Paging Dr. Pigeon; You’re Needed in Radiology
Many view pigeons and other birds as animals that have no intellectual capabilities that could be beneficial to humans. However, pigeons have fantastic vision and can be trained to identify malignant and benign breast tumors like a radiologist or pathologist would. At the University of Iowa, researchers experiments with 16 pigeons who had been in studies before. Therefore, they knew the drill: pick correctly, receive food and receive nothing when they pick wrong. The researchers would place the pigeons in little boxes with touch sensitive monitors that showed the slides of breast tissue. Scientists then trained the birds to peck a blue rectangle when they saw benign tissue and to peck a yellow rectangle when they saw malignant tissue. However, experimenters wanted to test more. In one experiment, the birds were given slides in color and in black-and-white with varying degrees of magnification. In another, the pigeons were tested to see if they could detect calcifications which are difficult for radiologists to find. In a third test, the pigeons were shown mammograms to see if they could differentiate between a benign mass from a malignant mass. The results from these tests were encouraging: for the first test, where the pigeons were separating benign from malignant breast tissue, they averaged at 87 percent correct scores on already trained slides and 85 percent correct scores on slides they had never seen before. In the second test, the pigeons did just as well scoring with 85 percent accuracy on identifying calcifications. The third test did not go as well with the masses on the mammograms with 80 percent correctness on already tested slides and only 60 percent accuracy on random new slides.
These experiments with the pigeons present possibly future medical tests that are faster and easier for doctors. The authors of the experiments wrote: “They may be useful as surrogates for human subjects in medical image perception studies because they can be used in repetitive ways that few people could tolerate.” These studies do no harm to the birds and result in positive testing results. In the future, who knows what other animals can do to help further the medical testing process related to cancer.
I was initially drawn to this article because it seemed different and interesting. I never thought that pigeons could be used medically. The author did a great job at summarizing the experiment. I liked how he included the exact percentages of the accuracies because it clearly demonstrated how successful the experiment is and how it can improve in the future. However, he definitely could have improved in some areas. I would have liked to understand how the researchers domesticated these wild pigeons to understand the difference between malignant and benign and how they trained these wild birds to peck the correct color. I also would have liked more information on why it was only breast cancer they were testing and not other types of cancer because the pigeons probably would have been able to notice the difference between malignant and benign. Overall, this was a very intriguing article to read and I am looking forward to see what other animals can affect the field of medicine.
Bakalar, Nicholas. "Paging Dr. Pigeon; You’re Needed in Radiology." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Nov. 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Caroline’s review on the article about pigeons was very interesting because I have never thought that pigeons could be so beneficial. One aspect of the review that was done well was Caroline explained the experiment that happened at University of Iowa in a way that the readers were able to understand. Adding on to that point, the first paragraph was a very good summary of the article and the experiment. Another good aspect of this review is that Caroline included a quote from the article, therefore referring back to the source as well as supporting her points. Then a third good aspect was I really liked the questions that Caroline asked, for example I would as be interested in knowing how they were able to train these wild birds.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I really enjoyed reading this review there are a few things that could have been done to improve it even more. One suggestion I have is to add more to the second paragraph. There are definitely some strong points like the quote and the stating that the experiments are not harmful to the pigeons, however; Caroline could have gone more in depth and explained these points more. A second suggestion is to put at least one more quote from the article into the review, probably in the first paragraph when Caroline was talking about the results of the experiment.
One fact I was able to learn from reading this review was that pigeons can be trained to identify malignant and benign breast tumors because they have such good vision. I was shocked to read this because I never knew that pigeons had that good of vision. It is also so weird to think that a bird you see pretty much everyday and don’t think much about can be so helpful to society.
Caroline, you did a wonderful job with this article. It was incredibly well written and I really appreciated the fact that my least favorite creatures might possibly have a useful place, at least in the field of science. I really like your use of quotes during your article. They managed to give both scientific backing which is always nice, while also explaining some of the things is a really nice way. I thought that although you nicely had statistics relevant to the trials they were slightly tedious and they could have been taken out or just not used as much. I also was slightly confused by your relevance paragraph. What is a medical image perception study and how does it relate to science? Overall I really enjoyed it and found it quite interesting how they are using pigeons in cancer research.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the review of the New York Times article “Paging Mr. Pigeon; You’re Needed in Radiology.” The research conducted with the pigeons was well written and easy to comprehend. Pigeons have incredible vision and can be trained to identify malignant and benign tumors. At the University of Iowa, the researchers placed sixteen pigeons in individual boxes with touch sensitive monitors. On slides of breast tissue, the pigeons were trained to peck a blue rectangle, symbolizing benign tissue and a yellow rectangle for malignant tissue. The results averaged at 87% accuracy. More factors were then introduced; color and magnification. Furthermore, by quoting the scientists involved, the importance of the research was clearly demonstrated. Pigeons in medical research can replace “human subjects in medical image perception” because pigeons can tolerate the repetitive nature of imaging. The discrepancies of the research were clearly addressed. I also wondered how the researchers were able to domesticate and train pigeons to identify benign and malignant breast tissue.
ReplyDeleteThe medical terms of the research could have been more clearly defined. For example, I did not know the meaning of calcifications. The initial findings and ideas of this research would have been interesting to hear.
This research is revolutionary in the field of medicine. Pigeons can help diagnose benign and malignant cancerous breast tissue. In the future, I hope to see other animals working in medical research.
Bakalar, Nicholas. "Paging Dr. Pigeon; You’re Needed in Radiology." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Nov. 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/science/pigeons-detect-breast-cancer-tumors.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront