Sensory Ecology Lab

New evidence? No problem. Chimps can weigh conflicting clues, just like humans Study is first to suggest our closest relatives think about their own thoughts

“Andrews adds that researchers adapting the task to other species would need to think carefully about what constitutes strong evidence: Dogs, for instance, might consider scent to be a stronger source of evidence than visual cues.”

#scicomm

www.science.org/content/arti...
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Dogs Reportedly Seen Turning Bright Blue in The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Dogs of an unnatural hue have been spotted running around the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

“‘No they have not turned blue because of radiation and no, we are not saying they have turned blue because of radiation,’ … ‘These are simply some dogs that got into some blue stuff and we are trying to catch them so that we can sterilize them.’”

#scicomm

www.sciencealert.com/dogs-reporte...
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Sensory pollutants have negative but different effects on nestbox occupancy and breeding performance of a nocturnal raptor across Europe Anthropogenic noise and artificial light at night (ALAN) are expanding globally, acting as pervasive sensory pollutants that can disrupt wildlife beha…

This time with a link that includes the graphical abstract. Beautiful work on Tawny Owl nesting ecology and how it is influenced by sensory pollution. A study covering many populations across Europe!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The Sounds That Built a City What does your city sound like? Beyond the traffic and sirens, every city has a unique acoustic fingerprint – the chime of a specific metro, the calls of street vendors, the hum of industry. These sounds aren't just background noise; they're a vital part of a city's identity, woven into its history and our memories. But what happens when those sounds start to disappear? In this episode, we're putting on our headphones and exploring "The Sounds That Built a City." We dive into the fascinating field of acoustic ecology, learning how to listen to urban soundscapes and understand what they reveal about our lives. We'll uncover efforts to preserve our vanishing sonic heritage – the clicks, rattles, and roars of a bygone era. Join us on an auditory journey and discover the hidden symphony playing out on your streets every day. Are we listening closely enough to the sounds that define us?

📣 New Podcast! "The Sounds That Built a City" on @Spreaker #acoustic #anthropology #city #cultural #design #ecology #experience #field #heritage #noise #pollution #preservation #recording #sensory #sonic #sound #sounds #soundscapes #urban #urbanism

Coffee beans pooped out by civets really are tastier. Here's why Pricey civet coffee gets its cred from its journey through the mammal’s gut, which changes the content of fat, protein, fatty acids — and even caffeine.

“… fermentation in the civet’s innards does add a little something extra to the coffee’s flavor, including amping up the fat content and the concentrations of certain aromatic compounds”.

#scicomm

www.sciencenews.org/article/coff...
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Ambient noise can track dangerous ocean acidification Acoustic technique could make it easier to monitor threat to marine life stemming from rising carbon emissions

“Researchers have now used this ambient noise to probe the rising acidity of the ocean. The acoustic technique… could make it easier to measure this key parameter of ocean health across vast distances rather than relying on point measurements.”

#scicomm

www.science.org/content/arti...
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Guppies fall for optical illusion. Doves typically do not. Comparing animals’ susceptibility to optical illusions can show how perception evolved.

“Across 16 trials with 19 guppies, the fish chose between flakes surrounded by bigger or smaller circles. The guppies chose the flake ringed by smaller circles — the presumably heftier looking option — over 70 percent of the time.”

#scicomm

www.sciencenews.org/article/gupp...
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Misophonia Linked to Difficulty in Switching Emotional Focus Hearing involves more than just the ears – it's intimately connected to how we think and feel.

“If you've ever felt inexplicably furious at the sound of someone chewing or clicking a pen, you might have some insight into what people with misophonia experience.”

#scicomm

www.sciencealert.com/misophonia-l...
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There's a Scientific Reason Why Some Songs Get Stuck in Your Head If you've watched the movie KPop Demon Hunters and see the word "golden", what happens? Pause and think about it for a moment.

“Earworms are providing insights into how music is organised, but they can also bring pleasure by repeating the music you're enjoying.”

#scicomm

www.sciencealert.com/theres-a-sci...
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An Intergeneric Hybrid Between Historically Isolated Temperate and Tropical Jays Following Recent Range Expansion We document the first known hybridization event between the Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas) and Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), two distantly related species whose ranges now overlap in Texas due to cli....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

'Grue Jay' Spotted in a Texas Backyard Is First-of-Its-Kind Hybrid An odd bird found in a Texas backyard is the offspring of two distantly related species, separated by 7 million years of evolution, whose ranges only recently began to overlap due to climate change, r...

“The bird is descended from a blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), which is native to the eastern and central United States, and a green jay (Cyanocorax luxuosus), which traditionally occurs in Central America, Mexico, and southern Texas.”

#scicomm

www.sciencealert.com/grue-jay-spo...
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Brain scans reveal where taste and smell become flavor The findings show the insula fuses taste and certain smells into the sensation of flavor.

“Taste and smell are so intimately connected that a whiff of well-loved foods evokes their taste without any conscious effort.
Now, brain scans and machine learning have for the first time pinpointed the region responsible for this sensory overlap in humans”.

www.sciencenews.org/article/brai...
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The Strange Science Behind Ghostly Lights That Have Haunted Us For Centuries Ghostly lights dancing in midair in swamps, forests, and even graveyards have been reported by cultures all over the world, for centuries.

“Ghostly lights dancing in midair in swamps, forests, and even graveyards have been reported by cultures all over the world, for centuries. According to a new study, there could be a logical explanation after all: a strange form of 'microlightning'.”

