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Concord Biotech Ltd, part of the pharma industry, underwent consolidation after hitting record highs in September but recent price action suggests that the stock is on the verge of giving a breakout from a potential Rounding Bottom pattern on daily charts.Short-term traders with a high-risk profile can go long in the stock only on a close above Rs 2,120 which can take it towards Rs 2,400-Rs 2,600 in the short to medium term, suggest experts.The( MENAFN - IANS) Shillong, Dec 27 (IANS) Kisen Wanniang, a 15-year-old youth from Meghalaya, received the Rashtriya Bal Puraskar on Thursday, officials here said. President Droupadi Murmu conferred the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar on 17 children, in seven categories, for their exceptional achievements at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre on Thursday. Kisen is one of the 17 recipients of the national awards. He received the award for his exemplary bravery. The youth from Mawlangwir in Meghalaya's South West Khasi Hills village displayed extraordinary bravery by rescuing four children, aged 9 to 12, from the Maweitksar River during heavy rains on May 25 this year. A Meghalaya government official said that the son of a single mother working as a domestic labourer, Kisen was washing clothes by the river when he heard the children's cries for help. "Without hesitation and disregarding his safety, he plunged into the river and courageously saved each child," the official said. Kisen Wanniang was being awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for his exemplary courage in the field of bravery, he added. Speaking on the occasion, President Murmu congratulated all award winners and said that the country and the society are proud of them. She told children that they have done extraordinary work, achieved amazing accomplishments, have limitless capabilities, and possess incomparable qualities. They have set an example for the children of the country, the President said. The President added that providing opportunities and recognising children's talents has been a part of our tradition. She emphasised that this tradition should be strengthened further. She said that in the year 2047 when the country would celebrate the centenary of India's Independence, these award winners would be enlightened citizens of the country. Such talented boys and girls would become the builders of a developed India, the President said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also participated in the Veer Baal Diwas programme at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, during which he lauded the 17 children who were conferred with the Rashtriya Bal Puraskar Award in the fields of bravery, innovation, science and technology, sports and arts, and also interacted with them. MENAFN26122024000231011071ID1109033388 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.'Hypocritical': Labor ramming through 36 bills slammed
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Imposing pet passports for dogs, cats and ferrets to travel from one part of the UK to another has been branded an “outrage” at Westminster. The condemnation came as the House of Lords debated regulations paving the way for a scheme which would require animal lovers on the British mainland to have documentation in order to visit Northern Ireland. Critics view the move as further evidence of Northern Ireland still having to follow EU rules post-Brexit and being treated differently from the rest of the UK – a major source of contention to the unionist community. The paperwork, which will be free to apply for, includes a declaration that the owner will not travel onwards to Ireland or another EU country with their pet or assistance dog. Animals will have to be microchipped and have their own individual pet travel document, which will be valid for its lifetime. Northern Ireland residents returning after a stay in Great Britain with their pet or assistance dog will not need a travel document. The scheme is being introduced under the Windsor Framework, a revised deal for Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements aimed at tackling issues caused by the protocol. Raising her concerns in Parliament, Baroness Hoey, a Northern Irish Brexit supporter and former Labour MP, said: “These regulations are in effect about a new aspect of the Irish Sea border that has not had expression until this point because of the grace periods.” She added: “The experience of visiting Northern Ireland with your pet dog or cat, or even a ferret, will be made to feel like a visit to a foreign country. Lady Hoey went on: “This could spell the end of holiday trips for pet owners from GB to NI and then on to the Republic, when they want to explore both Northern Ireland and the Republic. “If they have a pet passport, they will have renounced their right to go to the Republic. That makes the border more of an obstruction than having border control posts on it, because at least in that eventuality, you could still cross over it.” Rejecting claims it was a result of the UK leaving the EU, she said: “The reality is that this is happening precisely because Northern Ireland has not got Brexit. “As we say repeatedly, it is still subject to EU rules and the EU could change the rules overnight.” Former DUP deputy leader Lord Dodds of Duncairn said: “Every one of the statutory instruments that come forward under the Windsor Framework must be properly debated, because these laws are being brought forward to implement what a foreign jurisdiction has decided should be the law of the United Kingdom. “In the 21st century, we should not accept colonial rule. We abolished it elsewhere. We believe it should not be tolerated for one second. People should have the democratic right to decide their laws for themselves, in their interests.” He added: “The ridiculous part about this debate is that we are having to debate European laws regulating the movement of pet animals owned by British citizens between one part of the United Kingdom and another. That is an outrage.” Lord Dodds went on: “As I said, there will be hundreds, thousands more of these regulations, in all areas, affecting the daily lives of people in Northern Ireland. They all add up to a grievous assault on Northern Ireland’s constitutional position.” But former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick said: “I support the Windsor Framework because it is a necessary legal device to deal with the complexities that were presented to us in Ireland, north and south, on the issue of Brexit. “We need a pragmatic solution rather than choosing to have political contests and duels simply for the sake of them.” Introducing the regulations, environment minister Baroness Hayman of Ulloch said: “This scheme will simplify the requirements associated with moving pet dogs, cats and ferrets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland significantly. “It replaces single-use animal health certificates with a free-of-charge lifelong travel document and removes the need for costly pet health treatments. “Pet owners who travel frequently with their pets, or those who rely on the services of an assistance dog to travel independently, will benefit substantially from this change in approach.” However, she acknowledged the concerns raised by peers and promised to continue engagement with them.PUERTO PRÍNCIPE (AP) — El ministro de Salud de Haití ha sido destituido, informaron funcionarios del gobierno a The Associated Press el jueves, tras un mortal ataque de pandillas al hospital público más grande de la capital, Puerto Príncipe. Los dos funcionarios gubernamentales, que hablaron bajo condición de anonimato debido a la naturaleza sensible del asunto, dijeron que el ministro Duckenson Lorthe será reemplazado por el ministro de Justicia Patrick Pelissier hasta que se encuentre un nuevo ministro de salud. Dos periodistas y un oficial de policía fueron asesinados el martes cuando miembros de una pandilla irrumpieron en el Hospital General y dispararon indiscriminadamente a los reporteros que estaban allí para cubrir la reapertura de la instalación. Fue uno de los peores ataques contra los medios de comunicación haitianos en la memoria reciente. Otros siete periodistas resultaron heridos. Jean Frans Regala, un fotógrafo que sobrevivió, dijo que los periodistas habían sido invitados al hospital por el Ministerio de Salud, pero había poca seguridad en el sitio. “El hecho de que el ministro de salud nos invitara, te hace sentir que ya se han hecho preparativos”, le dijo Regala a la AP. “Cuando hicimos contacto con una unidad de policía, la policía nos dijo que no estaba al tanto del evento”. RELATED COVERAGE EEUU insta a retirar alerta de hambruna en el norte de Gaza; grupos de ayuda expresan preocupación Estalla altercado en reunión de grupo económico dominado por Rusia Muere a los 92 años Manmohan Singh, ex primer ministro de India y arquitecto de reformas económicas El ministro de salud no se presentó en el evento, por razones que no han sido explicadas. El martes, Johnson “Izo” André, considerado el líder de pandillas más poderoso de Haití y parte del grupo de pandillas Viv Ansanm que ha tomado control de gran parte de Puerto Príncipe, publicó un video en redes sociales asumiendo la responsabilidad del ataque. El video decía que la coalición de pandillas no había autorizado la reapertura del hospital. La violencia de las pandillas ha empeorado en Haití desde que el presidente de la nación fue asesinado en un intento de golpe de estado en 2021. Se cree que las pandillas controlan el 85% de la capital y a principios de este año realizaron ataques en el aeropuerto principal y las dos mayores prisiones del país. El país caribeño ha luchado por organizar una elección que restablezca el gobierno democrático y actualmente está gobernado por un consejo transitorio compuesto por representantes de partidos políticos, grupos empresariales y organizaciones de la sociedad civil. ___ Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
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LIVERPOOL, England : Liverpool came back after conceding early to beat Leicester City 3-1 at Anfield on Thursday and open a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Struggling Leicester took a shock sixth minute lead through Jordan Ayew but lived a charmed life until Cody Gakpo equalised on the stroke of halftime. Liverpool then put Leicester under siege straight from the break and took just four minutes into the second half to go ahead through Curtis Jones before Mohamed Salah made sure of the points with a superb 82nd-minute finish. The victory extended their unbeaten league run to 13 games and advanced Liverpool to 42 points at the top of the standings. (Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Christian Radnedge)Clemson left guard Trent Howard out with ACL tear for South Carolina game
