In historical Rome, the owl was seen as a nasty omen, a chook that ate up human flesh and blood.
With the top of October close to and Halloween decorations virtually in every single place you look, you is perhaps questioning why sure animals are so typically featured as we strategy the spookiest vacation. Why do plastic owls adorn lawns, and pretend bats grasp from each nook and cranny?
It’s as a result of the eerie mythologies surrounding these creatures are long-standing traditions that have been developed from earlier people’ understanding—or concern—of the pure world.
Owls, particularly, boast a sophisticated mythos that encompasses two, conflicting depictions: one as a sensible, useful mystic and the opposite as a guardian of the useless. This division stems from the contradictory views of historical Greeks and Romans. Athena, the Greek goddess of knowledge, was typically depicted with an owl companion. Her owl was hailed as an emblem of perception and data, and, due to this fact, owls have been handled with reverence inside Greek tradition.
When Halloween attracts close to, pretend bats appear to hold from each nook and cranny.
Alternatively, in Roman mythology the owl was seen as a nasty omen; an animal that ate up human flesh and blood. When Rome defeated Athens in 146 B.C., this extra malicious depiction of owls started to dominate each areas and unfold out the world over. In truth, it was so pervasive that it affected Roman language. The Latin phrase strix meant not solely owl, however witch within the type of an owl and to utter shrill sounds. Romans didn’t at all times imagine that owls have been pure creatures, however as a substitute have been witches that had remodeled into owls to fly to a witches’ sabbath, or gathering. Even at present, strix is used because the genus identify for earless owls (or wooden owls), together with nice grey owls and noticed owls.
Quick-forward to the current time, and we now marvel at owls for the negligible noise they create whereas flying. Whereas many research have linked the microfringes on owl wings to their silent flight, the precise mechanisms have been unclear. Now, a crew of researchers has uncovered the results of those microfringes on the aerodynamic efficiency and sound of owl wings via a computational fluid dynamic simulation, a numerical methodology that fashions the habits of fluids utilizing computational {hardware} and methods. Their findings may encourage biomimetic designs for the event of low-noise, fluid equipment—units which convert the power saved by a fluid into mechanical power or vice versa.
Researchers have additionally just lately upended the notion that the long-lasting nice grey owl—amongst North America’s tallest owls and referred to as “the phantom of the North”—lives removed from cities, cities and different markers of human density.
The highly effective nice grey owl has an intense stare and is without doubt one of the tallest owls in the US. This chook is usually referred to as “the phantom of the North.”
Of all wildlife species, although, bats appear to be essentially the most intensively related to Halloween, and for good purpose—bats have been an emblem of the vacation since its origins. Given their tendency to collect within the autumn earlier than migration and hibernation, swarms of bats are a typical sight at nightfall this time of yr.
Right this moment, nonetheless, we’re additionally awed by these animals. Bats can carry lethal viruses—however not develop signs. Researchers just lately found that what occurs throughout “swarming” habits might maintain the important thing to understanding their viral tolerance and will translate into human well being by preventing off illnesses like COVID-19 and Ebola.
Uncovering the secrets and techniques behind the silent flight of owls
Owls are fascinating creatures that may fly silently via a number of the quietest locations. Their wings make no noise whereas flying, enabling them to precisely find their prey utilizing their distinctive listening to capability whereas remaining undetected. This distinctive capability is determined by many components and has lengthy been a scorching analysis topic.
The quiet flight of owls is an act of biomechanical stealth that also challenges science. Solely just lately have biologists and engineers begun to unravel the secrets and techniques of how owls can fly silently, enabling them to precisely find their prey utilizing their distinctive listening to talents whereas remaining undetected.
Research have discovered associations between the power to fly silently and the presence of microfringes on owl wings. These trailing-edge (TE) fringes play an important function in suppressing the noise produced by wing-flap-induced air motion. Learning these fringes can result in the event of promising strategies to cut back noise attributable to fluid equipment. Whereas scientists have carried out many research to guage these fringes utilizing flat plates and airfoils, precise mechanisms and the results on the interactions of feathers and the completely different wing options in actual owl wings remained unknown.
To unravel these secrets and techniques, researchers on the Graduate College of Science and Engineering at Chiba College in Japan investigated how TE fringes affect each the aerodynamic efficiency and sound of owl wings.
To know how owl wings work, the analysis crew constructed two, three-dimensional fashions of an actual owl wing—one with and the opposite with out TE fringes. They used these fashions to conduct fluid-flow simulations that mixed the strategies of giant eddy simulations and the Ffowcs-Williams-Hawkings acoustic analogy mannequin. The simulations have been carried out on the velocity of the gliding flight of strategy of an actual owl.
Microfringes—delicate fringes on the trailing fringe of an owl’s wing—have been linked to those birds’ capability for silent flight.
The simulations revealed that the TE fringes diminished the noise ranges of owl wings, significantly at excessive angles of assault, and maintained an aerodynamic efficiency akin to owl wings with out fringes. The crew recognized two complementary mechanisms via which the TE fringes affect airflow. First, the fringes scale back the fluctuations in airflow by breaking apart the trailing edge vortices. Second, they scale back the circulation interactions between feathers on the wing ideas, thereby suppressing the shedding of wing-tip vortices. Synergistically, these mechanisms improve the results of TE fringes, enhancing each aerodynamic pressure manufacturing and noise discount.
Publishing their findings within the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics in November 2023, the scientists say that their work demonstrates the impact of complicated interactions between the TE fringes and the assorted wing options. The silent flight of owls can encourage biomimetic designs that would result in the event of low-noise fluid equipment, reminiscent of drones, propellers, wind generators and even flying vehicles.