#scicomm

www.sciencealert.com/the-strange-...
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Yakir Gagnon talking about his software

It’s Yakir Gagnon talking about his work integrating Software Engineering and Sensory Ecology: Tools for
Understanding Animal Orientation at #Visionarium2025

👁️This issue features articles from the our 'Visual ecology in challenging environments' Special feature, which aims to target the central question of how visual sensory systems cope in extreme and dynamic environments

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The Opposite of Déjà Vu Happens, And It's Even More Uncanny Repetition has a strange relationship with the mind.

“The opposite of déjà vu is ‘jamais vu’, when something you know to be familiar feels unreal or novel in some way. In our recent research, which has won an Ig Nobel award for literature, we investigated the mechanism behind the phenomenon.”

#scicomm

www.sciencealert.com/the-opposite...
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Paleolithic painters had the blues Two recent studies shine light on the earliest known artistic usages of blue pigment

“X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy revealed that the material contained copper and wasn’t a modern paint. The team identified the residue as azurite, a rare but naturally occurring blue mineral that occurs near the earth’s surface…”

#scicomm
#art

www.science.org/content/arti...
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Influence of weather conditions, prey size and abundance, flight height and dialects on population trends, habitat selection and the spatial distribution inferred from bat acoustic activity obtained with passive acoustic monitoring. The dashed arrows represent possible biases that should be investigated in the future.

📖Published📖

Roemer et al. propose a comprehensive evaluation of the limits and possibilities of passive acoustic monitoring of bats, identifying knowledge gaps and practice barriers, and highlighting novel ideas that may revolutionise practices🦇👇

buff.ly/l8DGN7X

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Musicians Don't Feel Pain Like The Rest of Us, Surprising Study Reveals It's well known that learning to play an instrument can offer benefits beyond just musical ability.

“… the musicians' brains responded differently to pain. Their training seems to have given them a kind of buffer against the usual negative effects, both in how much pain they felt and in how their brain's motor areas reacted.”

#scicomm
#music
#pain

www.sciencealert.com/musicians-do...
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Is camouflage better than warning colors? For insects, it depends The effectiveness of camouflage or warning colors for insect defense depends on conditions such as light levels and how many predators are around.

“A global study comparing defensive coloration in insects reveals that camouflage and warning colors each excel under certain environmental conditions.”

#scicomm
#sensoryecology
#camouflage
#aposematism
#luminosity

www.sciencenews.org/article/inse...
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The brain might not significantly rewire itself after limb loss Countering the idea of large-scale rewiring, women whose hands were removed retained durable brain activity patterns linked to their missing fingers.

“The neural real estate there remained unchanged after amputation, follow-up brain scans showed. When the women attempted to move their missing fingers…, the same brain activity patterns showed up as before, even though the fingers weren’t there.”

#scicomm

www.sciencenews.org/article/brai...
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Award-Winning Art Project Recreates Dinosaur Sounds With Bizarre Instruments Imagine going to a concert that recreates the soundscape of a prehistoric swamp, where each instrument in the orchestra is modeled after a different dinosaur.

"’Our vision is an entire Dinosaur Choir, leading to social participatory musical experiences and ensemble musical works, learning and experiencing together music, dinosaurs, technology, and science,’ Brown explains on the project's webpage.”

#scicomm

www.sciencealert.com/award-winnin...
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Smart dogs have a humanlike knack for naming new objects In games with toys, “gifted” dogs can extend names to new objects with the same purpose as known ones

“Despite never having heard the names “pull” or “fetch” applied to their new toys, the dogs chose the correct toy two-thirds of the time—well above chance level. Some dogs were exceptional performers, including Arya, who was correct 79% of the time”

#scicomm

www.science.org/content/arti...
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‘Lipstick on a pig’: how to fight back against a peer-review bully Scientific societies, journals, editors and researchers are pushing back against mean-spirited peer reviews.

“Peer review is supposed to be critical. But too often, Silbiger says, reviewer feedback crosses the line into an unprofessional realm.”

#scicomm

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
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Studies Reveal The Best Ways to Chemically Bond With Your Cat Cats may have a reputation for independence, but emerging research suggests we share a unique connection with them – fueled by brain chemistry.

“Oxytocin of avoidant and anxious cats was found to drop after a forced cuddle. When interactions respect the cat's comfort, the oxytocin flows – but when a cat feels cornered, the bonding hormone is elusive.”

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www.sciencealert.com/studies-reve...
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People with ADHD may have an underappreciated advantage: Hypercuriosity ADHD is officially a disorder of deficits in attention, behavior and focus. But patients point out upsides, like curiosity. Research is now catching up.

“Humans evolved in a world marked by resource scarcity and unpredictability. Having people impulsive — and curious — enough to explore unknown or dangerous situations would have helped their group’s survival”.

#scicomm
#ADHD
#hypercuriosity

www.sciencenews.org/article/adhd...
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Using different techniques, companies breed specific strains of mice that exhibit the symptoms of the disease. Researchers only need to purchase animals from these strains.

Unexpected Link Between Menthol And Alzheimer's Found in Mice In recent years, scientists have discovered something strange: When mice with Alzheimer's disease inhale menthol, their cognitive abilities improve.

“In mice with Alzheimer's, the course of menthol for a six-month-long period was enough to stop the cognitive abilities and memory capabilities of the mice from deteriorating.”

#scicomm
#neuroskyence

www.sciencealert.com/unexpected-l...
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What about colorblinds? How different their neural activity must be?

Your red is my red, at least to our brains Despite philosophical debates, colors like red may spark similar brain activity across individuals, new research suggests.

“The results show that neural reactions to colors are somewhat standard and don’t seem to vary much from person to person. But these neuroanatomical findings can’t answer the question of how it feels to see red…”

#scicomm
#neuroskyence

www.sciencenews.org/article/red-...
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