Scientists Use Magic to See How Birds Think
not buy it: to not be convinced that something is true
Scientists at Cambridge University have been performing magic tricks—not for people, but for birds! These tricks help them understand how birds see and process information.
Researcher Elias Garcia-Pelegrin was a magician before he became a scientist. Now, he uses his skills on birds. One magic trick, called the “fast pass,” confuses the eyes by moving an object too quickly to follow. Surprisingly, the bird were fooled, just like humans. But a second trick did not fool the birds. In this trick, the magician pretends to pass an object from one hand to the other but actually keeps it hidden in the first hand. People often believe the object has moved because they are used to seeing things passed this way. However, the birds didn’t buy it. Since they don’t have hands, they don’t expect objects to be passed between them.
These experiments show that an animal’s physical abilities shape how it perceives the world. Scientists are not just testing magic on birds. They have also experimented with monkeys and plan to study cuttlefish next.
Sample sentences
Tom said he saw a UFO, but I didn’t buy it. It sounded impossible.
He tried to explain why he was late, but his boss didn’t buy it.
The magician said he could read minds, but the audience didn’t buy it.
Read More:
Abracadabra! How Magic Can Help Us Understand Animal Minds