this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Hence the idiom "canary in a coal mine" for early detection of a failure. Miners used to carry a caged bird with them to detect pockets of deadly gasses. If the canary suddenly drops dead, it's time to get the hell out.

"This canary died of natural causes."

[–] technohacker@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago

My favourite tidbit about them is how there were dedicated devices to bring them back from the brink of unconsciousness: https://museumcrush.org/this-device-was-used-to-resuscitate-canaries-in-coal-mines/