Humans
Nature
and
Birds:
Science Art
from
Cave Walls
to
Computer
Screens
Yale
University
Press
2008
Published
with
assistance
from
the
Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation's
Public
Understanding of
Science
and
Technology
Program. |
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Cover Image:
Patterns of Tranquility by Swedish artist, Lars Jonsson, shows eight Northern Pintails (see the inset and the back of the cover for the complete group).
Viewed through an Art "lens":
The artist, Lars Jonsson, calls attention to the female closest to the viewer, noting: "the intricate pattern of her
flank feathers and the reflection," and then describes other individuals: "The birds around her play supporting
roles. The stretched neck of the center male acts as a 'church tower'
to guide the viewer to the 'central plaza' of the community." Jonsson also describes the female to the near left".
. . . Her closed eye, backward preening action, and downward pointing flanks
direct attention to where her body meets the water and the reflection
takes over."
[Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum 2005 Birds in Art Catalog, p. 73.]
Viewed through a Science "lens":
In addition to various degrees of male attentiveness, the painting neatly portrays
unihemispheric sleep. Unihemispheric sleep is the notion that some animals--for example seals, dolphins,
and other marine mammals who must sleep but also remain in motion day and night when at sea are thought to sleep half a brain at a time. These birds are thought to be unihemispheric sleepers, too.
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