Seeing Stars, Seagull Staredown, Itsy Bitsy Microdrones

Today, you’ll learn about how cultures across the world often make constellations from the same groups of stars due to the nature of vision and perception, what to do when an animal tries to steal your food during a picnic on the beach, and drones smaller than a red blood cell that can be controlled using only the power of light.

Does your star pattern look like my star pattern?

• “Constellations Across Cultures: How Our Visual Systems Pick Out Patterns in the Night Sky” from the Association for Psychological Science
  • https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/2022-march-constellations-across-cultures.html
• “Perceptual Grouping Explains Similarities in Constellations Across Cultures” by Charles Kemp, Duane W. Hamacher, Daniel R. Little, and Simon J. Cropper
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976211044157
• “The Big Dipper (the Plough)”
  • https://nineplanets.org/the-big-dipper
• The Astronomical League
  • https://www.astroleague.org/content/constellations-other-cultures-checklist

Staring contests really do work.

• "Stare at Seagulls and They'll Leave Your Food Alone” by Mindy Weisberger
  • https://www.livescience.com/staring-at-seagulls-stops-stealing.html
• “Stare seagulls out to save your snacks, researcher says” by Ian Sample
  • https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/07/stare-seagulls-out-to-save-your-snacks-researcher-says
• “Staring down seagulls can stop them stealing your chips” by Sam Wong
  • https://www.newscientist.com/article/2212592-staring-down-seagulls-can-stop-them-stealing-your-chips/
• “Herring gulls respond to human gaze direction” by Madeleine Goumas
  • https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0405

Sun doesn’t just give plants life, but drones, too.

• “Microdrones With Light-driven Nanomotors” By Universitat Wurzburg
  • https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/licht-motoren-fuer-mikrodrohnen-1/
• “Light-Driven Motors Power Tiny Drones” By Patricai Daukantas
  • https://www.optica-opn.org/home/newsroom/2022/april/light-driven_motors_power_tiny_drones/
• “Polarization” by The Physics Classroom
  • https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/light/Lesson-1/Polarization#:~:text=Polarized%20light%20waves%20are%20light,of%20methods%20of%20polarizing%20light

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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/seeing-stars-seagull-staredown-itsy-bitsy-microdrones

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