[Ira Flatow:] Here with me now is Flora Lichtman, with our Video Pick of the Week, and it is a beauty.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Thanks, Ira. This week I went on a field trip.
[Ira Flatow:] Yes.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Wee! I went to the Concord Field Station to visit a comparative biomechanics lab.
[Ira Flatow:] That's Concord in?
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Concord, Mass.
[Ira Flatow:] Mass.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] It's actually in Bedford...
[Ira Flatow:] Bedford...
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] OK. So comparative biomechanics, right? This didn't much to me, but let me translate it for you. It means a ton of animals moving in different ways. And when I went this is a typical day in the office there. I walk in, I'm walking around, and I first bump into post-doc, Maria Miara, who has to go get her guinea fowl on the treadmill.
[Ira Flatow:] Just to go and pick her up...
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] It was training day.
[Ira Flatow:] ...a guinea fowl on the treadmill.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] So that's this is like I'm already...
[Ira Flatow:] Another day at the office.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Exactly. It's like I can tell that I'm in a special place right from the beginning, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. They have an emu and they happened to have a day-old goat. A baby goat was born the day before. It's totally bucolic. It was like a scientific menagerie. It was just amazing.
[Ira Flatow:] And they have a cockatiel or...
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Yeah. The main a cockatiel. The main activity that day was happening in the wind tunnel. So this is it's huge. I think I hesitate to do the actual length, but I think probably like 40 feet, not the actual enclosure, but between the fan on one side. And they blow wind through this sort of enclosure and put the birds in, and then they can change the wind speed to make the birds flap, at sort of the equivalent of different speeds.
[Ira Flatow:] So they're like flying in the wind tunnel with the wind in the face.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] They're flying in place.
[Ira Flatow:] In place.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] It's like a bird treadmill. I mean, it's the same idea, right?
[Ira Flatow:] Right.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] And the point of this study, which Ivo Ros is doing, was to figure out how much energy it takes to fly. So they have a little heart monitor hooked up to the cockatiels. But again, like imagine what this is like for the cockatiels. So there's all this training involved because for a bird to be flapping their wings and not going anywhere is really weird. So they have to, you know, encourage them not to sit on the bars. And it just was...
[Ira Flatow:] There's no scenery changing.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] That's right.
[Ira Flatow:] And they're...
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] It looks like a stationary bike.
[Ira Flatow:] And in your video it's our Video Pick of the Week, which you have called the best laboratory in the world?
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] It was enamored with this lab. I'm just going to be honest. I thought it was the coolest lab.
[Ira Flatow:] Coolest lab in the world.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] If you like animals, you should check out this video.
[Ira Flatow:] And they have all these animals that are they're flying. They're on they have them on treadmills. They have they try to get them off the cabinets inside the lab.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Yeah. I mean, you know, of course, if you're going to get a guinea fowl on the treadmill, it's not that like the guinea fowl is, like, yeah, I'm really looking for a workout. Thank you. It doesn't necessarily want to be on there, although they do seem sort of OK with it.
[Ira Flatow:] Yeah. Yeah.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] You know, it was they were pretty cooperative, surprisingly.
[Ira Flatow:] Yeah. It was very interesting, and this is what they do. I mean, they have all these different things, and you got to see the inside of this lab.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Yeah. And you know, it so what they're studying so I could gush about the animals for a long time, but there's actual science going on here. And the idea is to understand sort of how muscles work and how our skeletons help us move. And engineers are collaborating with them to make better robots, and they have sort of influence on people looking for treatments for movement disorders in people. I mean, this is a really basic biology happening here, but you need to have all these kinds of animals to compare how a guinea fowl runs versus how an emu runs or and so they also have, you know, really cool gadgets. So there's like a huge X-ray machine that takes X-ray video and high-speed cameras everywhere.
[Ira Flatow:] And...
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] It's sort of like a visual dream.
[Ira Flatow:] It is. It's our Video Pick of the Week. It's up there on our website @sciencefriday.com, and also on our mobile apps, that you can download them. And one of my favorite little parts of the video is where the guy points to a treadmill and he says that's a special treadmill.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] A treadmill of note, Ira.
[Ira Flatow:] A treadmill of note? What was of note about that?
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Andrew Biewener said this as we were walking through the lab. It's where they first jump kangaroos and...
[Ira Flatow:] Of course. Kangaroos on a treadmill.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] To figure out how the tendons work. I mean, it really is neat stuff that I don't think I don't think this a lab like this exists maybe anywhere else.
[Ira Flatow:] Yeah.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] I mean, if it does, please let me know because...
[Ira Flatow:] Flora will be there in a minute.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Yeah, exactly. I'd like to see it.
[Ira Flatow:] Yeah. Well, if you have any other interesting labs, let Flora know.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Yeah. And I'd also like to thank everyone who sent in videos when we requested I'm still going through them. So if you haven't heard back from me, it's not personal. It's coming, but they were really great, so thanks for sending them.
[Ira Flatow:] Yeah. Couldn't compete with the guinea fowl this week on a treadmill. So thank you, Flora.
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] Thanks, Ira. And a happy birthday, Ira.
[Ira Flatow:] Well, thank you very much. The secret, the secret...
[Flora Lichtman, Byline:] The secret's out.
[Ira Flatow:] The secret is out.