Expect science-led reading rather than a continuous story: the book moves among species and examples to examine learning, memory and problem-solving, including possible applications of animal abilities in engineering and materials science.
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When you think of smart creatures, animals such as owls, dolphins, dogs, and gorillas come to mind. But what about ants building mega colonies or bees reporting to the hive about new nesting sites? What about escape artist octopuses and jellyfish that use their eyes (they have twenty-four!) to navigate? Can insects, spiders, and other animals without backbones be considered smart, too? We don't usually think of invertebrates, or animals without a spine, as being smart. But invertebrates can be astonishingly intelligent. These animals exhibit surprising feats of learning, memory, and problem-solving using their relatively simple, tiny brains--some the size of a sesame seed or even smaller. In fact, some intelligent invertebrates have no brain at all! Scientists around the world are putting invertebrate intelligence to use in mind-boggling ways. Engineers are designing swarmbots based on bees to take part in search-and-rescue efforts. And materials scientists are basing a new, tough ceramic on the structure of a mantis shrimp's claw. In Smart and Spineless, readers will analyze key facts and determine whether they agree with the author's point of view of whether invertebrates can be considered smart.
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