3 ms·

I'd like to hope they address the issues of the fake news research around "Google Earth shows that cow and deer herds align like compass needles" and "Do Dogs H

I'd like to hope they address the issues of the fake news research around "Google Earth shows that cow and deer herds align like compass needles" and "Do Dogs Have Their Own Poop Compass" I see the difference between the controversial ideas around magnetoreception in many mammals and what I'd see as un-controversial, animals have some level of herding with humans and it will be different with children for various reasons. But clearly people are misusing the difficulty of measuring alignments on animals to get exciting research. Can't see the paper online for free - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01454-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01454-4

dmurray 6y ago
Everything in the study can be completely explained with a mechanism no more powerful than "dogs tend to follow their owners". Plus a little bit of quantifying whether they are more loyal at following adult owners/shelter workers/children. "Move in synchrony" is a very clickbaity way to suggest that there's something magical or insufficiently understood here (like magnetoreception). That seems to be editorializing from the NYT, rather than the authors of the study.
- staticman2 6y ago
  Synchrony is the term from the scientific study: your beef isn't with the NYT on that term.
  - yostrovs 6y ago
    Why have the New York Times when you can read the study yourself with all the scientific jargon included? I thought their purpose in covering science is to make it easier to understand for a layman. What is synchrony? Do you think an average person actually knows? I'm educated in the sciences and I'm not sure of what it really means.
dreen 6y ago
Cows dont tend to align NS? This isn't new and I never heard of this being debunked
- aaron695 6y ago
  Cows don't have magneto-reception. So can't. If they did, then it's a big deal because then next step would be to assume humans do. The big news study was around people looking at Google Maps and alignment. Someone went back and said no. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mystery-of-the-magnetic-cows/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mystery-of-th... Lots of wacky things like hiding magnets under things and looking at power lines. The studies never replicated. Wishy washy 'alignment' of animals and poo measuring proving 'big' things. It's the 21st century, 20 years post internet. It should not still be considered 'unknown', but it is, old articles still online, that clearly have not actually proven anything. And it does matter, it could change the way we look at whole eco-systems, farming and human behaviour. It's how our bodies work. I do not understand what scientists are doing. I can only assume there is no money or prestige proving magneto-reception isn't in most mammals, or perhaps it's to hard to fight the dodgy research / media machine. Cows do align with stuff like the sun though.

dmurray 6y ago

Everything in the study can be completely explained with a mechanism no more powerful than "dogs tend to follow their owners". Plus a little bit of quantifying whether they are more loyal at following adult owners/shelter workers/children. "Move in synchrony" is a very clickbaity way to suggest that there's something magical or insufficiently understood here (like magnetoreception). That seems to be editorializing from the NYT, rather than the authors of the study.

staticman2 6y ago
Synchrony is the term from the scientific study: your beef isn't with the NYT on that term.
- yostrovs 6y ago
  Why have the New York Times when you can read the study yourself with all the scientific jargon included? I thought their purpose in covering science is to make it easier to understand for a layman. What is synchrony? Do you think an average person actually knows? I'm educated in the sciences and I'm not sure of what it really means.

dreen 6y ago

Cows dont tend to align NS? This isn't new and I never heard of this being debunked

aaron695 6y ago
Cows don't have magneto-reception. So can't. If they did, then it's a big deal because then next step would be to assume humans do. The big news study was around people looking at Google Maps and alignment. Someone went back and said no. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mystery-of-the-magnetic-cows/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mystery-of-th... Lots of wacky things like hiding magnets under things and looking at power lines. The studies never replicated. Wishy washy 'alignment' of animals and poo measuring proving 'big' things. It's the 21st century, 20 years post internet. It should not still be considered 'unknown', but it is, old articles still online, that clearly have not actually proven anything. And it does matter, it could change the way we look at whole eco-systems, farming and human behaviour. It's how our bodies work. I do not understand what scientists are doing. I can only assume there is no money or prestige proving magneto-reception isn't in most mammals, or perhaps it's to hard to fight the dodgy research / media machine. Cows do align with stuff like the sun though.