The article explores whether biological agency—the idea that organisms act toward their own goals rather than merely following genetic instructions or environmental stimuli—is a scientifically productive concept. It examines the tension between mechanistic, gene-centered views of life and theories that treat living entities as causal agents capable of making decisions based on immediate contextual information.
* The debate over whether agency is a fundamental biological attribute or just phenotypic plasticity
* Theoretical attempts to "naturalize" agency through empirical measurement
* How the concept relates to evolutionary theory, multicellularity, and artificial intelligence
* The debate over whether agency is a fundamental biological attribute or just phenotypic plasticity
* Theoretical attempts to "naturalize" agency through empirical measurement
* How the concept relates to evolutionary theory, multicellularity, and artificial intelligence
New experiments reveal how astrocytes tune neuronal activity to modulate our mental and emotional states, suggesting that neuron-only brain models are insufficient for understanding brain function.
