Image

Air taxi / bird collisions, Moose / train collisions, Ketchup, Pathology stars

This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Mid-air collision — To learn whether air taxi passengers need worry about collisions with birds, a crash programme in Germany did some tests. What with the complexity and danger of having actual air taxis have congress with actual […]

Image

Pigeons’ toes and hairdressers

“Predicted probabilities of deformities occurrence in pigeons’ foot according to … the density of hairdressers (quadratic effect)” is one aspect of the study “Urban pigeons losing toes due to human activities“, which is featured in the column “Pigeons Research Review” in the special Gulls, Crows, Pigeons, Woodpeckers issue (volume 29, number 5) of the magazine […]

Image

Special “Gulls, Crows, Pigeons, Woodpeckers” issue of the magazine

The special Gulls, Crows, Pigeons, Woodpeckers issue (volume 29, number 5) of the magazine has flown its way (through the internet, in PDF form) to subscribers. The table of contents and several free articles are online. We heartily encourage you to buy your very own copy of the issue, or even better to subscribe to […]

Image

Multi-frightening birds; Two more trivial superpowers; AI sheep-counting

This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Multi-scare the birds — …Their report advises that: “At present, there is no bird control technique that provides maximum protection for crops, so it is recommended to use a combination of scaring methods at the same […]

Improbable Research