What's up in
birds
cognitive science
Animals Count and Use Zero. How Far Does Their Number Sense Go?
Crows recently demonstrated an understanding of the concept of zero. It’s only the latest evidence of animals’ talents for numerical abstraction — which may still differ from our own grasp of numbers.
In Theory
The Universal Pattern Popping Up in Math, Physics and Biology
Quanta’s In Theory video series returns with an exploration of a mysterious mathematical pattern found throughout nature.
ecology
A Thermodynamic Answer to Why Birds Migrate
New modeling studies suggest that birds migrate to strike a favorable balance between their input and output of energy.
Q&A
In Birds’ Songs, Brains and Genes, He Finds Clues to Speech
The neuroscientist Erich Jarvis found that songbirds’ vocal skills and humans’ spoken language are both rooted in neural pathways for controlling learned movements.
universality
A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order
Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other surprising places, that is neither regular nor random.
evolution
How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds
Modern birds emerged in a snap of evolutionary time through a series of simple genetic changes.
genetics
As Animals Mingle, a Baffling Genetic Barrier
Despite swapping DNA through interbreeding, butterflies and other animals can maintain distinct species.
evolution
Does Competition Drive Diversity of Species?
A large new study of ovenbird lineages questions the extent to which competing species push each other to evolve.