ABOVE: CALTECH
Masakazu “Mark” Konishi, renowned for his research on the neuroscience of owl hunting and birdsong, died July 23. He was 87. Konishi, who conducted his work in two separate labs at Caltech, discovered that barn owls’ hearing is essential for them to home in on prey and that young male songbirds learn their tunes from a “tutor,” typically their father, and then use those tunes to develop their own songs.
“Mark picked his scientific direction based on his curiosity,” Rockefeller University neurobiologist Fernando Nottebohm, a long-time friend of Konishi and a leader in birdsong neurobiology himself, tells The Scientist. “He was not an imitator.”
Konishi was born in Kyoto, Japan, on February 17, 1933. Despite his father only having a few years of schooling and his mother having none, Konishi’s parents, silk weavers, made sure their son had more opportunities than they did. Konishi’s father read to him ...