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou savages Timo Werner for 'unacceptable' Rangers displayOTTAWA — Canadian border officials told members of Parliament Thursday that Canada is not a significant source of fentanyl headed into the United States. Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of intelligence and enforcement at the Canada Border Services Agency, made that comment to a parliamentary committee studying the impact of president-elect Donald Trump's plans for border security and migration. CBSA President Erin O'Gorman also said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has characterized the amount coming from Canada as "slippage" — small amounts sent over for personal use, mostly by post. Trump has threatened 25 per cent tariffs against Canada and Mexico unless the two countries step up on border security to tamp down on flows of illicit fentanyl. During the presidential race, Trump also threatened to deport millions of undocumented people, stirring fears that could trigger an influx of migrants into Canada. Ottawa is compiling new measures to bolster border security through more staff and equipment in the face of Trump's tariff threats. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared his border plan with the premiers during a Wednesday evening meeting, and Ottawa plans to add their suggestions into the soon-to-come package of measures. Several media outlets have reported that the tab for that could surpass $1 billion, citing confidential sources. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme said he was surprised to see that figure bandied about in headlines, and that he's not clear on whether Ottawa will actually put that much into beefing up the border. He said he plans to use any additional resources coming his way for the RCMP to rely more on modern technology to enforce the Canada-U.S. border. An RCMP official said the police force currently has over 900 drones and nine helicopters located across the country, with six helicopters that occasionally provide border surveillance. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024. Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press
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Do animals have conscious experiences? This past April, a group of biologists and philosophers unveiled The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness at a conference at New York University in Manhattan. The statement declared that there is “strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds.” It also said that empirical evidence points to “at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience” in all vertebrates and many invertebrates, including crustaceans and insects. Researchers have found myriads of indications of perception, emotion, and self-awareness in animals. The bumblebee plays. Cuttlefish remember how they experienced past events. Crows can be trained to report what they see. Given these findings, many believe there should be a fundamental shift in the way that humans interact with other species. Rather than people assuming that animals lack consciousness until evidence proves otherwise, researchers say, isn’t it far more ethical to make decisions with the assumption that they are sentient beings with feelings? “All of these animals have a realistic chance of being conscious, so we should aspire to treat them compassionately,” says Jeff Sebo, director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at New York University. “But you can accept that much and then disagree about how to flesh that out and how to translate it into policies.” Sasha Prasad-Shreckengast is trying to get into the mind of a chicken. This is not the easiest of feats, even here at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, a scenic hamlet in the rolling Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. For decades the sanctuary has housed, and observed the behavior of, farm animals – like the laying hens Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast is hoping to tempt into her study. Chickens, it turns out, have moods. Some might be eager and willing to waddle into a puzzle box to demonstrate innovative problem-solving abilities. But other chickens might just not feel like it. Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast also knows from her research, published this fall in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, that some chickens are just more optimistic than others – although pessimistic birds seem to become more upbeat the more they learn tasks. “We just really want to know what chickens are capable of and what chickens are motivated by when they are outside of an industrial setting,” Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast says. “They have a lot more agency and autonomy. What are they capable of, and what are they interested in?” In other words, how do chickens really think? And how do they feel? And, to get big picture about it, what does all of that say about chicken consciousness? In some ways, these are questions that are impossible to answer. There is no way for humans, with their own specific ways of perceiving and being in the world, to fully understand the perspective of a chicken – a dinosaur descendant that can see ultraviolet light and has a 300-degree field of vision. Yet increasingly, scientists like Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast are trying to find answers. What they are discovering, whether in farm animals, bumblebees, dogs, or octopuses, is a complexity beyond anything acknowledged in the past. (At least in Western culture, that is. The 17th-century philosopher René Descartes, for example, ushered in an influential idea that understood animals to be mere mechanical “automatons.” Ascribing feelings or emotions to animals, he and his many followers believed, was misguided.) Researchers have found myriads of indications of perception, emotion, and self-awareness in animals. The bumblebee plays. Cuttlefish remember how they experienced past events. Crows can be trained to report what they see. As a result, a growing number of scientists and philosophers believe there is at least a realistic possibility of “conscious experience” in all vertebrates, including reptiles and fishes, and many invertebrates. Given these findings, many believe there should be a fundamental shift in the way that humans interact with other species. Rather than people assuming that animals lack consciousness until evidence proves otherwise, isn’t it far more ethical to make decisions with the assumption that they are sentient beings with feelings? Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast’s study takes place in the wide hallway of Farm Sanctuary’s breezy chicken house. Unlike in pretty much any other chicken facility, the birds here come and go as they please from spacious pens. Following up on her previous research, she has designed a challenge that she hopes will appeal to most of her moody chickens. It is a ground-level puzzle box, with a push option, a pull option, and a swipe option. Birds are rewarded with a blueberry when they solve a challenge. There is also a free treat option in the puzzle box, a way for the researchers here to measure something called “contrafreeloading.” This term describes a behavior animals demonstrate when they choose to work for a reward rather than just freeloading from readily available food. (Scientists are still debating why most animals contrafreeload. They are also interested in the exception to the rule: the domesticated cat, who appears perfectly happy to take food without expending any effort.) Team members monitor a series of gates to the puzzle block, opening them when the birds are inclined to enter and letting them out if the chickens have had enough. The idea of consent – which is a basic, foundational principle in the study of human behavior – is also a hallmark of animal studies here at Farm Sanctuary. To the uninitiated, this might sound absurd, with images of chickens signing above the dotted line. But it is not actually all that rare. Studies of dogs, dolphins, and primates all depend on the animals agreeing, in their own way, to participate. Behavioral data would be skewed without it. And before she came to Farm Sanctuary, Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast worked in a canine cognition lab. Few people would bring their pet dogs in for research and then force them to do things they don’t want to do, she points out. So consent matters from both a scientific point of view and an ethical one, she says. A group of Biologists and philosophers this past April unveiled The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness at a conference at New York University in Manhattan. The statement declared that there is “strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds.” It also said that empirical evidence points to “at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience” in all vertebrates and many invertebrates, including crustaceans and insects. Since April, hundreds more scientists and moral thinkers around the world have added their names. Spearheaded by Kristin Andrews, professor of philosophy and the research chair in animal minds at York University in Canada, the idea emerged from conversations she had with two colleagues, Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Jeff Sebo, director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at New York University. The three were talking about all the new research demonstrating the complexity of animals’ inner lives. They wondered if there was a way to highlight how these studies were shifting attitudes. “People were dimly aware that new studies were identifying new evidence for consciousness – not only in birds, but also reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and then a lot of invertebrates, too,” says Dr. Sebo. “But there was no central, authoritative place people could look for evidence that the views of mainstream scientists were shifting.” Discovery after discovery over the past decade has illuminated an increasingly complex, communicative, and feeling world of nonhuman creatures. For instance, trees communicate, and fungal networks send messages throughout a forest. Species such as sea turtles and bats use electromagnetic fields, a force we cannot even perceive, to guide their movements and migrations. Snakes see infrared light, birds and reindeer see ultraviolet light, and dolphins use sound waves to navigate underwater. Author and journalist Ed Yong uses the German term umwelt to describe an organism’s unique sensory perspectives. His book “An Immense World” details the various ways animals experience their world. He uses the metaphor of a large house with many windows looking onto a garden. Each animal has its own window. But there are other windows as well, each with a different view of the same place. We humans have our own window, our own particular umwelt . Our eyes see only certain wavelengths and frequencies of light. Our ears perceive limited ranges of sound. Our noses have limited ranges of smell. For generations, the dominant perspective has been that the human perspective is the best view in the house, with the most complex and complete picture of reality. But there hasn’t been a species studied over the past 20 years that hasn’t turned out to exhibit pain. There hasn’t been a species that hasn’t turned out to be more internally complicated than people expected, Dr. Andrews says. “There hasn’t been any animal that we’ve looked at and asked, ‘Do they feel pain with the set of pain markers that are well established?’ And we’ve said, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s zero evidence,’” she says. “We don’t find any of them. “So my view is that we’re going to be finding these kinds of indicators of cognitive behavior, of behaviors indicating animals feel pain or feel pleasure, in probably all animals.” But does that mean consciousness? “Just that word, ‘consciousness,’ is the problem,” Dr. Andrews says. “The thing that everybody in the field agrees on is that consciousness refers to feeling – ability to feel things. ... But then if you start asking people to give a real, concrete definition of consciousness, they’re not able to do it.” The concept of consciousness has kept a small army of moralists, physicists, and theologians busy for generations. Today there is an entire field called “consciousness science,” in which academics debate the philosophical and physiological meanings of the word. The concept, after all, can take on different tones. Anesthesiologists have one interpretation of “conscious.” Psychologists have another. Philosophers and religious scholars also have their own varying views. An increasing number of mainstream scientists and researchers also point to a consciousness that is outside individuals, sometimes called “universal consciousness.” For the purposes of the declaration, researchers said, they focused on what is called “phenomenal consciousness.” This is the idea that “There is something that it’s like to be a particular organism,” explains Christopher Krupenye, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Phenomenal consciousness can be a bit of a hard concept to get one’s head around at first, he says. But it basically means that an animal experiences the world not as a machine, but as a being. Phenomenal consciousness is what you are experiencing right now in your body with the sight of words on a page as you read this article. There is another type of consciousness often called “metacognition,” in which a being is aware of what’s going on in its own mind. It is recognizing, for instance, that the temperature you feel is unpleasant, and then thinking that perhaps you should turn up the thermostat. It is recognizing that the words on the page are too small and that you should grab your reading glasses. “Theory of mind” is another connected concept. You recognize that another person reading this article is not you, but that they can have an experience similar to yours. Current research, including Dr. Krupenye’s, suggests that both dogs and primates display all these forms of consciousness. In one of his studies, for instance, he was able to track eye movements of chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans in order to gauge whether or not they expected an unseen ape to see them through a transparent barrier. He found these primates were able to assume another being was having a similar but different experience from what they were having themselves, given their own perspective on the world. Other studies show that dogs look to their owners for assistance when they do not understand a command, and that they look for clues and more information when they are having difficulty solving a task. Researchers believe this indicates dogs recognize their own ignorance – a sign of metacognition. But of course there’s no way to prove, or even fully understand, what dogs or apes are experiencing, Dr. Krupenye says. “You’re identifying one of the core philosophical challenges in this area of research,” he says. “With the case of phenomenal consciousness, in humans we take it as the case that if they verbally report they feel X or Y, we agree that’s what they are feeling. With animals, we can’t ask directly for them to verbally report.” So researchers use alternative indicators to gauge how a nonhuman animal is thinking or feeling – such as tracking eye movement. But even this gets tricky. What about an animal whose umwelt isn’t visual at all? “My dog’s experience of the world is much more dominated by smell data and much less by sight data,” says Dr. Sebo. “Different kinds of experiences might cause them different bodily pleasure and pain, but also different emotional pleasure and pain.” For years, researchers were cautioned not to anthropomorphize their subjects, or bestow human traits upon other animals. Most scientists still agree with many of the tenets of this. Dogs, for instance, don’t necessarily like what humans like, and most researchers agree that it is ethically important to keep those distinctions in mind. Think here about a dressed-up poodle. Its clothing and accessories are about human preferences. But the poodle might prefer an odor on the neighbor’s lawn. That’s a dog preference. Ethicists say it is important to be aware of this distinction, and not behave as if the poodle actually loves pompoms. Many animal researchers now say worries about anthropomorphism went too far. The human umwelt might be different from those of other animals, they say, but there is still a deeper quality of being-in-the-world that is similar. Heather Mattila, a biologist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, generally tries to sidestep the question of consciousness in the bees she studies – even though it’s what most interests her students. Trying to determine consciousness leads down a complicated philosophical path, she says. It is difficult to prove anything. She is an empirical scientist, which is all about working with solid, replicable studies. But in her personal opinion, there’s no question: Bees likely have consciousness. She watches bees map locations, share information, and dance in a way that appears excited when they have found a particularly tasty food source. (She has learned to write “vigorous” rather than “excited” in research papers to avoid sparking the critiques of reviewers.) Other researchers have also detected play behavior in some bees. All in all, the insect’s behavior reminds her of the rescued dog she grew up with – an animal that convinced her that other species had full personalities and cognition. “In a human mind, we would just assume consciousness is involved,” Dr. Mattila says. But assuming consciousness in other species brings up profound moral quandaries. If it turns out that animals do have feelings, or if they do participate in this big, amorphous concept called consciousness, what would that mean for the way humans interact with the rest of the living world? The scholars who signed the New York declaration tried to stay ambiguous on that point. “All