I initially started this channel because I came across a lot of topics from books, articles or even videos from other languages that didn’t always have a good video in English. It felt like such a shame that some of these things weren’t seen more broadly and I wanted to share great content with the world.
I studied psychology and have a love for nature so this channel primarily focuses on animal behaviour. I enjoy reading books and research papers and try to make them easily accessible for everyone.
The channel is focused on:
- Creating quality, well researched videos about animals and animal behaviour.
- Exciting research and the people behind the research.
- A human approach to scientific storytelling.
- Breaking down research papers and studies (which can be quite dry! But have great content) and sharing it with you.
- Maybe topics on human behaviour in the far future if there is interest for that too. But focus will be on animal behaviour for now.
Email: curiousbirb@outlook.com
A Curious Birb
A few things I ended up cutting from the Michael Levin video.
1. Planarians may hold clues about ageing
Some planarians reproduce by splitting themselves in two, which allows mutations to build up across generations (leading to one of the messiest genomes).
And yet they’re extraordinarily regenerative, highly resistant to cancer and even ageing.
Michael thinks part of the answer may lie in the body’s ability to preserve a higher level “plan” of itself beyond DNA, even as individual cells are constantly replaced.
2. Memory is not stored in the brain?
In another experiment, planarians were first trained on a task then had their heads including their brains removed, before regrowing completely new ones.
Michael found evidence that some of the learned information managed to survive the process.
I wanted to include both of these ideas in the final video, but I couldn't find a clean way to fit them into the story in the end so I thought I'd share it here with you all.
I wrote a bit more about both experiments over on Patreon:
www.patreon.com/c/ACuriousBirb
1 week ago | [YT] | 125
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A Curious Birb
So... We've just reached 100,000 :)
I genuinely don't know what to say haha.
When I started this channel, I never thought 100,000 people would eventually choose to stick around and listen to me ramble about the strange corners of science I happen to find fascinating.
I've always wanted the channel to grow because people genuinely enjoyed the videos, rather than because I asked people to subscribe, so seeing this number feels particularly special.
I want to say a big thank you to everyone who's watched, commented, shared a video or even just quietly followed along (I'm one of those people normally who just watches and says nothing haha). It's been a pretty incredible year and you've all made it possible for me to put more and more time into something that I genuinely love.
There's still so many more stories I'm looking forward to sharing with you all and I hope you'll be around to hear them.
2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 252
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A Curious Birb
The Abandoned First Draft of Jo's Story
One thing people often ask is what my writing process looks like.
While looking through my notes recently, I found the first draft of Jo's story...
After spending 2–3 days writing it, I realised I'd accidentally told the story from Martha's perspective instead of Jo's. I ended up deleting the entire thing and starting again from scratch.
Looking back, I think that was one of the best decisions I made on the documentary.
I shared the full draft and some behind-the-scenes notes over on Patreon if you're curious to see how different it was.
www.patreon.com/ACuriousBirb/posts/why-i-scrapped-…
2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 345
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A Curious Birb
Sorry for the wait!!! Video is finally out.
I honestly had a big smile the whole time while I was making this video because Professor Kano's research is not only fascinating, but also extremely fun.
It's a longer video this time around, but hope to see you all soon :)
3 months ago | [YT] | 56
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A Curious Birb
Anyone else a fan of Kurzgesagt?
They're a big inspiration for me and honestly a big part of why I started the channel :)
Oh and the next topic is going to be on one of the most intelligent animals, the chimpanzee. There are some incredibly interesting and fun experiments this time around.
Look forward to sharing it with you all soon.
4 months ago | [YT] | 157
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A Curious Birb
I want your honest feedback on something.
How do you feel about the backstory / overall story of the scientists in my videos?
*Please vote before reading further*
The reason I’m asking is that I sometimes see comments saying they’d prefer I get to the research more quickly.
That’s a totally fair preference, and I understand why some viewers feel that way.
But for me, the scientist’s story is often one of the most meaningful parts of the video. The papers are out there for anyone to read, what’s much harder to find is the actual thought process, the motivation, the years (often decades) behind the work and the human side of how the science came to be.
That’s a big part of why I include it. I don’t really see science as just a list of results and I think there’s real value in knowing the person behind the research too.
That said, I’m always trying to improve the videos and find the right balance, so I’d really love to hear what you think.
4 months ago | [YT] | 115
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A Curious Birb
Video is finally out!
It’s about a tiny fish and a scientist that refused to give in. Together they may have just changed how scientists think about self-awareness in animals.
Some of you may have come across the headline before, but I promise this story will be far more interesting than you expect.
4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 129
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A Curious Birb
We're heading back to Japan in the next video with a Japanese scientist and his research on fish.
Hoping to get the video out around the end of the week :)
4 months ago | [YT] | 94
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A Curious Birb
Quick little update: The next video is taking a bit longer than planned. It turned out to be one of those videos where the more I got into the research the more interesting it became.
I'm really excited about it and think a lot of you will enjoy where this one goes.
Hope to share it with you all soon :)
5 months ago | [YT] | 91
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A Curious Birb
So... Somehow we just crossed 50,000 subscribers.
I honestly didn't expect the channel to grow this quickly, especially considering there are only about a dozen videos so far.
I started this channel because I kept coming across fascinating research and stories that didn't always have a good video explaining it. I figured a few other people out there might enjoy them too and thought I'd have a go at making a video.
It's been really encouraging to see how many of you are curious about these topics as well. Thank you for all the comments, suggestions and the amazing support so far. It genuinely means a lot.
I look forward to sharing many more strange and amazing discoveries together.
(Yes I'm working hard to try and get the next video out!)
6 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 169
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