This was a puzzle and attempts to make the power lines more visible failed. Apparently the answer is that birds have blind spots in their field of vision that make the power lines ‘invisible’ to them, due to the way they have evolved to become successful foragers.

Although the heavy bustard differs greatly in general body shape from the delicate crane and stork, the birds share a foraging technique – visually guiding their bill to take food items.

This technique requires excellent vision at the end of the bill, resulting in a narrow field of vision and wide “blind spots”.

“Once we saw the wisdom of looking at the problem through birds’ eyes rather than human eyes, it all made sense,” says Professor Graham Martin.

“These birds can see straight ahead in flight but they only need to pitch their heads forward by a small amount and they will be blind in the direction of travel.”

Many species of bird have been observed looking down during flight, possibly to locate fellow birds and suitable foraging and nesting sites.

Narrow binocular fields combined with birds’ tendencies to look down effectively means certain species cannot see power lines until it is too late.

It is sad that there seems to be nothing we can do about it.

The former chief drug advisor to the UK government, who was sacked from that post in 2009, has published a study that examines the harm to the individual and to society of various drugs.

Heroin, crack cocaine, and crystal meth are the most harmful to individual users but the widespread use (and abuse) of alcohol is what makes it the most harmful to society, followed by heroin and crack cocaine.

In 2007, the American Physical Society issued a short but strong statement stating that the evidence for global warming is incontrovertible. It is no secret that there is a very small but vocal minority within the APS membership that disputes the idea that global warming has a significant human-based cause and who were upset with the APS’s strong stand. Because of the fuss they created, the APS issued a longer clarifying statement in 2010 providing some context and the basis of their reasoning. Both statements can be read here.

A minor kerfuffle has now broken out because a physicist named Hal Lewis has resigned from the American Physical Society in protest at its stance on climate change. (Thanks to Chaz for the link.)

I am not sure why it is significant when a retired 87-year old physicist whose work during his research career had nothing to do with climate change resigns from the APS in protest. He is not a ‘top’ physicist in that although I do not doubt that is competent in his specialized field and known within it, I would guess that most physicists have not heard of him. The claim in some global warming skeptic circles that Lewis’s resignation letter is the equivalent of Martin Luther nailing his theses to the church door that sparked the Protestant reformation is laughable. I predict that it will not cause even a ripple within the physics community.

Lewis is not like Freeman Dyson, for example, another 87-year old physicist who is also a global warming skeptic. Although he too has no background in climate science, at least Dyson is very well known among physicists and any theoretical physicist in any field around the world would likely know his name and have some awareness of his work.

I agree with Lewis that money is having a negative effect in general in that it may be distorting the direction of research, but there is no evidence to support his charge that it has influenced the APS’s stance on climate change.

The APS has issued a statement in response to the Lewis resignation.

The mathematician who founded the discipline of fractal geometry has died at the age of 85. To see some of the beautiful patterns generated by fractals, see here.

Via Machines Like Us, here is a wonderful animation of DNA coiling and replicating.

(via Why Evolution is True.)