Good news for tinfoil hat wearers from research into bird navigation!

[Truthseeker]

I've been accused of wearing a tinfoil hat. You can imagine how happy I was to see this research being done by Henrik Mouritsen on birds' navigational abilities. He wanted to know why birds navigated so poorly in urban areas while they could do well in rural areas. One day he covered the cages in which he kept his research birds with aluminum foil. Suddenly they could navigate. Conclusion: wearing tinfoil hats might be beneficial. Well, aluminum foil, anyway.

[klaus54]

Linky?

[Truthseeker]

Linky?

Do you know how to google?
Anyway, here's a link http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...nce-broadband/

[phank]

Linky?

Here, I think:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...nce-broadband/

[Leonhard]

Are you finally giving in to your urge to wear a tinfoil hat?

[klaus54]

Do you know how to google?
Anyway, here's a link http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...nce-broadband/

Do you know the courtesy of including a link in your post when you discuss something newly published?

K54

[klaus54]

I was under the impression that the phenomenon of bird migration via Earth's magnetic field was well known. The aluminum cages damp out proximal fields from electronics and wiring so the birds can then avail themselves of Earth's main dipole field.

But I suppose that TS was attempting a funny.

K54

[Leonhard]

Thank you Truthseeker for supplying that link, its really not that much more effort to give it and saves a lot of time.

And kodus to National Geographic for actually linking to the original Nature article, all of this is based upon.

The article itself was an interesting read with the usual cheesy "Scientists, Baffled" headlines. It draws a parallel to cell phones which is specious, as multiple independent studies and large reviews have cleared cellphones of any danger to humans. It does point out an odd thing which was that in the past the birds had also been able to orient themselves, yet back then there was also a background of noise.

For that reason, and the fact that noise level is a hundred thousand times lower than the WHO guidelines, I'm dubious that this result will stand up to scrutiny. There might have been something the researchers didn't control for.

Until I get access to the articles I won't be able to tell if the experiment they performed with the students was properly double blinded. I'll need to get to campus to do that, but at the moment I'm staying elsewhere for a while. I'll let you know what I find.

[Sparko]

I've been accused of wearing a tinfoil hat. You can imagine how happy I was to see this research being done by Henrik Mouritsen on birds' navigational abilities. He wanted to know why birds navigated so poorly in urban areas while they could do well in rural areas. One day he covered the cages in which he kept his research birds with aluminum foil. Suddenly they could navigate. Conclusion: wearing tinfoil hats might be beneficial. Well, aluminum foil, anyway.

So.... you are admitting to being a tinfoil hat wearing bird-brain?

[Leonhard]

The article isn't exactly about the magical properties of aluminium foil, it postulates that wrapping the bird cages in grounded faraday cages caused a change in the birds ability to navigate, presumably by shielding out electromagnetic fields in the 50kHz to 5MHz.

If Truthseeker was to apply this to his own life he would have to live in a bubble of tinfoil.

[Teallaura]

However, you guys just managed to prove that science geeks have no sense of humor...

You need a link to something that was obviously just mentioned to be humorous? Really?

[Sparko]

The article isn't exactly about the magical properties of aluminium foil, it postulates that wrapping the bird cages in grounded faraday cages caused a change in the birds ability to navigate, presumably by shielding out electromagnetic fields in the 50kHz to 5MHz.

If Truthseeker was to apply this to his own life he would have to live in a bubble of tinfoil.

I am sure his basement room is wallpapered in the stuff.

[rogue06]

[Teallaura]

I am sure his basement room is wallpapered in the stuff.

That's your kitchen, Sparky...

[Truthseeker]

However, you guys just managed to prove that science geeks have no sense of humor...

You need a link to something that was obviously just mentioned to be humorous? Really?

In retrospect, I agree I should have provided a link.