Cognition-Based Biology

William B. Miller, Jr., MD, attended college and medical school at Northwestern University and was a physician in active academic and private practice for nearly 40 years. During those years, a series of observations on the patterns of infectious disease and cancer sparked intense interest in cells, the microbiome, and evolutionary biology. His current focus is the intelligent measuring cell and how that cognitive agency propels biological and evolutionary development, a focus that stands a world apart from his original medical practice. In his words, " I'm still amazed that this new passion emerged, and to this day, I cannot offer a specific reason for this dramatic shift in interest. This kind of transition between two disparate fields is very uncommon." He is the author or co-author of dozens of scientific papers and eight books, all focused on various aspects of the biology of our planet.František Baluška, Ph.D., was born in 1957 in Trnava, a town in what is now Slovakia. He is responsible for founding two scientific journals, Plant Signalling & Behavior and Communicative & Integrative Biology, is the editor of the book series Signalling and Communication in Plants (Springer Verlag), and has authored and co-authored over 160 scientific papers. Most of his research focuses on plant neurobiology and, as this volume shows, cellular cognition and sentience. He recently retired from lecturing at the University of Bonn, where he continues as a research Group Leader at the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology. His current focus is on plant anesthesia, plant sensory biology, especially plant vision based on ocelli in the root apex and leaf surfaces, and developing the concept of the cellular senome.Predrag Slijepčević, Ph.D., graduated from the University of Sarajevo. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1992 and worked at the Universities of Cambridge and St. Andrews before taking his current position at Brunel University of London. His research is divided into studies of chromosome biology, the biology of telomeres, and the exploration of applications in the biology of aging and carcinogenesis. His theoretical focus is on the philosophy of biology and evolutionary biology. Interestingly, his original training was in veterinary medicine along with a program in philosophy, which was interrupted by the war in Yugoslavia. His most recent book, Biocivilisations: A New Look at the Science of Life, was recognized by the Nautilus Book Awards foundation as a winner in the 2024 Ecology & Environment category.Arthur S. Reber, Ph.D., was a true 'rara avis', a man with a unique professional pathway and remarkable skills. His original training was in experimental psychology at Brown University. His primary research was on "implicit learning," in which knowledge is acquired independent of awareness of either the process or the products of learning. This research on the cognitive unconscious, in partnership with his academic colleague and wife, Rhiannon Allen, expanded across many subdisciplines in the social sciences, significantly extending  into over twenty distinct areas. He authored the Dictionary of Psychology (Penguin), which has been translated into six languages and gone through 4 editions. His career was spent at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of CUNY, and he was a Senior Fulbright Professor. He authored or co-authored over 100 scientific papers, was a Fellow of the AAAS, Sigma Xi, the APS, the Fulbright Foundation, the Psychonomic Society, and the Golden Key Society.He was an avid gambler, he also wrote scores of articles and some popular books on the subject, including Gambling for Dummies. He died on September 2, 2025. He was 85.

• Darwin Reappraised: The Past is Prologue.- Cellular Sentience: Biomembranes, Bioelectric Cytoskeleton and Charged Biofields.- The Flow of Biological Information: Information Fields and the Intelligent Cell.- The Cellular Senome as an Electron-Based Bioelectromagnetic Bioplasm.- Intracellular and Extracellular Vesicular Communication.- Prokaryotic Cells and Endosymbiotic Origin of Eukaryotic Cells.- The Microbial Sphere.- Collective Life: Holobionts and the Symbiotic Imperative.- The Sources of Biological Variation:  Natural Viral-Cellular Engineering in Cognition-Based Evolution.- Post Neo-Darwinian Biology: Selection and Genes Reconsidered.- Natural Learning in Biological Systems.- Cellular Problem-solving: Exaptations, Epigenetic Adaptations, and Phenotype.- Sexual Reproduction: Protist-Like Sexual Cells and Early Embryogenesis.- Speciation and Extinctions: Taking a Look Under the Hood.- Unicellular, Collective, and Extended Minds: From cells to the Biosphere.- Agency and Purpose in Evolution: Natural Learning and the Biosphere.- The impact of Cognition-Based Biology on Synthetic Biology.- Ethical Dilemmas Within Cognition-Based Biology: Every Opened Door Raises New Questions.- Conclusion: The Planetary Cycle of Life – Bioecological Interconnectedness Through Distributed Intelligence.