This 2011 BBC TV News report profiled Ig Nobel Prize winner Anna Wilkinson: A Nobel prize may be the most sought after gong in the scientific world, but a lecturer from the University of Lincoln has picked up the next best thing. Dr Anna Wilkinson has won an Ig Nobel prize, to honour achievements that […]
Tag: tortoise
Electric tortoise robots – the Bristol originals
If you haven’t come across Elmer and Elsie (c. 1948/49), William Grey Walter’s electric tortoises (or possibly turtles), may we recommend this video ‘Bristol’s robot tortoises have minds of their own’ More info here, courtesy Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
The tortoise and the touchscreen
Ig Nobel Prize winners Anna Wilkinson [pictured here, with a tortoise] and Ludwig Huber have now done an experiment with four tortoises and a touchscreen. (Wilkinson and Huber, together with colleagues Natalie Sebanz and Isabella Mandl, were awarded the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize for physiology, for their study “No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise.”) The new study is: […]
Constipation on two levels (tortoise and journal), both relieved
Comes twofold news of constipation relief: “Alleviation of a gastrointestinal tract impaction in a tortoise using an improvised vibrating massager,” Emma Nicholas and Clifford Warwick, Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery, Volume 21, Issue 4, 2011. A press release issued by the Animal Protection Agency gives details: “On arrival at the vets in Barons Court, London, […]
Attenborough Can Make Anything More Dramatic
Sir David Attenborough’s sonorous tones add a measure of gravitas to any nature documentary. In this video from BBC One’s Graham Norton Show, Sir Attenborough lends the power of his voice to narrate a video of a retifistic tortoise’s unsuccessful advances toward a shoe. (HT to Jerry Coyne for sharing this via his blog) Bonus: […]
Right Bias in Tortoise Righting
If one were to overturn a tortoise, would it be more likely to right itself (i.e. get back on its feet) to the right or to the left? To find out, a joint research team from the Comparative Psychology Research Group, University of Padova, Italy and the B.R.A.I.N. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Italy, […]
Viva Anna Wilkinson, tortoise cognitionist!
New Scientist reporter Jeff Hecht profiles Anna Wilkinson, whose discovery about contagious yawning in tortoises resulted in an Ig Nobel Prize for her and her colleagues. The report begins: “IT ALL stems from Moses,” says Anna Wilkinson. Moses is her pet red-footed tortoise and a bit of a celebrity in the science world. Why? First, […]
British tortoise-yawn-contagion researcher discusses prize
The BBC reports: Is yawning among tortoises contagious? A Nobel prize may be the most sought after gong in the scientific world, but a lecturer from the University of Lincoln has picked up the next best thing. Dr Anna Wilkinson has won an Ig Nobel prize, to honour achievements that first make people laugh and then […]
On Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise
Scientists know a bit more about contagious yawning – one of science’s utter mysteries – than they did a year ago, thanks to a study called No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise,Geochelone carbonaria. The study’s authors say their experiments, conducted with seven tortoises, might help eliminate some of the many competing theories as […]