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birds

Photo of crows.
cognitive science

Animals Count and Use Zero. How Far Does Their Number Sense Go?

By Jordana Cepelewicz
August 9, 2021
Read Later

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.

Art for "The Universal Pattern Popping Up in Math, Physics and Biology"
In Theory

The Universal Pattern Popping Up in Math, Physics and Biology

By Thomas Lin
August 23, 2018
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Quanta’s In Theory video series returns with an exploration of a mysterious mathematical pattern found throughout nature.

Art for "A Thermodynamic Answer to Why Birds Migrate"
ecology

A Thermodynamic Answer to Why Birds Migrate

By Jordana Cepelewicz
May 7, 2018
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New modeling studies suggest that birds migrate to strike a favorable balance between their input and output of energy.

520px photo of Jarvis holding a zebra finch
Q&A

In Birds’ Songs, Brains and Genes, He Finds Clues to Speech

By Jordana Cepelewicz
January 30, 2018
Read Later

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

By Natalie Wolchover
July 12, 2016
Read Later

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

By Emily Singer
June 2, 2015
Read Later

Modern birds emerged in a snap of evolutionary time through a series of simple genetic changes.

Melpomene
genetics

As Animals Mingle, a Baffling Genetic Barrier

By Emily Singer
August 5, 2014
Read Later

Despite swapping DNA through interbreeding, butterflies and other animals can maintain distinct species.

evolution

Does Competition Drive Diversity of Species?

By Emily Singer
March 10, 2014
Read Later

A large new study of ovenbird lineages questions the extent to which competing species push each other to evolve.

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