If we tried to turn our heads like owls, we’d die. It’s that simple. Sudden gyrations of the head and neck in humans have been known to stretch and tear blood vessel linings, producing clots that can break off and cause a deadly embolism or stroke.

So medical researchers and illustrators at Johns Hopkins decided to find out how owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees in either direction. Using several previously frozen dead owls, the team injected contrast dye into the birds’ blood vessels, which were then meticulously dissected, drawn, and scanned to allow detailed analysis.

The team discovered four major biological adaptations that help prevent injury from rotational head movements in the owls. Variations to the animals’ bone structure and vascular network support its top-heavy head.

The owl illustrations won first-place in the posters and graphics category of the National Science Foundation’s 2012 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

We have to go to the salon for a fancy hairdo, but for some breeds of pigeons, it’s all in the genes! “There are some 350 [pigeon] breeds with different sizes, shapes, colors, color patterns, beaks, bone structure, vocalizations and arrangements of feathers on the feet and head—including head crests that come in shapes known as hoods, manes, shells and peaks,” says Michael D. Shapiro of the University of Utah.

Shapiro led a team of researchers who sequenced the genomes of several different breeds of pigeons and found a single mutation in a gene named EphB2 that causes head and neck feathers to grow upward instead of downward, creating head crests. And the diversity in crests is amazing, says Shapiro. “Some are small and pointed. Others look like a shell behind the head; some people think they look like mullets. They can be as extreme as an Elizabethan collar.” This research appears in the current issue of Science.

Homing pigeons certainly use compass-like techniques to find their way, but that doesn’t entirely explain their homing skills. U.S. Geological Survey scientist Jonathan Hagstrum was curious, why, for instance, tens of thousands of pigeons were lost in a 1997 race that crossed paths with the Concorde.

Hagstrum believes that homing pigeons also use infrasound—a low-level sound that many animals, but not humans, can detect. The birds make a kind of mental map from the sounds. According to Science Now:

Infrasound is generated when deep ocean waves send pressure waves reverberating into the land and atmosphere. Infrasound can come from other natural causes, such as earthquakes, or humanmade events, such as the acceleration of the Concorde. The long, slow waves move across vast distances.

You can find this research (without an infrasound map, alas) at The Journal of Experimental Biology.

Spinning, cresting, and finding home… We hope you enjoyed this bird’s-eye view of recent research headlines.

Image: DickDaniels/Wikipedia

Researchers in New Zealand trained pigeons to acquire abstract numerical rules using the same techniques used on monkeys over a decade ago. Science News explains that after training, the birds had to “put pairs of numbers up to nine in order.” The pigeons could match monkeys number for number in competency, the scientists found.

The researchers posit two evolutionary possibilities: either numerical competence was a convergent evolution in primates and birds OR it’s a homologous trait derived from a common ancestor. Either way, what other birds, mammals and insects might also be able to perform these numerical feats with a little training? The researchers are confident there are likely more.

Why do birds make illogical decisions? Why do people? Researchers at Oxford University (the same folks that brought us the crow tool-use study) tested eight European starlings in decision-making. The birds were given choices of pecking two colored-keys, each rewarding the bird with a different type of food or prey. When presented the choices simultaneously, the birds became confused and made a poor decision, choosing the less tasty and nutritious option. When presented separately, in a sequence, however, the birds chose wisely.

The researchers call this irrational decision making a “less-is-more effect” and believe the same is true in human decision-making. Science offers a great human psychological perspective on this study.

And birds aren’t the only creatures we can learn from! Another recent study on sea snails shows that learning through irregularly timed lessons, rather than rigorously scheduled ones, is more effective for the snails and potentially human students. Read more here.

Image: P. Huey/Science

Researchers at the Concord Field Station of Harvard University used synchronized high-speed cameras to track pigeons performing low-speed, level, 90-degree turns through a square-corner corridor inside of a parking lot. You can see some of the video at New Scientist. Surprisingly graceful, yes?

That wasn’t the only surprise. The researchers found that the birds navigate as a helicopter would. Pigeons produce the aerodynamic forces necessary to counteract gravity and propel themselves forward by pushing against surrounding air with their bodies, wings and tails. The birds produce aerodynamic forces in a uniform direction relative to their bodies.

