Tough cookies, animal culture, and pigeons playing ping-pong

Hello, friends!

Those in the northern hemisphere: all set for the longest day of the year on Saturday?

If you’re not going to make it to Stonehenge, but want to take in a stunning summer solstice sunset that’s perfectly aligned with the structures around you (like Manhattanhenge), data engineer Demeter Sztanko has you covered.

Take a look at his On Solstices and City Planning project, which highlights on OpenStreetMap the streets that are aligned, or almost aligned, with summer solstice sunset for hundreds of world cities.

For the sunset, you’re going to want to look northwest up the streets marked orange. If you’re into the sunrise, look northeast up the streets marked red.

Coming up:

🐦 why pigeons are both jocks and band nerds

 🚥 where to see a red and blue light in the sky tonight

🍪 the toughest dunking biscuit.

Let’s go!

read all about it

Culture isn’t exclusively human. Many animals got there first: “Recognising the impact other species have had on our art, architecture and agriculture doesn’t require new archaeological discoveries – in fact, much of the archaeological evidence is decades old,” writes Sarah Newman. “Rather, it requires new ways of thinking.” (Aeon)

Our urge to be generous is guided by a tiny bit of the brain: A complex mental calculation is happening under the hood every time we decide whether we want to share, or do someone a favour. Comparative psychology professor Tobias Kalenscher describes research into an apparent site of that decision making, a tiny region of the brain called the basolateral amygdala. (Scientific American)

Feathers are natural marvels. How are engineers harnessing their magic? “There is no manufacturing technology that comes close to a feather,” says David Lentink, engineer and biomimetics expert at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Ian Rose looks at the many, many functions feathers perform for their owners, and how we might mimic them… but there’s a long way to go. (Smithsonian Magazine)

📽️ Drift away to this first ever video of a rare Antarctic squid, captured on Christmas Day last year at a depth of 7,000 feet. (New York Times – gift link)

that time when…

… a Harvard psychologist taught pigeons how to play ping pong. (17 June 1950)

A research group led by Dr BF Skinner was exploring the relative importance of reward and punishment in learning, says the report. When one pigeon misses the return, and the ball drops off the table, its opponent would receive a food reward.

The pigeons could also be taught to cooperate using a similar method. In another game, pigeons in separate cages would have to peck matching buttons simultaneously to release a reward of food – failure to cooperate would mean neither were fed. The pigeons learnt to work together successfully.

In a more complex feat, solo pigeons were taught how to play simple tunes, including “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, on a seven-key piano. I can only suggest this specific task was selected to ensure there would never be a shortage of ballpark organ players.

what’s happening this week?

Your agenda for Monday 16 June – Sunday 22 June.

All times are BST, and all sky views are from London.

look around you

🔭 in a sky near you: Red light, blue light. Look dead west at about 11pm on Monday night to see Mars (of red) appear to get unreasonably close to – like a pinky finger’s width away from – the star Regulus (of blue). They’ll be hanging pretty low in the sky, setting together before the hour is out.

👀 closer to Earth: Go wild (# in the country #) for wild strawberries. Find these teeny weeny relatives of the strawbs we get in punnets in hedgerows and on the edges of woodlands, before the slugs, insects and thrushes get to them.

online talks and events

Book talk: How to Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed, with Professor Richard Susskind, hybrid event by Oxford Martin School, Monday 16 June, 17.00, free

An introduction to the Alan Turing Institute, the National Institute for Data Science, and artificial intelligence, with Professor Mark Girolami, hybrid lecture by the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research, Monday 16 June, 19.30, free

Autonomous reaction systems for chemical synthesis: dream or reality?, with Professor Federico Galvanin, hybrid lecture by UCL, Tuesday 17 June, 17.30, free

How children, scientists, and AI systems learn, with Professor Alison Gopnik, hybrid event by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Tuesday 17 June, 18.00, free

A meticulous observer: The fascinating notebooks of Leonard Jenyns, with Richard Preece, online event by the Linnean Society, Tuesday 17 June, 18.00, free

The deceived brain: coding and illusion, with Professor Alain Goriely, hybrid lecture by Gresham College, Tuesday 17 June, 18.00, free

Forged by fire: how volcanoes shape our landscapes, lore, and lives, with Professor Heather Handley, hybrid lecture by the Geological Society, Tuesday 17 June, 18.00, free

The influence of geology on London’s Underground railways, with Jonathan Gammon, hybrid lecture by the Geological Society, Tuesday 17 June, 18.30, free

The hydrogeology of beer, with Professor Kevin Hiscock, hybrid lecture by the Geological Society, Tuesday 17 June, 19.00, free

Mountains, lizards, and the battle with temperature, with Jhan Salazar, online event by the Linnean Society, Wednesday 18 June, 12.30, free

Exploring binaries: stars and gender, with Professor Jan Eldridge, hybrid lecture by University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Wednesday 18 June, 17.00, free

Galileo’s journey to the underworld: the case for interdisciplinary thinking, with Professor Sarah Hart, hybrid lecture by Gresham College, Wednesday 18 June, 18.00, free

Zoology Live! Insectopia: the livestream, with Dr Roz Wade and Erica McAlister, online event by the Museum of Zoology, Wednesday 18 June, 19.00, free

Unveiling terahertz electromagnetic fields, with Professor Oleg Mitrofanov, hybrid lecture by UCL, Thursday 19 June, 17.30, free

The life and times of Francis Crick, or does it matter who does science?, with Professor Matthew Cobb, hybrid lecture by the Royal Society, Thursday 19 June, 18.30, free

LIVE Sparks! 2025 – Imagining quantum city, hybrid event by CERN, Thursday 19 June, 19.00, free

we finally know…

…that Hobnobs are the most robust dunking biscuits…

…of a selection of four varieties – oat, digestive, rich tea, shortie – available in a UK hospital.

Source: Direct Uptake of Nutrition and Caffeine Study (DUNCS): biscuit based comparative study (BMJ, 2022)

we need answers

Last week I asked:

The answer is… omicron. Where blink, smile and winch all end in imperial units of measurement (link*, mile and inch), omicron ends in a metric unit of measurement (micron, also known as a micrometre, which is one millionth of a metre).

*A link is 1/100 of a chain, which measures 22 yards.

until next week…

Here’s another one from the archive:

As of 2021, a certain vehicle had been travelling for more than 15 years at an average cost of 17 cents per mile. What was this vehicle’s primary destination?

Answer comes next week. See you then! x