Offering a brand new image of the nice grey owl
Nice grey owls reside within the Russian Far East, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Manchuria, Mongolia and northeastern China. In North America, they reside throughout central Alaska and Canada, in addition to in elements of the northwestern and central Decrease 48. However largely, the nice grey owl has lengthy been considered a sentinel of the Alaska wilderness, protecting watch over snow-laden forests as far north because the Brooks Vary, properly away from human populations. However in a research revealed within the journal Scientific Stories in March 2024, a crew of College of Alaska Fairbanks researchers finds that the supposition that the chook lives removed from our cities and cities simply isn’t true.
The good grey owl has lengthy been considered a sentinel of the Alaska wilderness, protecting watch over snow-laden forests and staying far-off from human populations.
The research was carried out utilizing synthetic intelligence modeling that was given greater than 100 predictors: environmental variables for particular areas, reminiscent of days of freezing per yr and distance to human footprints like cities, cities, roads, runways and even the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. As a result of the computing energy was beforehand missing, this marks the primary time a pc modeling system has been used to do that particular form of predicting. Mixed with citizen science-sourced, publicly out there biodiversity databases, the modeling recognized essentially the most appropriate habitats for the owl.
The scientists used the software program Random Forest, a generally used machine-learning algorithm, to make inferences from the predictors. The pc mannequin was skilled utilizing datasets from eBird.org, the Federal Aviation Administration’s bird-strike information, the International Biodiversity Data Facility, iNaturalist.org, and numerous native and nationwide bird-watching e mail lists.
A scarcity of scientific information has contributed to the parable that the birds are elusive and shrouded in thriller. Even their Latin identify, Strix nebulosa, performs upon an affiliation with witchcraft (strix) and cloudy or misty (nebulosa), referring to the chook’s grey colour. Whereas we like to think about wildlife, particularly in Alaska, as present in pristine wildernesses untouched by people, the Scientific Stories research reveals that these owls congregate in rather more populated areas close to human-made buildings.
Whereas we like to think about wildlife as present in pristine wildernesses which might be untouched by people, scientific research present that nice grey owls typically congregate in populated areas close to human-made buildings.
The researchers state that somewhat than hanging onto conventional myths and narratives which might be perpetuated about wildlife, we must always use science to supply us with a way more holistic illustration of the place these owls reside and in what sorts of environments.
Fixing the following pandemic by finding out bat “nightclubs”
Bats carry a number of the deadliest zoonotic illnesses that may infect each people and nonhuman animals, reminiscent of COVID-19 and Ebola. However in an article revealed within the journal Cell Genomics in February 2024, a Texas A&M College analysis crew revealed that some species of bats are protected in opposition to the viruses they carry as a result of they generally change immune genes throughout seasonal mating swarms.
To uncover precisely how bats have developed tolerance to those lethal viruses, the Texas A&M crew and worldwide analysis companions mapped the evolutionary tree of Myotis bats, an important step in attempting to establish which genes is perhaps concerned. Myotis bats are the second-largest genus of mammals, with greater than 140 species that each one look related. They’re discovered virtually everywhere in the world, and so they host a big range of viruses.
A number of bat species are tolerant of viruses which might be detrimental to human well being, which implies they change into reservoirs for illness—they carry the viruses, however they don’t develop signs.
So as to add to the difficulties related to determining relationships amongst bats, Myotis and different bat species have interaction in swarming habits throughout mating. Swarming habits is sort of a social gathering: there’s plenty of flight exercise, and elevated communication and interspecies mingling—not not like, say the researchers, going to a nightclub.
Complicating issues for the researchers, swarming creates elevated numbers of hybrids, particular person bats with mother and father from completely different species. So, whereas it’s already very laborious to tell apart Myotis bats, hybridization makes it much more tough. And when attempting to map out how these bats developed with a view to perceive their illness immunity, with the ability to inform who’s who is essential.
With this in thoughts, the scientists first untangled the genetic code for hybridization so they may extra clearly inform which species have been which. Then, by collaborating with researchers from France, Eire and Switzerland, they sequenced the genomes of 60 Myotis bat species, permitting them to determine which elements of the DNA represented true evolutionary historical past and which elements arose from hybridization.
Bat swarming is when people mixture, usually at caves or mines throughout autumn, and collectively repeatedly chase one another, circle, dive and land. It’s an interspecies social gathering; for bats, it’s not not like going to a nightclub.
With that a part of the puzzle solved, the researchers have been capable of study the genetic code extra intently to see the way it may make clear illness immunity. They discovered that immune genes have been a few of these most often exchanged between species whereas swarming. Swarming habits had at all times been a bit mysterious for researchers, however now there’s a greater understanding of why this specific habits developed; maybe to advertise hybridization, which helps unfold useful immune gene variants extra broadly all through the inhabitants.
Understanding how bats developed viral tolerance might assist us find out how people can higher battle rising illnesses and will maintain the important thing to stopping the following world pandemic.
Wishing you a cheerful Halloween in all of your darkish corners
Most of us now take pleasure in having a cornucopia of wildlife residing simply exterior our backdoors. We now not imagine that a lot of them—reminiscent of bats and owls—are imbued with horrifying magical powers, or that they cavort with ghosts and witches.
Spooky myths linking bats and owls with Halloween are long-standing traditions that have been developed from earlier people’ understanding—or concern—of the pure world. Even now on October 31, we are likely to revisit the previous superstitions relating to two animals which have come to represent the vacation.
On Halloween, although, we is perhaps forgiven for revisiting a few of nature’s long-held myths and superstitions—and, maybe, for putting a plastic owl or hanging a pretend bat or two in a darkish nook.
Have a cheerful Halloween,
Sweet
