondopenaccessjournal

Final days to submit an abstract to #PBCS2026! If you are an early-career scholar looking for a supportive environment to discuss your work & meet international peers, consider applying! Another plus this year: The workshop will be in Madrid! sites.google.com/view/xivpbcs... #HPbio #philsci #philsky

Filosofía en español: Hoy escribo sobre chatbots post-ruptura en El Salto.

I've been working for ages on a comprehensive revamp of the Stanford Encyclopedia Entry on "Animal Consciousness", with new sections on non-Western perspectives, methodological challenges and evolutionary big pictures, and it's out today: plato.stanford.edu/entries/cons.... Hope you find it useful!

Blue Tits are famous for learning to peel foil lids off the milk bottles left by milkmen on UK doorstops. I wanted to know if Great Tits have been observed doing the same thing, possibly having learned from their cousins. In hindsight, I should not have googled Milk bottle Great Tits. Don't do this.

I had the honour of working to bring @auersperga.bsky.social’s baby to life. It’s a VERY heavy baby - over 200 references (and yes I read them all) - but necessary to do justice to our new hypothesis of combinatory tool use origins 📝👶🛠️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

⭐ Cerramos el año con buena compañía y muchas razones para celebrar. Desde METIS, os deseamos unas felices fiestas y un excelente comienzo de año. Wrapping up the year with great company and lots of reasons to celebrate. Warm holiday wishes from all of us at METIS. 🎄✨

We're glad to share that a workshop will be held around the work of Susana Monsó (@susanamonso.com) 📅 15–16 December 2025 📍 Ruhr University Bochum, Germany Susana will be joined by other specialists to explore this fascinating topic. More info: n9.cl/l2j3y

Iain Douglas-Hamilton was a champion for elephants 🐘 & one of the inspirations for my own research. He was among the 1st to study ele social behaviour & it was his life's work to protect them Sending my condolences to all the friends & family during this sad time www.bbc.com/news/article...

☝️📢 Mañana a las 13 h (Argentina) / 17 h (España), @susanamonso.com y Laura Danón darán una charla online titulada: “¿Tienen los animales un concepto de muerte? Lo que puede enseñarnos la tanatosis sobre las mentes” en @grupoanfibio.bsky.social 💻Para participar: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

So cool!

📢 Se ofertan 29 contratos predoctorales concedidos a @universidadgranada.bsky.social, uno de ellos para trabajar con nosotrxs en el proyecto PID2024 sobre inferencias de estados mentales en el dominio moral! ⏳ Plazo de presentación: 18/12/25 🔗 investigacion.ugr.es/recursos-hum...

This is going to be so much fun!! Apply and come hang out in Madrid!

🚨CFA for the XIV PBCS that will be held at UNED (Madrid) 18-19 June 2026, where several of our METIS members are part of the organisation committee: Losner Briones (@losnerbriones.com), Jorge Ramos (@jsramos.bsky.social) and Cristian Saborido. More info: sites.google.com/view/xivpbcs...

🚨Job Alert plz RT! Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition! We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals Open-rank apply.interfolio.com/178146

Are you interested in doing a PhD about what humans infer about animal minds? Check out this opportunity @northumbriapsy.bsky.social with me, @mdconstable.bsky.social and Lee Shepherd! Deadline 23 Jan 2026 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Conferencia virtual: ¿Tienen los animales un concepto de muerte? Lo que puede enseñarnos la tanatosis sobre las mentes de los animales Susana Monsó y Laura Danón 10 de diciembre, 13hs (Argentina) Inscripción: forms.gle/BixUX45jnGgV...

Por cierto, para una contrapartida a la propuesta de filósofos como Schopenhauer sobre el uso de conceptos en animales, recomiendo el libro de @susanamonso.com "La zarigüeya de Schrödinger". www.casadellibro.com/libro-la-zar...

