For us, the Article of the Week has to hit several sweet spots at once. Firstly, something fresh, preferably a new take on an old problem. It needs to be clear, and rather well-focussed on its ostensible subject. It needs to show intellectual rigour; moreover, if there is a touch of intellectual humility in the writers’ purpose, so much the better. That will be the best learning point of all.
Can Seabirds hear their way across the ocean? by the admirable Samantha Patrick of the University of Liverpool [1] fulfils our relentless criteria effortlessly. For it suggests an intriguing new take on how animals find their paths across the vast anonymous wastes of the oceans, where everything seems the same for hundreds of kilometres. At least, to us humans they do. Samantha and her team think that Albatrosses use infrasound, that is to say, very low frequency noise, by which they can hear the sounds of waves crashing on distant islands. And get this-they were helped, in their research, by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, who kindly released data to compare with their own data gleaned from Albatrosses.
But for us the key passage was this:
As with many studies testing a hypothesis for the first time, my team’s study raises as many questions as it answers. If seabirds respond to infrasound, they must be able to hear it and know where it is coming from. Lab studies have found evidence that some birds can hear infrasound, but there have been no tests on seabirds.
What a clear exposition of the difference between “knowledge” and “belief”! If only every business leader, politician, religious authority, GB News “journalist” and time share salesperson could be made to learn that passage by heart, and be forced to present a thousand word essay on it, how much better shape the world might be in.
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_migration
#animal migration #infrasound #magnetism #smell #albatross #seabird
Learning, Science and Society 