ScienceShot reports:

Unlike a rocket that simply swivels its jets, a pigeon doesn’t turn by redirecting the forces it generates relative to its body. Instead, the bird realigns those forces by rotating its entire body, primarily by tipping its wings into the turn. A helicopter uses the same tipping strategy, lowering its nose to accelerate forward, for example.

The authors also found that the pigeon’s upstroke generates aerodynamic lift that is about half of that generated during the downstroke, a relatively high contribution that nearly matches the upstroke of hummingbirds.

New Scientist describes broader implications for this research.

The humble pigeon could provide the unlikely inspiration for a flock of small military drones that can navigate enclosed spaces.

Image: Ivo Ros

Published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, an interesting finding—turns out that pigeons like to gamble. The pigeons in the study were given two choices—they could peck at a key that always would give them three food pellets or at a key that would give them ten food pellets 20% of the time and zero the rest of the time.  All pigeons chose the gambling key over the reliable three-pellet key every time.

An article in LiveScience reported that:

The reason could be that pigeons are motivated by a surprising change from their expectations, according to study author Thomas Zentall, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky. The same phenomenon could explain why human gamblers ignore their losses and focus on their rarer, but more surprising, wins.

Similar behaviors have been found in monkeys.

And just in time for the Giant’s play-offs, PLoS ONE published research on the “breaking ball” this week. The authors behind the study say that curveballs can’t break nor can fastballs rise—it’s all an optical illusion. ScienceNow has a great description of the experiment that led the scientists to their findings. Given the pitchers’ duel between Lincecum and Halladay for tomorrow’s opening game, it should be required reading for Giants and Phillies hitters.

Also in baseball science news this week, new UC Berkeley research on birth order and baseball success. It turns out that younger siblings make better ball players. The research will be published next month in Personality and Social Psychology Review.

More Gulf of Mexico oil spill news this week. Nature had an article about how reduced funding means fewer vessels in the gulf to research the effects of the spill. And in Discover, could the oil be killing thousands of fish where the Mississippi meets the gulf in Louisiana? When the image was first published, the oil was the cause, then the blame switched to agriculture run-off. Now it may be the oil after all.  More definitive testing will be done.

Finally, does Gliese 581g even exist? Two weeks ago, it was the exoplanet named most potentially habitable, but this week, Swiss scientists could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the planet. Francesco Pepe of the Swiss Team told New Scientist, “We easily recover the four previously announced planets, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, and ‘e’. However, we do not see any evidence for a fifth planet in an orbit of 37 days.” But he told Science via email that “we can’t prove there is no fifth planet.” Hmmm…

What science news did you find controversial this week? Share with us!

Creative Commons image by Minesweeper

Saturn’s moons got all sorts of attention. From Enceladus’ warm “Perrier” ocean to the potential for life on Titan, one of the best-known planets in our Solar System enjoyed particular popularity this week.

In the lab, researchers were able to create the building blocks of life in Titan’s atmosphere. From SPACE.com:

In the lab, researchers simulated possible chemical reactions occurring high up in the nitrogen-rich atmosphere of Titan. They found that various complex molecules, such as amino acids and nucleotide bases, could form without much prodding.

Also in the news this week, the idea that perhaps it was the death of a large, early moon around Saturn that formed its lovely rings. From Universe Today:

[Robin] Canup’s new alternative theory is that Titan-sized moon with a rocky core and an icy mantle spiraled into Saturn early in solar system history. Tidal forces ripped off part of the icy mantle, distributing it into what would become the rings.

The Academy’s own Jack Dumbacher made news this week with research on the family tree of extinct passenger pigeons. DNA extracted from century-old museum specimens reveals that the spectacular passenger pigeon was most closely related to other North and South American pigeons, and not to the Mourning Dove, as was previously suspected. You can read more in the abstract, published in this month’s Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.

Now for three news items about beer and flirtation…

Italian researchers recently published a protein library of beer, and according to the Discoblog in Discover:

…better knowledge of the proteins that survive brewing could help improve flavor, aroma, and retention of the foamy head so prized by beer drinkers.

Cheers!

And how about Beers in Space? Popular Science had a story this week about a non-profit space research company that is “about to test an Australian beer that’s brewed and bottled especially for consumption in microgravity.” Apparently, due to numbed taste buds and carbonation, regular beer just won’t do.

Finally, our science-geek neighbors at UCSF posted a very funny, must-see YouTube video late last week, “Most Beautiful Girl in the Lab.”

What turned you on in science news this week? Let us know!