Nicky Clayton's guest appearances

Nicky Clayton

The Life Scientific

The Behavioural Ecology and Evolution Podcast (the Beepcast)

Private Passions

The Department of Conversation with Pat Brittenden

Tim Birkhead

Patricia Wiltshire

Athene Donald

Nick Lane

Simon Wessely

Venki Ramakrishnan

Anya Hurlbert

Henry Marsh

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Eugenia Cheng

Uta Frith

Peter Piot

Brian Greene

Nick Davies

Steve Jones

OwlTail

Clive Wilkins

Nicky Clayton is the Professor of Comparative Cognition and a University Teaching Officer in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Clare College. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2010. Her expertise as a scientist lies in the contemporary study of how animals and children think.Clive Wilkins works as a fine art painter and has exhibited widely including at the National Portrait Gallery, London on several occasions. He has also exhibited at the Royal Academy and various Mayfair galleries. Clive is a performer and professional magician with a particular interest in the nature of illusion and the psychology of perception and the methods used to make sense of a strange world.Together this dynamic duo are the co-founders of The Captured Thought, which is an arts and science collaboration that explores mental time travel, the subjective experience of thinking and the nature of creativity.Who the heck knows what we'll get into, but I'm sure you'll agree it's going to be one heck of an interesting ride...oh...and 'yes' there will be magic performed during the chat

Nicky Clayton is the Professor of Comparative Cognition and a University Teaching Officer in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Clare College. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2010. Her expertise as a scientist lies in the contemporary study of how animals and children think. Clive Wilkins works as a fine art painter and has exhibited widely including at the National Portrait Gallery, London on several occasions. He has also exhibited at the Royal Academy and various Mayfair galleries. Clive is a performer and professional magician with a particular interest in the nature of illusion and the psychology of perception and the methods used to make sense of a strange world. Together this dynamic duo are the co-founders of The Captured Thought, which is an arts and science collaboration that explores mental time travel, the subjective experience of thinking and the nature of creativity. Who the heck knows what we'll get into, but I'm sure you'll agree it's going to be one heck of an interesting ride...oh...and 'yes' there will be magic performed during the chat

NICKY CLAYTON & CLIVE WILKINS : The seven myths of memory

Nicky Clayton is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Professor of Comparative Cognition at Cambridge, and she's done more than any other scientist to transform the way we think about animal intelligence, and particularly the intelligence of birds. She's spent her career observing rooks and jays and other members of the corvid family, watching them as they play tricks on each other, and sing and dance together.Her work has challenged the assumption that only humans have the intelligence to plan for the future and reminisce about the past, that only humans can understand the minds of others. She says that she's spent most of her life wondering what it would be like to be a bird: 'to fly, to see colours in the ultraviolet, and to sing as beautifully as they do'. Alongside her scientific research, Nicky Clayton has a passion for tango, and has collaborated with Ballet Rambert as a scientist in residence.In Private Passions she talks to Michael Berkeley about the creative inspiration she finds in music. Her musical choices include Ravel, Janacek and Bruckner, and Astor Piazzolla's Tango for an Angel; as well as Messiaen's Catalogue of the Birds, and the call of a reed warbler.Produced by Elizabeth BurkeA Loftus production for BBC Radio 3.

Nicky Clayton is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Professor of Comparative Cognition at Cambridge, and she's done more than any other scientist to transform the way we think about animal intelligence, and particularly the intelligence of birds. She's spent her career observing rooks and jays and other members of the corvid family, watching them as they play tricks on each other, and sing and dance together. Her work has challenged the assumption that only humans have the intelligence to plan for the future and reminisce about the past, that only humans can understand the minds of others. She says that she's spent most of her life wondering what it would be like to be a bird: 'to fly, to see colours in the ultraviolet, and to sing as beautifully as they do'. Alongside her scientific research, Nicky Clayton has a passion for tango, and has collaborated with Ballet Rambert as a scientist in residence. In Private Passions she talks to Michael Berkeley about the creative inspiration she finds in music. Her musical choices include Ravel, Janacek and Bruckner, and Astor Piazzolla's Tango for an Angel; as well as Messiaen's Catalogue of the Birds, and the call of a reed warbler. Produced by Elizabeth Burke A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3.

Nicky Clayton joins me in this month's Beepcast, telling me what sparked her interest in bird intelligence, and how she mixes science with the art of dance. I learn about a mouse with an unusual superpower: immunity to the sting of a scorpion. I also interview Culum Brown of Macquarie University, Australia, who studies how young rainbow fish sniff out lurking predators.  Download the MP3     A southern grasshopper mouse eats the Arizona bark scorpion that it has just killed. Credit: Ashlee and Matthew Rowe Quicklinks:  Culum Brown's webpage  Ashlee Rowe's webpage  Nicky Clayton's webpage

Nicky Clayton joins me in this month's Beepcast, telling me what sparked her interest in bird intelligence, and how she mixes science with the art of dance. I learn about a mouse with an unusual superpower: immunity to the sting of a scorpion. I also interview Culum Brown of Macquarie University, Australia, who studies how young rainbow fish sniff out lurking predators. <a href="http://archive.org/download/BeepcastNovember2013/beepcast201311.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download the MP3</a> <a href="http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/058/404/i02/eating-scorpion-131024.jpg?1382631719" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a> A southern grasshopper mouse eats the Arizona bark scorpion that it has just killed. Credit: Ashlee and Matthew Rowe Quicklinks: <a href="http://bio.mq.edu.au/research/groups/beef/beef.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Culum Brown's webpage</a> <a href="http://neuroscience.msu.edu/directory/faculty/rowe.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ashlee Rowe's webpage</a> <a href="http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/ccl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nicky Clayton's webpage</a>

Nov 2013: Nicky Clayton and clever crows, and mice that eat scorpions 

Nicky Clayton is Professor of Comparative Cognition at Cambridge University. Her work challenges how we think of intelligence and she says that birds' brains developed independently from humans or apes. Members of the corvid family, such as crows and jays appear to plan for the future and predict other birds behaviour in her elegant experiments.One experiment she has designed was inspired by Aesop's fable of the hungry crow. Her work raises questions about the understanding of animal behaviour, including whether, as humans, we can ever interpret the actions of other species accurately. But she says her research with birds and other animals can help illuminate young children's activities and how their brains develop. Nicky Clayton is scientist in residence at the Rambert Dance Company and her latest collaboration with Mark Baldwin, the artistic director, is "Seven for a secret, never to be told" which takes concepts from childhood behaviour and reinterprets them choreographically. Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Nicky Clayton is Professor of Comparative Cognition at Cambridge University. Her work challenges how we think of intelligence and she says that birds' brains developed independently from humans or apes. Members of the corvid family, such as crows and jays appear to plan for the future and predict other birds behaviour in her elegant experiments.One experiment she has designed was inspired by Aesop's fable of the hungry crow. Her work raises questions about the understanding of animal behaviour, including whether, as humans, we can ever interpret the actions of other species accurately. But she says her research with birds and other animals can help illuminate young children's activities and how their brains develop. Nicky Clayton is scientist in residence at the Rambert Dance Company and her latest collaboration with Mark Baldwin, the artistic director, is "Seven for a secret, never to be told" which takes concepts from childhood behaviour and reinterprets them choreographically. Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald.