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THEY DID WHAT?!

Budgies taught

grammar

What did they do?

Scientists at Duke University taught budgies

to understand basic grammatical patterns,

an ability previously thought to be unique to

humans.

Why did they do that?

The team played budgerigars patterns of

sounds made up of three parts, with a structure

of either X X Y or X Y X. Each time they heard X X Y

the were given a reward if they pecked a lever. If

they pecked the lever at the wrong time, the

light in their cage went out.

What did they find?

Not only were the birds able to identify the

pattern at the correct time, they were also

able to apply the rules to previously unheard

sequences, suggesting they were able to

learn basic grammatical rules.

ILLUSTRATION: RAJA LOCKEY

This spectacular image of Jupiter’s

aurora was taken using the ultraviolet

capabilities of the NASA/ESA Hubble

Space Telescope.

These striking light shows are created

when high-energy par ticles speed into a

planet’s atmosphere near the magnetic

poles and smash into atoms of gas,

therefore knocking electrons off them.

The ionised atoms then recombine with

the freed electrons and give off light.

“These auroras are very dramatic and

among the most active I have ever seen,”

said lead researcher Dr Jonathan Nichols

from the University of Leicester.

Jupiter’s auroras were first discovered

by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979, and

were previously observed by Hubble in

2007.

The current programme aims to

investigate how various components of

Jupiter’s auroras respond to different

conditions in the solar wind, a stream of

charged particles ejected from the Sun.

On Earth, the most spectacular auroras

are caused by charged particles striking

the upper atmosphere and exciting the

gas molecules, causing them to glow red,

green and purple.

Jupiter’s auroras are much larger than

those on Earth and are also hundreds of

times more energetic because the giant

planet’s strong magnetic field pulls in

vast amounts of charged particles thrown

out by volcanoes on its orbiting moon Io.

Hubble scientists will continue to

observe the auroras of Jupiter for

several months.

Dramatic aurora

on Jupiter, as

detected by Hubble

HUBBLE CAPTURES

STUNNING

AURORA IN JUPITER’S

ATMOSPHERE

JUPITER