Study on parrot tongues published \nby IU scientists
In a study published in today's issue of Current Biology, scientists from IU and Leiden University in the Netherlands have shown for the first time that parrots, like humans, use their tongues to shape and create sound.\nParrots use an organ between their trachea and lungs called the syrinx to produce sounds, but until now, it was unknown what happens to the sound as it leaves the throat. Though parrots have been long noted to bob their tongues as they vocalize, whether these tongue motions contributed significantly to sound-making was previously unknown.\nNow IU neurologist Roderick Suthers and biologists Gabriel Beckers, a former IU postdoctoral fellow, and Brian Nelson, of Leiden University, have shown that even miniscule changes in a parrot's tongue position yield big changes in sound.\nThe implications of this study conclude that the flexible tongues of parrots, much like those of humans, are extremely important to the complexity of their communication.
Stunt pilots to attempt to snag space capsule
SALT LAKE CITY -- In a harrowing feat high over the Utah desert Wednesday, two helicopter stunt pilots will try to snatch a floating space capsule that holds "a piece of the sun" and bring it safely down.\nTheir biggest fear: What if they flub it on live TV?\nAnd that's entirely possible. The pilots rate it eight or nine on a difficulty scale of 10.\n"It's like flying in formation with a giant floating jellyfish," says pilot Dan Rudert.\nThe stuntmen will be trying to hook the 400-pound Genesis capsule as it hurtles 400 feet a minute. Inside it are fragile solar wind particles -- so small they're invisible -- which scientists hope will reveal clues about the origin of our solar system.\nThe biggest challenge, the pilots say, will be flying at 40 mph nearly a mile above the desert without any visual reference points to judge distance or speed as they close in with hook and cable on the capsule.\nThe helicopter pilots will have five chances to snag the capsule in midair. Military pilots were unavailable for a mission that required them to commit to a task six years in the future. The civilian pilots have replicated the retrieval without fumbles in dozens of practice runs but are terrified of failing as NASA television broadcasts a worldwide feed.\nIf they miss and the Genesis capsule hits the ground hard, scientists say they'd have to spend months sorting through broken jewel-studded disks holding the tiny solar wind particles.\nThere are other opportunities for the $260 million mission to go awry, too.\nFor NASA engineers, a white-knuckle moment will be when the capsule must be steered through a "keyhole" high in the Earth's atmosphere. If the experts at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory can't line up the precise entry and angle, Genesis will be waved off on an elliptical orbit of Earth, and another attempt would be made in six months.
