Pigeon Pathologists Know Cancer When They See It

This is the conditioning box where pigeons learned their new skill. (Credit: Levenson et al.) Would you rather have a human or pigeons scrutinize medical images to detect the presence of cancer? At first blush, it seems like an absurd question. But if you went out on a limb and chose pigeons, their diagnoses, surprisingly, would rival a human’s in accuracy. In a thought-provoking study, researchers trained pigeons to look at anatomical images and distinguish between benign and malignant breast tissue. After about 14 days on the job, a pigeon flying solo could scope out cancerous tissue with 85 percent accuracy. In other words, in less than a month, pigeons picked up a skill that takes an inexperienced human observer considerable training to master. Let that sink in for a moment. Pigeon Pathologists To train pigeon pathologists, a team led by Richard Levenson from the University of California Davis Medical ...