• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Avian Athletes

Avian Athletes

February 6, 2015
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/150206_sciup_athlete.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Ferran Pestaña Black-tailed godwits
Black-tailed godwits are long-distance migrants that can reach high altitudes. (Ferran Pestaña/flickr)

Avian athletes. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

The world’s greatest Olympic athletes are no match for migratory birds, according to University of Bangor biologist Charles Bishop.

CHARLES BISHOP (University of Bangor):

Birds can outperform us athletically, and one of the reasons is that the average bird has a heart that’s twice the size of an average mammal.

HIRSHON:

That means they can pump more oxygen to their blood, a boon when flying at high altitudes. He says runners in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics were slowed down by its lofty elevation, but many birds adjust right away. And unlike us, they don’t need to train.

BISHOP:

They just go on fly for hours at a time, days at a time in some cases. Now people are understanding the genes involved in muscle fitness, that in fact, just like these animals, it would be possible to target those genes.

HIRSHON:

…so that human athletes could train less and cope in extreme conditions more like birds do. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

LEARN MORE

SCIENCE MAGAZINE PODCAST

Story by Susanne Bard

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Animal Behavior, Biology, Genetics & Evolution, Medicine & Health, Sports & Fitness
Previous Post:Science or Nonsense?
Next Post:Internal Brain Maps

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos