Year In Ideas 2008 – NYTimes.com: This is a very interesting feature from www.nytimes.com. Here is one of the very amazing discovery:
Avian Dancing
If you aren’t one of the millions who have already done so, go immediately to YouTube and search for “Snowball the Dancing Cockatoo.” [View the video here] There you will see a large white bird balanced on the back of an office chair, bobbing his head, stomping his feet and doing something that — until now — scientists believed impossible: dancing just like a human.
This is good fun. It’s also good science: Snowball’s videos are changing the way researchers understand the neurology of music and dancing.
Aniruddh Patel, senior fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in California, got the link from a friend. He saw not just a funny bird but also a potential solution to a scientific argument dating back to Darwin: some researchers say that human brains have been specially wired by natural selection for dancing, because dancing confers survival benefits through group bonding. If that were true, according to Patel, you would see dancing only in animals that, like humans, have a long history of music and dance, which no other species has. The fact that only humans dance has long been seen as evidence supporting the evolution argument.
So Patel sent an e-mail message to Snowball’s owner, Irena Schulz, and asked to study her bird. “The obvious question was whether he was just mimicking somebody,” Patel said. To answer that, he made CDs of Snowball’s favorite song (“Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by the Backstreet Boys) at various speeds. Schulz videotaped Snowball dancing to each version, and then Patel graphed Snowball’s movement against the music’s beat. “Like a child, he synched to the music for stretches of time, then danced a little faster or a little slower, but always in a rhythmic way,” Patel says. “Statistically those periods when he’s locked onto the beat are not by chance — they really do indicate sensitivity to the beat and an ability to synchronize with it.”
What’s most interesting to Patel is that this ability is present in birds but not in primates, our closest animal relatives. “This is no coincidence,” he says. Patel says dancing is associated with our vocal abilities, not musical hard wiring. Humans and parrots are two of the few species with brains wired for vocal learning — hearing sounds (like words), then coordinating complex movements (lips, tongues, vocal cords) to reproduce those sounds. Other animals who have this ability: dolphins, seals and whales. “In theory,” he says, “they may be able to dance, too. We just don’t know it yet.”
24 comments:
you are invited to contentxn com
What a facinating article. I’m looking for a marketing expert to help with a project, could you help? Please come visit my site rvine California Business Directory when you got time.
I love the style, i have several similar one, i usually wear them to work or shopping. Please come visit my site Metal Roofing when you got time.
Hey congrats on the new posting come out
btw i love your blog although i have just stumbled upon it =)
Love the new pictures you got there! Please visit my site Digital Signage when you got time.
Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog? Please come visit my site weight loss programs when you got time.
You share valuable information and excellent design you got here! I would like to thank you for sharing your thoughts and time into the stuff you post!! Thumbs up. Please come visit my site Arlington Yellow Page Business Directory when you got time.
I was thinking of looking up some of them newspaper websites, but am glad I came here instead. Although glad is not quite the right word… let me just say I needed this after the incessant chatter in the media, and am grateful to you for articulating something many of us are feeling - even from distant shores. Please come visit my site Omaha Yellow Page Business Directory when you got time.
I usually don’t leave comments!!! Trust me! But I liked your blog…especially this post! Would you mind terribly if I put up a backlink from my site to your site? Please come visit my site digital asset manager
give me any valuable feedbacks.
I enjoyed reading your work! GREAT post! I looked around for this… but I found you! Anyway, would you mind if I threw up a backlink from my site? Please come visit my site asset business management
when you got time.
Thanks for posting such kind of usefull information.Keep Posted in future as well.Thank you! I would love some feedback on my site landscape designer when you got time.
I just love it ..... well i don't have any doubt about your articles... your articles are awesome... Honestly you are simply the best.Thanks for sharing this with us. Please come visit my site garden centers when you got time.
You owe a very nice and interesting blog. Feel free to check out my site watch when you got time.
Such interesting read and information, thanks for sharing this post. I will check back to read your other new posts. Please come visit my site landscape designer when you got time.
I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business Please come visit my site silver jewelry when you got time.
This is just another reason why I like your website. I like your style of writing you tell your stories without out sending us to 5 other sites to complete the story. Please come visit my site pashmina shawls give me any valuable feedbacks.
Very nice information. Thanks for this. Please come visit my site Clothing Manufacturers Supplier Directory when you got time.
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. Please come visit my site Fashion Blogs give me any valuable feedbacks.
You got a really useful blog I have been here reading for about an hour. I am a newbee and your success is very much an inspiration for me. Please come visit my site Divorce Advice when you got time.
Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog? Please come visit my site Document Shredding give me any valuable feedbacks.
Potty training tips, baby potty training. Resource guide on how to potty train, potty training for boys and girls.Potty training tips
If you had some way of rating posts I would for sure give you a high rating my friend!
Grande Prairie Business Directory, Grande Prairie Agriculture, fishing & Forestry, Grande Prairie Apparel & Accessories, business directory listings of Grande Prairie Automotive, Grande Prairie Business & Professional Services, Grande Prairie Computers, Communications & Electronics, home garden furnishing, real estate business finderGrande Prairie Construction & Renovation, Grande Prairie Education, Grande Prairie Entertainment & Media, Grande Prairie Family & Community, Lawyers Attorneys & Law Firms Directory Grande Prairie Finance & Legal,dinning restaurants Entertainment serving Grande Prairie Food & Beverages, Grande Prairie Health & Medicine Doctors Hospitals, Grande Prairie Home & Garden, Grande Prairie Industrial supplies & services , Grande Prairie Personal Care, Grande Prairie Public utilities & environment, Grande Prairie Real-Estate & Insurance, Grande Prairie Shopping & Specialty Stores, shopping, retail, department stores company guide of Grande Prairie Sports & Recreation, Grande Prairie Transportation, Grande Prairie Travel & Lodging
Awesome article, definitely liked the info provided. Just subscribed to your blog. Great stuff! . I am new to seo, trying to visit more seo blogs for guides and tips. You can be friends with me. Please come visit my site csharp tutorial
when you got time. Thanks.
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It’s the old what goes around comes around routine.
Florida Attorney Yellow Pages, Attorneys
Florida , Florida Employment & Labor Law Attorneys, Florida Entertainment & Sports Law Attorneys, Florida Environmental & Natural Resources Attorneys, Florida Estate Planning & Administration Attorneys, Florida Expert Testimony Services, Florida Family Law Attorneys, Florida Firearm & Gun Law Attorneys, Florida Franchise & Licensing Law Attorneys, Florida General Practice Attorneys, Florida Government Contracts & Claims Attorneys, Florida Guardianship & Conservatorship Attorneys, Florida Health Care Law Attorneys, Florida Immigration Law Attorneys, Florida Insurance Law Attorneys, Florida Intellectual Property Attorneys, Florida International Law Attorneys, Florida Juvenile Law Attorneys,
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It’s the old what goes around comes around routine.
Divorce Attorneys In Pennsylvania, Divorce
Attorneys In South Carolina, Divorce
Attorneys In South Dakota, Divorce
Attorneys In Tennessee, Divorce
Attorneys In Texas
Post a Comment