When you have a moment grab your handy encyclopedia in your hand, aka your cell phone, and watch a video for me, search murmuration of starlings and be prepared to be amazed. Truly a beautiful sight of nature. Mesmerizing.
It turns out that this behaviour is likened to herd behaviour in land animals and shoaling behaviour of fish. When I first saw this I thought what would cause this kind of behaviour and I came to the conclusion it had to with either sex or survival. Some of our basest needs sometime need elaborate responses. Peacocks and their tail feathers, cats making themselves look larger in defence mode, men standing beside cars or with their shirts off in profile pictures, military parades to show that we have bigger ones than you...and so on. Nature, you are a funny one.
Like many things in the natural world, this can be partially explained using physics. In response to a nearby predator these starlings have banded together in a defensive display to ward off a falcon or Drumphs hair piece. Where the physics comes in is in what is known as critical transitions, described as:
"systems that are poised to tip, to be almost instantly and completely transformed, like metals becoming magnetized or liquid turning to gas. Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition"
That's incredible and beyond my understanding other than the simplest scratching of the surface. This flock of birds will turn and speed up or slow down just as their neighbour will do. In unison they will move, not only with their closest ally but even with those furthest away. It suggests that the birds have a connection of sorts with every other bird. One we mere mortals cannot yet understand much less quantify. To quote Jim Morrison; "There are things known, and things unknown, and in between are the Doors." We know many things but the vastness of what we do not know, cannot explain or even comprehend is truly staggering. Walking through the doors of discovery, being open to new ideas and possibilities...well, that is one thing that makes life truly exciting and magical.
Stephen Hawking died this past week and a great mind has been released to the cosmos. His physical limitations didn't stop him from using God's greatest creation, that lump of grey matter between our ears. He envisioned and theorized about concepts that are beyond most of us, challenged norms and pushed boundaries to open up the door to new discoveries and new ways of seeing. What if we, like the starlings, were connected to him and in turn to each other in such a way. If we could feel the connection and be able to act upon it. Think of the possibilities. Ponder the idea that if we understood that we actually are connected maybe we wouldn't treat each other so poorly. The stuff of science fiction, maybe even fantasy, but tell me I'm wrong. In the grand design of our world just about every species can show this flock behaviour to be a positive thing in the face of danger. They are hard wired that way. They seem to have on some level, a connection to each other. Do we think somehow that humans were spared this particular gift? The creator said, look I'll give you free will and opposable thumbs at some point but you'll lose the ability to feel each other. Nah...I don't buy it. I simply think we need to figure it out somehow. I believe there has been enough in our past to show that this is true, remarkable people doing remarkable things for the betterment of us all.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Magee
D
No comments:
Post a Comment