Dung Beetles Navigate By the Milky Way; Pigeons Tune In To Magnetism 82
sciencehabit writes with this excerpt from Science magazine's colorful synopsis of a paywalled article at Current Biology "A day in the life of a male dung beetle goes something like this: Fly to a heap of dung, sculpt a clump of it into a large ball, then roll the ball away from the pile as fast as possible. However, it turns out that the beetles, who work at night, need some sort of compass to prevent them from rolling around in circles. New research suggests that the insects use starlight to guide their way. Birds, seals, and humans also use starlight to navigate, but this is the first time it's been shown in an insect." Also on the topic of How Animals Get Around Without GPS, new research has considerably heightened scientists understanding of birds' sensitivity to magnetic fields. For homing pigeons at least, this ability seems to be tied to a cluster of just 53 neurons (original paper, also behind a paywall).
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Dung Beetles move structures 1141 times their own weight. A skill much regarded by the pyramid builders.
The reinvention of wheel was much inspired by this tiny creature.
No so impressive (Score:5, Funny)
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Not to mention that once you get your shit together, you just gotta roll with it!
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Then what's your holdup?
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Funny thing, is they prolly think the same thing about you... they put what, where?....ewwwww!
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Give me a ball of dung and a star to steer her by (Score:2)
Captain James T. Kirk quoted English poet Jonathan Masefield, "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." Scarab beetle celestial navigation was far beyond this with their, "All I ask is a ball of dung and a galaxy to steer he
Really? (Score:1)
Seems to me like the upper management method of running things has come into full swing.
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Dung Beetle's guide to the Galaxy (Score:4, Funny)
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Polarized Light also might be used (Score:5, Informative)
-- honeybees : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_navigation#Orientation_by_polarised_light [wikipedia.org]
-- squids eyes : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_eye#Polarized_light [wikipedia.org]
-- fishies : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_in_fishes#Polarized_light [wikipedia.org]
.
Pigeons have been tested for polarization sensing and magnetic field sensing by William Tinsley Keeton [wikipedia.org].
Re:Polarized Light also might be used (Score:5, Interesting)
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The wikipedites also claim that the Olmecs might have beaten the chinese by a millennium, though! ;>p
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What's brown and sounds like a bell? (Score:1)
Dung! [google.com]
Re:This is why I love science. (Score:4, Insightful)
If you believe anything you read just because the person claims it to be a scientific fact, then that's your fault--not science. Don't just believe everyone you hear, that would be a good place to start.
If something cannot be successfully proven or is in fact proven to be bullshit, then it is discarded as such. That is what is good about science. It's also really weird when you grew up interested in astronomy being taught and passing tests in school of the "nine planets" and all of a sudden there's eight. Poor little Pluto. :(
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It's also really weird when you grew up interested in astronomy being taught and passing tests in school of the "nine planets" and all of a sudden there's eight. Poor little Pluto. :(
It wasn't all that sudden really. I too grew up learning about the nine planets.
But as our telescope technology improved, suddenly there was a 10th planet even larger than pluto, aka Eris or 2003 UB313.
Then an 11th, Ceres.
Then a 12th, Vesta.
Then Haumea, Astraea, Quaoar, and Makemake... and more that all changed names and classifications so frequently that it's hard to keep things straight.
Even the list above can't be considered in the correct order due to planets being discovered, then demoted, then promo
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I was being semi-sarcastic about being disappointed that Pluto was demoted; although serious that it was... bizarre, to say the least, that what I learned all along was wrong. To be honest, I always thought Pluto was a very boring object, certainly not as interesting as the gas giants, and didn't really fit in. But I remember reading about Eris and Makemake and whatever else, and thought, "whoopty do, another Pluto... boring." I actually didn't read much into it, but your explanation seems to paint the h
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The experiment was conducted both outdoors under the night sky, and inside a planetarium where researchers could manipulate the starlight and hone in on the specific cues that the dung beetles were using.
Better trolling next time.
Re:This is why I love science. (Score:5, Informative)
You dont have to be able to prove anything. You can just make up something and as long as it sounds good then youre a scientist. Hell you can be a good speaker and call yourself a scientist, if you can phrase and word things in a good way you can make up crazy stuff you have no idea about and people will believe you because there is no way to prove that youre wrong. And thats what a lot of "science" is, its saying something that sounds good while at the same not being able to be proved wrong.
"A dung beetle navigtes via the milky way" how you can you possibly prove that to be false?
