Hello, welcome to the Infinite, I did a very special hello by the way.

That was what we call the podcast hello, which means that because slightly younger people

offer listed at BBC Sounds for their podcast, I go, hello.

Can I just explain who that is? That's Robin int, I'm Brian Cox, and you are listening

to the BBC Infinite Monkey Cage podcast on BBC Sounds, which you know because presumably

you've downloaded it.

Hello, I'm Robin int.

And I'm Brian Cox.

Today's program is about intelligence, not human intelligence, as its existence has

become far more debatable in recent years.

Due to our ability to use a black and decker jigsaw and invent Nutella, we've always believed

ourselves to have an intelligence way beyond that of any other creatures on the earth.

That of course, an ability to, first of all, invent language and then relegate it to a

series of emoticons lol.

But have we been looking intelligence wrongly?

In today's show, we'll look at the cutting edge research into animal intelligence, in

particular the octopus and birds.

His brain size really a good marker of intelligence, and how do we define what intelligence actually

is?

Actually, the real reason, I can tell you the real reason we're doing this, is because

Brian is one of those omnivores who eats pretty much anything, this is true.

Except the only thing he's stopped eating is he now won't eat octopus, because he did

...