Insight by Nature
By looping sensory signals between the forebrain and thalamus instead of sending them straight to motor outputs, birds can re-evaluate impulses and modify intended movements before committing to action.
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See all →Long lifespans let corvids accumulate extensive personal experience, social living enables observation and copying of others, and together with relatively large brains this combination accelerates retention and spread of innovations.
Vertical ocean overturning powers circulation because warm surface water is less dense and stays afloat while cooling and higher salinity increase density and cause deep water to sink.
Play releases pleasure-related neurochemicals and provides low-risk practice with objects and movements, which strengthens neural connections that later support creative object use and novel problem-solving.
Because only about 5% of the seafloor has been accurately mapped, vast unmapped regions remain where deeper, undiscovered depressions could exist.
A bird's forebrain integrates inputs from eyes, ears and bill touch receptors into unified representations, which the bird uses to assess situations and select context-appropriate actions.
Nitrogen from decaying salmon carcasses enters forest soils and is absorbed by mycorrhizal networks, which then redistribute that marine-derived nitrogen through tree-to-tree connections, linking ocean productivity to forest growth and health.
With advanced vocal learning circuits, corvids map arbitrary sounds to environmental referents and can imitate human words, allowing them to convey information or manipulate social contexts through mimicry.
Removing seemingly competitive species like birch breaks mutualistic fungal and nutrient exchanges in the mycorrhizal network, which reduces tree health and undermines the overall resilience of the forest.