Owls are famous for being able to turn their heads seemingly full circle. It turns out some owls can turn their necks an amazing 270 degrees whereas our necks turn a measly 180 or so — see if you can turn your chin along your shoulder on both sides.

However, it’s likely the cause for this amazing feat is that, unlike our eyes, theirs are set facing forward and don’t rotate. So rotating their head becomes a key skill. Biomechanically they are able to turn so far by having twice the neck vertebrae as we do. If each vertebrae turns a little then having more helps them twist much further than us.

And yet the real trick is turning your neck while maintaining blood supply to your head through the arteries that also run up your neck. Rotate too far and the arteries can twist, stretch or be impeded. Owls have evolved a number of nifty strategies to help them turn their necks while maintaining blood flow. These include having the large carotid arteries towards the centre where they twist less than ours do, which run up the sides of our vertebrae. They also have loads of space around the arteries that run up inside the vertebrae and an area that may pool with blood at the base of the skull to provide a kind of reservoir if flow gets restricted. And more. All kind of amazing.

How owls’ necks turn so far round

This is the triangle between the most key parts of a kitchen — the sink, the hob and the fridge. The idea is that, when planning the layout of a kitchen, you should consider that you’ll be moving between these three regularly. Ideally, if you can get them just a step or a turn away from each other then your kitchen will be efficient and feel a pleasure to use.

Another handy thought is to allow trips to and from the fridge while someone may be preparing food without getting in their way — so having the fridge not deep at the back of the kitchen can be handy.

Plus, there’s a useful secondary triangle to consider between the sink, the dishwasher and your storage. Think rinse, dishwash and put away without having to trek back and forth across the kitchen all the time.

A more recent concept is to think of zones instead, such as the preparing zone, the cooking zone, the washing zone or the backing zone and make sure each of these has everything you need in them for the activity.

And make sure when the dishwasher is open there’s room to walk around it without it getting totally in the way. Also see: how to load a dishwasher well.

The kitchen working triangle

Conway was mostly observing software development, but I would think it has some application to any large project: cruise ship design, car design, space shuttle design, heck maybe even governments and law.

Law is kind of a strong word for an observation, but in any case, here are some other ‘laws’: Fitt’s law, Metcalfe’s law, Goodhart’s Law, Muphry’s law, Moore’s law, Koomey’s law, the law of diminishing brownies, the law of lockers and, my favourite, Hofstadter’s Law.

PS: As you read this I may be cycling mid-lake and trying not to sink to raise money for charity: www.cycleorsink.com

Conway’s Law