It is good to see how people pick up an article like this. I am one of the scientists involved and I like the way you discuss things here.
The actual reason I want to comment on your thoughts about "it is funny they had to test whether the birds had personalities". Of course one has to test such things. Personality is still seen as a characteristic of a person (ie a human being). Animals are something completely different (yeh right). Again we (now) can't say it is the same 'thing' we are measuring, but at least we can say the principles are the same. When I have some time I may go through some of the other "thoughts". Trully interesting thoughts! Are you a scientist?

Hi Kees,

Thanks for the comment! Yes, I guess the process of cataloguing the obvious is necessary when applying the scientific method. It just becomes amusing when they are on paper, or the monitor, I guess.

I'm on my way to becoming a scientist I hope. My background is in social theory and gender studies. And currently I'm looking at the way scientific information is communicated to lay people and how they use it. But it's all an attempt to get into studying animal behavior...a slow process from gender studies to animal behavior, but there are many related ideas. It's been interesting so far.

Please feel free to comment on the blog all you want! I love to have the opinions of specialists and I would love to hear yours.

Best,
~ rebecca

Hi Rebecca,

You picked a right point there: communicating information to lay people. For scientists a very difficult part of their job. Some even think it isn't their job. ALthough I feel that scientists shouldn't be driven by societies' opinions, I think we are obliged to communicate what we are doing. Of course some of the information won't reach people in the right way (see the hundreds of weboages siting the article saying thata what we do is either proof that humans shouldn't study animals, or proof that we should study animals more closely; pick your pick).

ok, keep up the track towards animal behaviour, since that is the reflection of the real world (i guess)

cheers,,

Kees