Moviemaker Alfred Hitchcock appears to have drawn some inspiration for one of his classic thrillers, "The Birds," with the help of toxin-producing algae.
The algae, whose single cells are encased in glass walls, have been the prime suspects for some time, but now scientists have confirmed they were present at just the right time.
On Aug. 18, 1961, a local newspaper reported that thousands of crazed seabirds were sighted on the shores of North Monterey Bay in California. The birds, called sooty shearwaters, regurgitated anchovies, flew into objects and died on the streets.
Hitchcock lived in the region, and called the newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, for more information, according to Sibel Bargu, a biological oceanographer at Louisiana State University and one of the study researchers.
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