In the days when it was essential for marine navigators to be able to get a good visual fix on stars and other astronomical objects, many inventors tried to find ways of creating a ‘Marine Chair’ which would stay still while the ship rolled about in the middle of the ocean. Various national governments offered […]
Tag: navigation
“Humans smell in stereo” [new study]
Can we smell in ‘stereo’? Recent experiments performed at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing suggest that, to some extent, in some circumstances, the answer could be ‘yes’ – and, moreover, this stereo sense may be a navigational aid. The research team write that : “The human nose, the most protruding part of […]
Further adventures in dung-beetle-navigation research
Rachel Feltman chronicles, in the Washington Post, some further adventures of the Ig Nobel Prize-winning dung beetle navigation researchers: The humble dung beetle has a fantastic way of navigating the world If you’re a dung beetle, you spend a good portion of your life dancing around on top of a ball made of poop – a ball […]
When is a Transport Map Too Complex for Your Brain?
This new study explains, maybe, why so many people feel overwhelmed in navigating a big city by metro or bus. The study is: “Lost in transportation: Information measures and cognitive limits in multilayer navigation,” Riccardo Gallotti, Mason A. Porter, Marc Barthelemy, Science Advances, epub February 19, 2016. The authors, at the Institut de Physique Théorique, France, the […]