Obviously you didn't get past the summary, or maybe even the title but what you claim is not science. Science is not spouting random things and waiting for someone else to prove you wrong. Go try that and you will have the credibility of the guy shouting that the end is near. Findings are whats published with procedures and methods used to reach those findings. Others interested can reproduce the experiment to try to get the same results to try to confirm those findings. If they can't reproduce the same results then the original finding must be declared false and reevaluated.
What you think of science is the result of journalists taking the findings and dumbing them down enough so people like you can understand a new fact.
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I assume that the fairly trivial "put some dung beetles in an enclosure covered with black paper and make your grad students poke holes matching the milky way and watch what happens" strategy didn't occur to you?
No, science is not infallible, particularly once human and institutional factors come into play; but falsifying hypotheses on animal navigation methods is hardly the most difficult challenge faced by the sciences. Want to fuck with an animal that you suspect of celestial navigation? Advanced 'planet
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I gotta do it (Score:1)
What's brown and sounds like a bell?
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...Dung! ..Dung! ....Dung!
Good science? (Score:1)
This sounds like shit science to me.
Re:I have a very amazing and interesting reponse . (Score:5, Insightful)
Welcome to Slashdot. Paywalls don't matter to us because reading the articles is frowned upon.
That doesn't stop us from bitching about them though.
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Re:I have a very amazing and interesting reponse . (Score:4, Informative)
Most, if not all authors, will be more than happy to send you the final copy of the manuscript if you email them, even if you aren't affiliated with a university or a researcher yet want still to learn about their work. In the case of old papers that can't be found on the Internet, which is common for some math journals that are no longer in print, I've found authors to be especially accommodating in sending hard copies.
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If that's the case, you can grab the paper by Dacke, et al. from: https://mega.co.nz/#!ytIz2bpL!S2P0Nk4NigHmr4Y0keSURlNzNElroFnUzx23nqKG0js [mega.co.nz] and that of Wu and Dickman from: https://mega.co.nz/#!z5ohjYza!HZafDHCHTh8r1XcxKqOS6CuT4epGwK6PUh6ARCJbwd0 [mega.co.nz]
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In the understanding of god do we become god.
Even more amazing (Score:3)
...would be if the dung beetles could also navigate through the Galaxy.
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They do, just very short (in galactic terms) distances.
Huh? (Score:2)
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"Honestly I expected to find someone that made a compass out of a wrapper somewhere but alas the internet does not yet have everything."
It has lots. For example only old-school pigeons use their brain to navigate, modern ones just use the highways like us.
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040210/full/news040209-1.html [nature.com]
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How do you use a candy bar to navigate?
Offer it to someone in return for directions?
What's the difference... (Score:3)
Between a dung beetle and a Congressman? The Dung Beetle has at least 53 neurons...
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The beetle's dung is on the outside.
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One is a dung munching, mindless, lower life form, and the other is a beetle?
From fusion to dung (Score:1)
Starlight? (Score:1)
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It's never cloudy in Africa.
Anyway, a study suggests... pfff. And even if someone could provide hard evidence, then what?
A part of the universe, in this case a beetle, acts as part of the universe, using the opportunities afforded it by its natural habitat, i.e., the universe.
Well I never.
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Research is about african dung beetles. Do you see them often near Seattle?
Dinosaurs (Score:2)
From the low to the high (Score:2)
It's gratifying that a humble creature that spends its days rolling dung about, can also reach for things on a cosmic scale.
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Top-notch work (Score:2)
One of the authors of the pigeon study was an invited speaker last summer at a conference I organize. I have not yet read the paper, but the presentation was arguably the best recieved of the 23 oral presentations, generating vigorous, positive discussion that spilled into after-hours interaction. Very, very good stuff.
While it may also be true that pigeons also navigate by polarized light, the evidence presented for a magnetic sense is overwhelming.
You'll use the planetarium for WHAT!?! (Score:2)
Scientist: "We'd like to use the planitarium for some exciting research! We'll need to bring in some beetles and some fresh elephant dun...."
Planitarium Curator: "No."
Scientist: "I can understand, but we'll make sure that..."
Curator: "No."
Scientist: "You didn't let me fin..."
Curator: "Get out.
Ted talk on navigation and heat management (Score:2)
Bit late to the party, but I think this is pretty old news; http://www.ted.com/talks/marcus_byrne_the_dance_of_the_dung_beetle.html [ted.com]