The Crow and the Pitcher

Thousands of years ago, Aesop wrote a fable about a crow who used stones to raise the water in a pitcher so he could have a drink.

The latest issue of Current Biology documents this behaviour in a member of the crow family, the rook.
The authors next plan to use General Relativity/time dilation to determine who actually crossed the finish line first: the tortoise or the hare.

The crows are a resourceful family of birds. They have been shown to employ teamwork, use tools and solve multi-step problems. (Follow links for video) So much for birdbrains.

It's not the stretching stupid!

Here is an alternative hypothesis on injury in sports, it's not a lack of streching but a lack of brains. At least that's what this study on "The relationship between neurocognitive function and noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries." seems to imply...

I guess the smarter you are, the more likely you can react fast and make good decisions to avoid injury. The group which suffered ACL injuries had significantly slower reaction time, processing speed, visual memory and verbal memory. The sport most likely to result in non-contact (ie, your own fault) ACL injuries was woman's soccer....