Think of an Elephant

There's an old parable about blind men and an elephant; each touches a different part of the great beast and comes to a wildly different conclusion about what stands before them. This parable shares some similarities with science, since we're all probing the secrets if the universe in different places and ways. Unlike the ancient blind men, however, we have the advantage of things like blogs to compare notes between what we find. Take the elephant itself: today's links examine pachyderms from three different perspectives. At The Thoughtful Animal, Jason Goldman looks at elephantine communication and behavior in response to the sound of angry bees, Brian Switek peers into the paleontology of their time in South American at Laelaps, and over at Dot Physics, Rhett Allain analyzes the physics of an (animated) elephant's acrobatics.

• Elephants say "Bee-ware"
  The Thoughtful Animal, April 29, 2010
• Nine million years ago, elephants invaded South America
  Laelaps, April 20, 2010
• Elephants Can't Jump. Really.
  Dot Physics, July 27, 2009