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Welcome to The Thin End – Raymond Noble’s commentary on nature, science, society, and the human condition.
For informative articles and podcasts on biology, evolution, society, health, wellbeing, and politics.
- The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Human Survival
Understanding Indigenous Knowledge In our book, *Understanding Living Systems*, we discuss ecological intelligence extensively. In short, ecological intelligence refers to the knowledge and understanding organisms develop and use as they actively engage with their habitats. These interactions embed this intelligence in local environments and ways of life. Moreover, organisms pass much of it from one - Sensory receptive fields and synaptic contacts
In this semi-biographical piece, Raymond Noble revisits the work he produced for his Doctorate at the Royal Veterinary School, University of Edinburgh, in the late 1970s. He presents a scientific research article from The Journal of Physiology (1982) titled “Connexions between hair follicle afferent fibres and spinocervical tract neurones in the cat: the synthesis of receptive fields” by A. - How Organisms Make Choices: Harnessing Randomness to Find New Solutions
In this article, Raymond Noble critically revisits his paper published with Denis Noble in 2018. “Harnessing stochasticity: How do organisms make choices?” by Raymond Noble and Denis Noble, Chaos 28, 106309 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5039668. Why biological choices can be unpredictable before they happen, yet understandable afterward. Adaptive Intelligence in Changing Ecosystems When organisms encounter unfamiliar problems, they cannot rely - Adaptation across generationsThe traditional view holds that evolution occurs through natural selection acting on gradual, random mutations. For much of the last century, this gene-centred perspective dominated biology, giving agency little or no role. Evolution simply had to be blind, and agency implies some kind of anticipation. It became dogma. It also proposed barriers that would prevent
- The Collared Dove’s mysterious spread
The Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) has undergone one of the greatest natural avian colonisations in history. The Collared Dove’s spread is remarkable for how rapidly the species expanded its range. For centuries, the species lived mainly in the warm regions of Asia, India, and the Middle East. By the 1600s, it had reached Turkey
Professor Raymond Noble is a chartered biologist and Royal Society of Biology Fellow. He has written extensively on biological theory and philosophy and is an author with his brother, Denis Noble, of the acclaimed book Understanding Living Systems, published by Cambridge University Press (2023). He was Deputy Dean of Life Sciences at UCL, London, and the Graduate Tutor in Women’s Health, where he is now an Honorary Professor.
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