Birds Fly Early
Posted on June 29, 2006 Comments (4)
Spring Is Early, and So Are the Birds, NPR webcast
This is short real life example of the scientific method. Spring is coming earlier to Europe, thanks to global warming. Scientists figured migrating birds in southern Europe would be able to adjust to the change and leave early (because the early warming would also be obvious where they wintered). But the scientists expected that birds from Africa would not be able to tell that they should leave early.
However, they studied what actual took place and found that the migrating birds from Africa were actually arriving early while those in southern Europe were not. So now they are revising their theories and will do more study to try and determine what is happening and why (for example, how are the birds in Africa deciding to leave early?).
4 Responses to “Birds Fly Early”
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June 30th, 2006 @ 12:37 pm
[...] A simple example of the scientific process (another one posted yesterday about birds and global warming). The ants on stilts took the right number of steps, but because of their increased stride length, marched past their goal. Stump-legged ants, meanwhile, fell short of the goal. [...]
October 9th, 2006 @ 7:38 pm
[...] Going Gone by curiouscat Tags: Science, Life Science, Students Permalink to: Why the Frogs Are Dying if (minute > 20){ } else { } [...]
August 24th, 2007 @ 6:12 pm
Interesting, certainly far from convincing evidence but still fun speculation. Claim of Martian Life Called ‘Bogus’…
September 14th, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
Global Warming is really damaging our echo system, yet still some nations are not doing anything, not even educating their citizens.
It is our responsabiliy to do something before is too late.