OL+ GPS = LundsOK

The analysis of controls and their subjective difficulty is done. Interesting spread for control 10 to 12!
Plain facts: control 4, 7, 12 and 14 did not exist on this day. They were classified as easy, difficult, medium and easy to medium by the 11 runners. Notably, control 9 was only found by 1 subject. Also control 10 was stamped by just half of all runners. Though 10 was seen as harder to find then 9. Below a summary. Difficulty is scored as 1 for easy and 3 for hard. So the higher the score the more difficult subjects said the control was. Found is the percentage of runners who found the control. A score of 1 means that all found it, a score of 0 (which is true for 4, 7, 12, 14) means no one found the control. Control 5, 9 and 10 are so called "giving ups". Control 4, 7, 12 and 14 are no chance controls. I hope to find time to analyse the GPS tracks, i.e. time spent near the controls in the not so far future - but first testing migratory birds.

Champalimaud

Neuroscience in Portugal? Yes!


The Champalimaud Centre of the Unknown held its first symposium with a very balanced mixture of topics, ranging from theoretical neuroscience to physiology, molecular neuroscience and behaviour - and from annelids, lampreys, flies, mosquitos, mice, rats, monkeys and humans. Birds were missing, but I had at least a poster as well as there were posters on zebrafish, grasshoppers, c. elegans and some other rare model species. What was most impressive? Many good talks, Antonio Damasio, but also Daniel Wolperts and Detlev Arendts talk were inspiring. Gyorgy Buszaki had some data on place cells losing the temporal information under cannabinoids - need to check that in our PPC-EC study. Who knows, maybe we got the reverse, intact time but no place information? And then there was Alcino Silva on memory allocation. Had some fun discussing with him the memorising method of loci. Even have an idea how to test it, so I should contact his colleague. So, yes Champalimaud should be on the radar - great architecture and surely also soon great science popping out.

Bees

We had a great idea:

On 24^th of June Unal et al. reported that yeast reverse ageing (Science 332) during sporulation. There is a potential case of reverse ageing in an adult animal.  When the population of a bee hive gets large enough, the old queen and experienced foragers leave to start a new hive. When the swarm finds a site for a new hive, the queen needs workers that build combs and raise the new brood. These are tasks normally carried out by young workers, but many stayed behind in the old hive with the new queen. Some foragers in the new hive revert to the roles normally reserved for young bees (Gilley 1998). If that were all, the new hive would be in trouble. Worker bees only take on the risky business of foraging towards the end of their normal life span. If they only took on the roles of younger bees, would they live long enough to raise the next set of workers? The problem is solved by these workers extending their life span. The crucial question is whether these bees merely drastically slow or actually reverse the ageing process. If the latter, this would be the only case we know of reverse ageing in an adult multicellular animal. It seems to us this should draw the attention of ageing researchers.

But then it turned out bees in the swarm are of younger age then the ones from the original hive. So we did not submit the comment ...

Still, it was good training.

Neuroethology 2012 and Articles

I got the symposium!!! Be a chair on the neuroethology conference 2012 in Maryland, USA (Washington DC). Big challenge, but I love that. Now I have to hope I also get a travel grant I applied for and then a  scholarship for doing more "rocket" science.
Just be there when I chair orientation mechanisms (3D) in various species.

I have currently 4 papers in the pipeline, it is a slow process. And hope to get another 3 submitted in the next two weeks- i.e. before I take a week of break - mountainbiking in Finnmark.
And now even bike24 supports us in addition to Fanfiluca! We still need more support ;-)

Experiment

I am off again to the research station, trying to find out how birds migrate, which cues they use ...
Keen on a Master project? The birds migrate in autumn as well, a helping hand in running the experiments is always welcome. 

Bird migration

Well, one has to start with something, so despite all publish or perish pressure I spent time on my blog (installing it). The purpose will be to post thoughts on science ranging from bird migration to animal navigation and orientation in a very broad sense - covering evolution, neural mechanism, cognition, new method tools, and philosophical implications. My research interest is mirrored in my sport, I am actually enjoying orienteering, a very recreative natur-loving physical activity. Just like to be out "offroad" with a map, a compass, and depending on mood and season with bike, ski or just running shoes.
I have some ambitions for 2011:
on the science side to get a lot of papers published or through the pipeline.
On the sports-side is the adventure race offroadfinnmark the highlight.

So I keep you posted whenever I have a paper through the pipeline and or a story from a sports event.