#direction

In the Southern Hemisphere, how to find south without a compass.

Elementary map and aerial photograph reading. 1944.

Every path begins as a rumor,

a quiet suggestion in the earth,

someone once believed in that direction.

(Photo: d.)

Some 40 kilometers east of the Tanzanian coast in East Africa lies Latham Island, a rocky, utterly isolated and uninhabited piece of land about the size of seven soccer fields. It was on this unlikely patch of ground that Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recorded—for the first time ever—the neural activity of mammals in the wild. In their study, published in Science, the team used a tiny device to record, at the level of single neurons, the brain activity of fruit bats as they flew around the island. The scientists discovered that the bats' neuronal "compass" is global: It provides stable directional information across the entire island and does not depend on the moon or stars.

I love their cover of 1,200 Balloons, Dalmatians, and Miles.

Supergroup [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut