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Physics? It's All the Same to Birds and Babies

from ScienceNOW Daily News

Even with their tiny bird brains, rooks comprehend basic principles of physics at the same level as a 6-month-old baby--and beyond that of chimpanzees--a new study reports. But whether this understanding conveys any advantages remains an open question.

Rooks and other members of the crow family can manipulate tools and solve laboratory puzzles like those of Aesop's fables. Some scientists believe that these feats suggest the birds have a sophisticated understanding of physical principles--an understanding that allows them to solve problems they wouldn't encounter in the real world.

To further test the theory, Christopher Bird, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and his colleague Nathan Emery at of Queen Mary, University of London, "quizzed" rooks on a basic concept of physics they call "support." The duo adapted a standard experiment: Infants and other primates know that an object will fall if something is not holding it up; they stare for longer than normal at images of a ball or banana floating in mid air, for example, suggesting they know that something unusual is going on.