Chemistry Current Events 9/22/09 Cyrus Adamiyatt
Thompson, Andrea. "Why Flamingos Stand on One Leg." msnbc.msn.com MSNBC, 17 Sep. 2009. Web. 19 Sep. 2009 .
Flamingos are known for their awkward standing on one leg. In this article theories of why this is were discussed and explored. Many people had wondered why flamingos stood in such a way, but it had never been explored before. That is, until Matthew Anderson a psychologist at St. Joseph’s University decided to find out. At first it was thought that the one legged posture helped reduce muscle fatigue and that it was crucial to maintenance of body temperature. Scientists thought that standing on one leg prevented the stiffening of both legs and therefore the flamingo would be able to move faster in the event of a predator approaching. To test the muscle fatigue theory researchers watched flamingos and timed how long it took for them to start moving from a one legged and two legged stance. For the theory to be true the birds should be able to move faster form a one legged position. The birds though, were faster coming off two legs, which proved the theory to be untrue. The other explanation was for thermoregulation. It was a theory because birds lose significant temperature in the legs and feet, and keeping one leg up would enhance the retaining of body heat. To put the idea to the test the team noted weather and temperature conditions when the flamingos were in resting position. It was found birds would stand on two feet when warmer and one foot when it was cooler. It appears as of now that flamingos stand on one leg to conserve heat because they spend a lot of time in water.
This article affects humanity because it adds to the knowledge of people. After reading this article I now know why flamingos stand on one leg. Now if I am ever asked by someone why this is I can tell them a real scientific answer. I am sure many people have wondered why it is that flamingos stand on one leg. Reading this article allows me and others to be able to answer their questions. It affects my life because I have always wondered why flamingos stood in such a position. Now I know the reasoning for this absurd resting position.
I thought this article was very well written. Before reading this article I had very little knowledge of the flamingo. All I knew was that it was odd that it stood on one foot. The writer did a very good job of explaining a complicated theory in a very simple way and explaining the entire idea without making the article too lengthy. He also did a great job of identifying unusual terms and defining them. He defined thermoregulation and if he had not done so I would not have understood much of the article. I do think though that the writer could have elaborated more on a few other theories. Only two were described, but I would liked to have heard about a few more theories that were disproved or still remain unsolved. All in all I liked the way the article as written and I thought it was successful in teaching me a lot about flamingos and their strange one footed stance.
I found this article to be very well presented by Cyrus. I have always wondered why flamingos stand on one leg, and finding the surprisingly simple answer was very interesting. I also found some of the other theories which were incorrect to be well-educated by the scientists and well-summarized by Cyrus. I also liked that the summary was simple and to the point, making it easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that could have improved this summary was if Cyrus explained in more detail how the tests worked. I also think that the part involving the way the incorrect flight-takeoff theory (according to this article) was summarized was somewhat confusingly written.
Overall, this article was well-written and I like knowing that now, when I go to the zoo and see a flamingo standing on one leg, I will be able to tell people that the water-dwelling flamingos stand that way to conserve body heat.
Good job Cyrus! I thought you had a lot of well-presented parts in your article. I really enjoyed how you questioned something we see all the time at zoos, and never cared to think about. I found all the different theories about why flamingos stood on one leg interesting, and how some were proved wrong. I also think you did a great job at explaining how this article affects humanity, and how your able to get some science out of this. I think you could have made this article better be explaining in more detail what scientists have believed over the course of history for the reason that flamingos have stood on one leg. I also believe you could have gone further in depth with the theory of thermoregulation, as I am still unclear what that word exactly means. In all I was really impressed by the way you summed up all the whole article and tied it to the your lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the article “Why Flamingoes Stand On One Leg” was very interesting and did a very good job at explaining the reason for why that is. The article was also fantastically brief but descriptive, leaving a strong idea in your mind but making it a quick and easy read. The review of the article by Cyrus was also very well written and clearly stated why this article is important, being that it answers a question that everybody always asks themselves; why do flamingoes stand on one leg? Although the article did make the topic easy to understand and explained the different theories behind the question, it didn’t give that many theories, which was annoying because reading the theories was very entertaining but with out them it made the article a little boring. The review for the article also could have used some improving, it was very repetitive and kept saying that the article has answered a question he’s been asking himself his whole life, yes it is probably true you have asked yourself about that but your not determined to find out and when you make it sound like you are it ends up just sounding fake. One thing in particular that I learned from this article and thought that it was incredibly interesting is that on of the theories for why flamingoes stand on one foot is because they are trying to conserve body heat and when they are in the water their body temperatures drop so by keeping on leg rested against their chest they can conserve their body heat so that they don’t get cold and sick, even though they live in tropical weather.
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