Introduction to Computer Science



Original Text

Flesch-Kincaid RL 10.5

Throughout history, one of the greatest scourges of man’s crops has been the locust and the delectation for this pest of several species of starling, such as the rose-colored starling. Starlings are small- to medium-sized birds that make their presence felt near human habitations by their ceaseless activity, loud calling and squabbling. Jaunty, loquacious and gregarious, the European starling is at once one of the most successful and most damaging of birds.

In many of the species that have been studied, both sexes incubate the eggs but the male usually plays the lesser role. The male starling sometimes mates with a second, third or even fourth female while his first mate is still incubating her clutch of 4-6 eggs. In such cases, the male goes on to help feed the chicks of his first mate, rarely those of the other mates.

Flocking starlings are one of nature’s most extraordinary sights: Just a few hundred birds moving as one is enough to convey a sense of suspended reality. What makes possible the uncanny coordination of these murmurations, as starling flocks are so beautifully known?

Starling flocks, it turns out, are best described with equations of “critical transitions” — 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.

At the individual level, the rules guiding this are relatively simple. When a neighbor moves, so do you. Depending on the flock’s size and speed and its members’ flight physiologies, the large-scale pattern changes. What’s complicated, or at least unknown, is how criticality is created and maintained.

It’s easy for a starling to turn when its neighbor turns — but what physiological mechanisms allow it to happen almost simultaneously in two birds separated by hundreds of feet and hundreds of other birds? That remains to be discovered, and the implications extend beyond birds. Starlings may simply be the most visible and beautiful example of a biological criticality that also seems to operate in proteins and neurons, hinting at universal principles yet to be understood.

Readers Theater Script

Directions: When practicing the script, you are encouraged to adlib.

Scientist: Throughout history, one of the greatest scourges of man’s crops has been the locust and the delectation for this pest of several species of starling, such as the rose-colored starling.

Female Starling: We are a small- to medium-sized bird that makes our presence felt near human habitations…

Male Starling: …by her ceaseless activity, loud calling and squabbling.

Female Starling: You’re jaunty, loquacious and gregarious.

Scientist: The European starling is at once one of the most successful and most damaging of birds in many of the species that have been studied.

Female Starling: Both sexes incubate the eggs but the male usually plays the lesser role.

Second Female Starling: The male starling sometimes mates with a second female while his first mate is still incubating her clutch of 4-6 eggs.

Male Starling: In such cases, I go on to help feed the chicks of my first mate.

Second Female Starling: Rarely those of the second.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download