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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.

• Understanding Ecological Intelligence: Lessons from Nature’s Problem-Solvers
  What is Ecological Intelligence? Organisms create purpose Organisms create purpose. Ecological intelligence consists of all the signs of meaning and purpose made by and interpreted by organisms. In this sense, it has both a materiality- the substance of the changing habitat, the what, where and when- and an immateriality of intention, reason or purpose: why
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  Exploring the Fascinating World of Mycorrhizal Networks
  What Are Mycorrhizal Networks? A hidden underground web forms when fungal threads join plant roots. This is the mycorrhizal network. People often call it the “wood wide web”. This system links separate plants together in forests and fields. This mycorrhizal network lets plants communicate and share. In our book, Understanding Living Systems, Mycorrhizal networks are
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  From Stochasticity to Ecological Intelligence and the Nature of Choice
  Teaching aid summary of Chapter 4 From Stochasticity to Ecological Intelligence and the Nature of Choice by Raymond Noble and Denis Noble
• Local Ecosystems Regulate Climate Change
  How Local Ecosystems Regulate Climate Change — Through the Lens of Understanding Living Systems Integrating climate science with Raymond & Denis Noble’s Understanding Living Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Why protecting local nature is about restoring agency, not just storing carbon. Beyond the Machine: a systems view of climate change Politics today often abandons climate
• Sir John Eccles
  In the 1970s, I had the pleasure of meeting the great neuroscientist Sir John Eccles when he came to give the Gifford lectures in Edinburgh. The Dean of our faculty graciously invited us to meet the Nobel laureate at a garden party. The book, The Self and Its Brain, which he had coauthored with Karl

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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