Lovely review of Playing Possum by Travis Timmerman, published in Ethics. Above all I'm thrilled that the extremely silly word "jepperfication" (made up by @richardmoore.bsky.social to help me translate the also made up "jontrinfuncación") has made it into such a posh journal.

Loved this paper by @kristinandrews.bsky.social and Noam Miller. A very convincing argument for the function of consciousness.

Esta ilustración para @plazayvaldes.bsky.social la hice hace años y recuerdo que disfruté mucho el proceso de trabajo. Aprendí sobre el concepto de la muerte que tienen algunos animales y a dibujar una zarigüeya. Es un libro muy interesante de @susanamonso.com que ya va por la tercera edición.

Fully funded #PhDposition in Comparative Cultural Psychology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social. We will use touchscreen experiments & eyetracking to study mental simulations in nonhuman apes & human children across different cultures. All info here: www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit... Please share / apply!🙏

No, they really haven't. Calling spectral peaks vowels is as inane as saying that because my washing up gloves are also yellow, they have the same nutritional content as a banana. Zero evidence of vowel-like function. It's pure clickbait, and a new low in irresponsible claims from this group 🙄🐳🦑🧪

✨ Great news! The German edition of Playing Possum is nominated for “Science Book of the Year”. Congratulations Susana! ➡️ We know it deserves to win. Do you agree? Vote here! 👇

My book Playing Possum has been nominated in its German edition for 'Science book of the year' (Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres)! Please kindly vote for it if you think it deserves to win 😇

📢 Call for expressions of interest The METIS Group (UNED, Madrid) welcomes researchers interested in applying to the Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellowship with our support. ➡️ Send CV + 400-word project summary. ⏰ Deadline: 20 Nov 2025. Questions? Feel free to contact us. blogs.uned.es/metis/

📣We’re happy to announce that tomorrow, Susana Monsó @susanamonso.com will present “Animal Medicine” at the IAST General Seminar in Toulouse! More info: www.iast.fr/seminars/202...

Obsessed with the cover of the Chinese edition of my book!!

🏛️The Nayef Al-Rodhan International Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy 2025 award ceremony took place yesterday. 👏We are proud that Manuel Almagro, a member of the VLC Philosophy Lab, was a finalist with his book 'The Rise of Polarization: Affects, Politics, and Philosophy'.

Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵

Exciting new work from former team members Eric Romero, Cwyn Solvi, Fei Peng and colleagues makes the cover of Science: affective contagion in bumblebees! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Si esto es verdad, será lamarck de interesante.

Super cool study!

👋📢 METIS Seminars 2025-2026! Hi 😊 As every year, we’re back with our weekly philosophy seminars. They are one of METIS’s main activities, and everyone is more than welcome to join. Here’s a thread on who we are, what we do, and how you can take part 👇🧵

If this doesn’t end bonobos’ reputation as the hippies of the great apes I don’t know what will. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Hoy hemos celebrado una comida para despedir a Francisco Álvarez, Manuel Sellés y Eduardo Bustos, fundadores del Departamento de LHFC de la UNED, que se jubilan. Gracias por todo vuestro legado. Paco, Manolo y Eduardo, esta siempre será vuestra casa💚

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

📅✨ Plan chulísimo para todos los públicos este viernes 19 (18:00–19:00h) en Madrid: En el Círculo de Bellas Artes, dentro del Festival de las Ideas, @susanamonso.com y Paco Calvo hablarán sobre inteligencias no humanas 🐒🌱 🎟️ Entrada libre hasta completar aforo ℹ️ festivaldelasideas.es/eventos/las-...

Estaré este viernes en el Círculo de Bellas Artes charlando sobre inteligencias no humanas con el gran Paco Calvo como parte del Festival de las Ideas. ¡Entrada libre hasta completar aforo!

Animal experts! Please can you help me figure out the culprit behind what I found in my office drawer after returning from my holidays? Is it a mouse or a rat? Or something else entirely? I should have it all disinfected right? 😬

Es cuestión de tiempo que firme accidentalmente un email como “Sudaba”.