Magazine

January-February 2013

Current Issue

January-February 2013

Volume: 101 Number: 1

Wind tunnels—such as this one at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany—are at the cutting edge of methods for studying bird migration. This example, built in 1999 under the dome of a planetarium, has been used to study migratory bird metabolism, navigation and orientation. Paul Bartell and Ashli Moore explain what ornithologists and neurobiologists now know about birds that migrate only at night in “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight.” These small birds undergo extremes in sleeplessness and metabolism, feats that are not humanly possible. (Cover image courtesy of Axel Griesch.)

In This Issue

  • Art
  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Computer
  • Engineering
  • Environment
  • Ethics
  • Evolution
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Physics
  • Policy
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Technology

Switching Colors with Electricity

Roger J. Mortimer

Technology

Electrochromic materials can be used in glare reduction, energy conservation and chameleonic fabrics

Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight

Ashli Moore, Paul Bartell

Evolution

Birds that migrate at night enter a state of sleepless mania and gorge on foods by day, behaviors mediated by their biological clocks.

Scientists' Nightstand