Via Andrew Sullivan, new research shows that sparrows prefer classical music. This struck me as especially cool since my very first research experiment involved testing more or less the same question on goldfish. I still feel some pride recalling that middle school me figured out triplication and independent metrics (I measured the # of times they changed direction per minute and its response when you tap the bowl. panic meant that the fish was unhappy) without too much supervision.
Has anybody hashed out yet whether publishing a blog post counts as publishing per se? Sure, why not. So without further ado, published for the first time! The music preferences of domestic carp: Classical (Beethoven’s 9th) > 80’s pop (Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads) > classic rock (Start Me Up, Stones) > hard rock (Mr. Brownstone, GnR) > rap (Nightmare on my street, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith). The fish really didn’t like rap. Loudness was controlled by taping down the volume knob. You’ll have to imagine my pre-Excel bar graph.
The CV has already been updated.
Classical Music Surprisingly Popular With AnimalsPost + Comments (6)