This article explores how cardinals perceive their environment, and how they explore their place in it, especially with respect to color.
Do Cardinals Know They Are Red? A Closer Look at a Christmas Icon
The Club-Winged Manakin: A Bird That Plays Its Wings
The club-winged manakin, a small South American bird, produces unique wing-generated sounds for courtship, trading flight efficiency for the ability to attract females with precise stridulation.
Yesterday’s Tomorrows: How Early Books Reveal the Future of Science
The Linda Hall Library houses a remarkable History of Science collection, showcasing pivotal works like Gart der Gesundheit, Mundus Subterraneus, and Micrographia. These texts not only reflect the scientific knowledge of their times but also laid foundational concepts that influence modern science, illustrating the evolving relationship between evidence, imagination, and inquiry.
Keep Young and Beautiful: A Natural History of Courtship, Vanity, and the Art of Looking Good
Annie Lennox's song "Keep Young and Beautiful" reflects the irony of beauty as a persuasion strategy rooted in evolutionary biology. Various species, from cleaner wrasses to dung beetles, demonstrate deliberate manipulation of appearance and behavior to enhance mating success, revealing shared evolutionary patterns in beauty and attraction across species.
Cognitive Showdown: Crows vs. Toddlers in the Science of Intelligence
Corvids, particularly crows and magpies, exhibit cognitive abilities comparable to human toddlers, including tool use, self-recognition, and social inference. Their intelligence prompts reconsideration of evolutionary assumptions about cognition. Recognizing these advanced mental processes highlights the need for conservation efforts to protect these remarkable birds amidst human threats to their habitats.
Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, and the Science of Fear
The Legend and the Man Vlad the Impaler dining amongst his victims. German, published posthumously (1499), twenty-two years after his death. Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler (1448-1477), has long been entangled with the legend of Count Dracula. Bram Stoker’s vampire borrows his name and homeland, but the real Vlad was no immortal creature... Continue Reading →
Are Octopuses Aliens? Debunking Extraterrestrial Theories
In a recent blog post, I explored the intriguing hypothesis that octopus intelligence may have extraterrestrial origins, as proposed by a global team of researchers, as part of the Astrobiology section of the upcoming Life Beyond Earth? exhibition at the Linda Hall Library. The idea was tantalizing—a species so vastly different from anything else on... Continue Reading →
The White Bellbird: Nature’s Loudest Performer
The male White Bellbird Procnias albus. Nature's answer to KISS. Photo: Hector Bottai, 2019. Imagine strolling under the lush, deep green canopy of the Amazon Rainforest. You are surrounded by a vibrant mix of bird calls - macaws, hoatzins, the musician wren. Then, one voice cuts through the symphony with the power of a rock... Continue Reading →
The Octopus: Inside an Alien Mind
Years ago, I kept an octopus in a tank for a while. I was able to see, up close, its complex behaviors, problem-solving abilities. Its behavior suggested that it could distinguish me ("The-Guy-Who-Brings-Me-Dinner") from other people("Other-Folks"). Ever since that time, I've been captivated by octopi, and I'm definitely not alone. From their prodigious ability to... Continue Reading →
The Hoatzin: Celebrating one of Nature’s Oddities
Photo: Aaron Pomerantz For my last post of 2023, I’m paying tribute to one of my favorite birds: the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin). Along the verdant waterways of the Amazon, a bird that redefines the term 'living fossil' flaps its ungainly way through the foliage. The Hoatzin, the scruffy Goth of the avian world, is a... Continue Reading →
ERIC DORFMAN 