of these animals have a realistic chance of being conscious, so we should aspire to treat them compassionately,” says Dr. Sebo at New York University. “But you can accept that much and then disagree about how to flesh that out and how to translate it into policies.” For Dr. Mattila and others, the possibility of consciousness has meant limiting the extent to which her scientific experiments cause harm. “I know many strict vegans would not approve of me keeping honeybees on campus, but I feel like I’m supporting them,” Dr. Mattila says. “I specifically try to do experiments that don’t cause them pain or suffering. ... I try to let them have a good life and observe how they operate within that good life.” But it also has her thinking more broadly about how humans and other animals cross paths and interact with each other. Should the real possibility of complex animal consciousness make a difference in where we build roads? Should it guide how we “consciously” take control of ecosystems? And should it impact how, and what, we eat? Such ethical considerations could impact an array of human activity. “It’s culturally inconvenient to think that animals are conscious,” Dr. Mattila says. Especially farm animals. Although research on animal sentience and intelligence has expanded to include a host of different species, there is still a gap when it comes to the animals we kill for food. The agricultural industry has long focused on animal welfare within the context of the food system, and there have been industry-wide efforts to slaughter animals in the most humane way possible. But a group of international researchers in 2019 published a report in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science that found a decided lack of information on the “physico-cognitive capacities” of farm animal species. While there has been loads of research on animal husbandry, there has not been all that much investigation into animals’ conscious experiences outside their role as food products for humans. To Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast and others at Farm Sanctuary, there are clear reasons for this. The first is that we generally want to distance ourselves from those creatures we eat. Multiple studies have shown that meat-eaters engage in something called “cognitive dissociation” to help alleviate the discomfort that comes if one starts to learn about the emotions or physical experiences of a pig or cow or chicken. But there are also funding issues. Most scientific research on farm animals is funded by agricultural schools focused on industrial practices or is funded by large agribusiness companies themselves. And farm animals generally live in a way that some scientists say is not conducive to understanding individual sentience. “When you’re thinking of chickens, specifically in a barn with 30,000 chickens, you can’t see an individual,” says Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast. The study she published this October focused on the behavior of Cornish hens – usually slaughtered after they reach 6 weeks of age. There isn’t a lot of existing information about the Cornish hen’s interior life, she says, because they aren’t usually allowed to live long enough to study as adults. Farm Sanctuary is explicit in its promotion of a vegan diet – it was founded by a California-born animal activist named Gene Baur, whose work revealing animal cruelty at industrial farms and slaughterhouses helped lead to animal welfare laws. Because of that, however, critics have called its animal science research biased – a charge researchers here reject. “There’s no reason to not offer somebody the benefit of the doubt of sentience, the benefit of the doubt of consciousness, and to provide research methods that respect their agency and autonomy,” Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast says. “You can still do really good science with those ethics in place.” On tours at Farm Sanctuary, guides introduce visitors to goats who make family groups; cows who, when no longer confined to dairy barns, prance and play and take care of their young; and pigs who, given the space, build themselves nests in a barn but go outside to relieve themselves. It is an explicit effort to introduce humans to the individuals within other species, says Mr. Baur. The purpose is simple: to normalize empathy for fellow creatures. “What we’re trying to achieve here are relationships of mutuality with us and other animals, where everyone benefits by the interaction, instead of relationships of extraction, where those with power take from those without,” he says. Promoting a vegan ethic, however, isn’t the only valid way to understand the relationship between humans and farm animals – even for those convinced they have consciousness. For Dr. Andrews, the key thinker behind the New York declaration, the question of how to live in a world of infinite consciousnesses has more to do with negotiation than with moral absolutes. She believes it is impossible to completely avoid causing harm. The bacteria on our skin are disrupted when we wash. Animals in the wild eat other animals. When she finds flower- eating aphids in her garden, she kills the insects to save the plants. “It’s about acknowledging that harms are part of life, and we’re committing some harms, but we’re trying to minimize the harm that we do when we’re making our choices,” Dr. Andrews says. It’s also recognizing that humans are not separate or unique, but part of an ecosystem with a dazzling array of individuals and understandings of the world – and a dazzling array of consciousness. “It’s driving us to see ourselves as part of an integrated system of biology,” she says. “And that is probably better for the planet.”Passion, patience, persistence: 3Ps of research success for membrane tech pioneer Wang Rong