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SUMMARY:Digital maps and minimal animals in movement ecology - Etienne Ben
 son (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science\, Berlin)
DTSTART:20130425T120000Z
DTEND:20130425T130000Z
UID:TALK44701@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Helen Curry
DESCRIPTION:In the 1960s ecologists began using computers to model the mov
 ements of individual animals. Looking for deep underlying patterns\, they 
 stripped away environmental conditions and social relationships to reveal 
 the bare geometries of movement through space. Computer-generated maps pla
 yed an important role in this development. The depiction of complex paths 
 through the repetition of basic visual elements helped establish the comme
 nsurability of simulated and empirically observed movements and of the mov
 ements of animals of different species under various conditions. With the 
 increasing availability of GPS tags and other tracking techniques\, this a
 pproach has recently attracted renewed attention under the rubric of 'move
 ment ecology'. This paper uses the history of movement ecology to investig
 ate the relationship between high-volume data collection\, computer-based 
 modeling and visualization\, and ideas about the nature and capabilities o
 f nonhuman animals.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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