 If I could talk to the animals, just imagine it. Chatting to a chimp in chimpanzee. Now, this line might be familiar to some of you. It comes from the movie Dr. Dolittle, which is a story about a man who actually could talk to animals. And this idea always fascinated me. I thought, wouldn't it be great if I could talk to the animals? Like I'm sure most of you who've got animals in your lives, I wondered, what are they thinking? What do they want? And how can I give them a good life? In the absence of having them tell us, we have to try and read their minds to give it our best guesses. And unfortunately, those guesses are often wrong. For example, have a look at these two monkey enclosures in the pictures behind me. I'm sure you're forming an opinion about which you think is better for the welfare of the animals. And I'm guessing that most of you prefer this lovely green naturalistic island. Unfortunately, the monkeys don't feel the same way. They actually prefer the cages. Because for them, they don't see prison-like bars. Instead, they see a whole lot of extra climbing surfaces that they can play on and enjoy. Whereas this flat island here, it doesn't actually have that much for them to do. Now, it's because of counter-intuitive results like these that we need animal welfare science. And this is a science that tries to talk to the animals in the best ways that we know how. By using behavioral and physiological indicators, like vocalizations or changes in heart rate, to try and learn something about what animals like and don't like or what's good and bad for them from their own point of view. Now, most of the people who work in this area are scientists. I'm not a scientist. I'm a philosopher. And so I'm approaching these issues from a new perspective. I'm creating a philosophical framework to help scientists choose the right indicators for measuring welfare. My work gives a process for testing the indicators that we want to use so we can be more confident that we're measuring the right things and that we're getting accurate information out from the measures that we are taking. For instance, levels of blood cortisol are often thought to indicate distress in animals. But actually, cortisol levels can rise in positive situations too, such as excitement over food or sex. And these are quite different welfare states. So see, it's really important that we make sure we have the right indicators to use for different situations. Otherwise, rerun the risk of failing to see the signs when our animals are suffering or neglecting to find out what really matters for their welfare. My research is helping to refine the methods of animal welfare science, which will help us gain more insight into the thoughts and feelings of our animals and get a better chance at giving them the best welfare. It is my hope that with continuing research like this, maybe one day, we really will be able to talk to the animals. Thank you.