Why birdsong is the pop music of the natural world

Why birdsong is the pop music of the natural world

When it comes to the sounds we encounter in the natural world, few have the beauty, elegance and variety of birdsong. But these distinctive vocalisations are not simply static calls that are common to all birds of a certain species that are passed on from one generation to the next. They vary from region to region and even evolve in single populations over time in much the same way that the style of music in the pop charts changes over time. As part of our Science of Sound miniseries, we’re joined by Dr Nilo Merino Recalde, a senior conservation scientist at the RSPB, to talk about the fascinating science behind the evolution of birdsong. He tells us about his work on tracking the evolution of birdsong as it passes from place to place and from generation to generation, how advances in AI technology are enabling birdsong researchers to learn more about this process than ever before, and what this research can tell us about the evolution of culture in the animal kingdom as a whole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Avsnitt(685)

Why leaves are one of nature’s most versatile creations

Why leaves are one of nature’s most versatile creations

From the neatly curated English country garden to the wild jungles of the Amazon, the Earth is host to a staggeringly diverse range of plant life. One of the key reasons for the great evolutionary suc...

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How to make buildings without harming the Earth

How to make buildings without harming the Earth

Every built environment we spend our time in, our homes, offices, music venues or sports stadiums – is designed and constructed after hours of consideration about form and function. Oftentimes, less c...

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Why humans are wired to appreciate beauty

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A late summer sunset, a peaceful, verdant forest, or a Shakespearean sonnet – these are all things that move us emotionally thanks to what we perceive as their beauty. But why is this so, why do envir...

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How safety engineers test everyday products to destruction

How safety engineers test everyday products to destruction

Whenever we buy a new product or use a service, we simply expect it to work as advertised, usually without giving much thought to how it came to being in the first place. However, behind the scenes, e...

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Why we need to be taking asthma more seriously

Why we need to be taking asthma more seriously

Currently, around one in ten of us are living with asthma. For many, the symptoms can be relatively mild, but for others, attacks can be severe, debilitating, and even life-threatening. For the most p...

27 Sep 25min

What our evolutionary history can teach us about eating well

What our evolutionary history can teach us about eating well

These days, supermarket shelves are filled with thousands of different products all vying for our attention; the options are almost endless. However, if we look back in time, we find that our early an...

24 Sep 34min

Why Smell is Our Most Overlooked Sense

Why Smell is Our Most Overlooked Sense

Though often thought of as the poor cousin to our other senses, our sense of smell has played a key role in human life since its very beginnings. It helps us to determine whether certain foods are saf...

20 Sep 26min

Are We Living in a Simulation? How to Tell If Reality Is Fake

Are We Living in a Simulation? How to Tell If Reality Is Fake

The possibility that we may be living in a simulation created by a more technologically advanced civilisation has occupied the minds of scientists, philosophers and fiction writers for decades. We may...

17 Sep 36min

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