Doctors by nature: How ants, apes and other animals heal themselves by Professor Jaap de Roode @INSIGHTSPublicLecturesNCL

Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

In his book, Doctors by Nature, the speaker demonstrates how animals of all kinds – from ants to apes, from bees to bears, and from cats to caterpillars – use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. This lecture considers whether these astonishing behaviours are learned or innate and explains how we can turn to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

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Doctors by nature: How ants, apes and other animals heal themselves by Professor Jaap de Roode

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