Feature presentations during Astrofest 2018, Penn State University

1. Astronomy in animal kingdom
Astronomy from animal kingdom
Astronomy for animal kingdom
Pragati Pradhan
Post-doctoral researcher
Penn State University
pup69@psu.edu
Special Thanks
Biman Nath (Raman Research Institute, India)
Tanmoy Chattopadhyay (Penn State Univ, USA)

2. 22/10/18Source: http://homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com
Life before G.P.S

3. 22/10/18Indigo bunting (Source: Wiki images)
Are we the only astronomers?

4. 22/10/18
Are we the only astronomers?

Nocturnally migrating birds

Same method (of identifying starry sky’s centre of
rotation – brightest North stars) like old 'human' sailors

Learning process possibly not genetic

5. 22/10/18Harbor seal (Source: Mauck et al. 2008)
Are we the only astronomers?

6. 22/10/18
Are we the only astronomers?

Two seals - Malte and Nick could identify Sirius
(brightest star) when appropriately rewarded.

Don't migrate but conduct long journey of days and
nights together.

7. 22/10/18Jumping spiders (Source: Getty Images)
Are we the only astronomers?

8. 22/10/18Galilean telescope (Source: https://www.inverse.com/)
Are we the only astronomers?

9. 22/10/18Human moon versus spider moon (Source: Twitter, Kevin M. Gill)
Are we the only astronomers?

10. 22/10/18Spiders chase light (Source: Youtube)
Depth perception in different colours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF6uu1XijEo

11. 22/10/18
Astronomy from animal kingdom

Image processing from jumping spiders

Perceive depth by comparing a focused versus
defocused image

Useful for automation and therefore a handy technique
for robotic vision and computer vision

12. 22/10/18Dung beetles (Source: Youtube)
Are we the only astronomers?

13. 22/10/18
Are we the only astronomers?

Collect dung for dinner

Dance atop the poop ball and take a celestial snapshot

Compound eyes limit them from seeing point stars

14. 22/10/18Compound eyes of a dragonfly (Source: https://listverse.com/)
Are we the only astronomers?

15. 22/10/18Source: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/
Are we the only astronomers?

16. 22/10/18MW as seen by dung beetles (Source :Gould et al. 2013)
Are we the only astronomers?

17. 22/10/18Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/
Are we the only astronomers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1X
L711elDA&feature=youtu.be

18. 22/10/18
Astronomy from animal kingdom

Image processing from dung beetles

Increasing exposure time & increasing size of pixel
both allow night vision.

Follow complex image processing in the brains as big
as a grain of rice.

19. 22/10/18Source: Youtube
Astronomy from animal kingdom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZCKv-JyGkw

20. 22/10/18
Astronomy from animal kingdom

Lobster eye technology for X-ray telescopes.

Adapted for deep sea viewing without moving their
head.

Images formed by reflection of an array of mirrors
unlike refraction in humans.

21. 22/10/18Blue lobster (Source: http://invorma.com/)
Astronomy from animal kingdom

22. 22/10/18Lobster eye illustration ( Source: Denton et al. 1998)
Astronomy from animal kingdom

23. 22/10/18Einstein probe (Source: http://ep.bao.ac.cn/?page_id=13)
Astronomy from animal kingdom

24. 22/10/18
Astronomy for animal kingdom

Locating endangered species in a huge jungle is
expensive (manual) and indefficient.

Astro-ecology: Using Astronomy software (Astropy) to
locate endangered species by mapping their thermal
patterns through Machine Learning algorithms.

25. 22/10/18An infrared image can be used to identify age and size of stars ( Source: NASA/SPL
)
Astronomy for animal kingdom

26. 22/10/18Infrared image of rhinos ( Source: Endangered Wildlife Trust/LJMU)
Astronomy for animal kingdom

27. 22/10/18Infrared image of chimpanzees ( Source: Endangered Wildlife Trust/LJMU)
Astronomy for animal kingdom

28. 22/10/18Source: http://astrobob.areavoices.com
From heaven to Earth

29. 22/10/18
References

Emlen S. 1967 Auk 84 , 463–489.

Emlen S. 1967 Auk 84 , 309–342.

Mauck B, Glaser N, Schlosser W, Dehnhardt G. 2008 Anim. Cogn. 11 , 715–718.

Dacke, Marie et al. Current Biology , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , 298 - 300

El Jundi B et al. Curr Biol. 2016 Jun 6;26(11):1456-62. Epub 2016 May 12.

Foster JJ, et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20172322

James L. Gould, Current Biology, Volume 23, Issue 4, 2013,Pages R149-R150

Denton, M.J., Nature’s Destiny: How the laws of biology reveal purpose in the universe, ch. 15,
The Free Press, New York/London, 1998

Nagata et al. 2012 Science, Vol 335, Issue 6067, pp. 469-471

Menda et al. 2014, Current Biology, Volume 24, Issue 21, p2580-2585