Animal Alphabets

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have scientists discovered an alphabet in whale calls? As researchers try to decipher the series of clicks made by sperm whales, we ask whether these cetaceans might have language, and if it follows that whales are thinking animals too. Could we one day get a peek into the thoughts of a humpback whale? Meanwhile, somewhere along the long path of evolution, one species emerged with an impressive gift for gab. Are speech and language unique human superpowers? Guests: Carl Zimmer – Columnist, The New York Times, including the article, “Scientists Find an ‘Alphabet’ in Whale Songs”. (gift article) Ev Fedorenko – Cognitive neuroscientist, director of the EV Lab, MIT Tecumseh Fitch – Evolutionary biologist at the University of Vienna Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
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0:23.6	at Shopify. co-deek slash special offer,
0:26.4	or lower case.
0:27.5	That's Shopify. co-de-ek slash special offer. This is what scientists heard when they placed an underwater microphone off the meaning of whale calls. And scientists have tried to decode the meaning of these calls
1:05.0	ever since they were first heard.
1:06.8	What are the animals saying to each other
1:08.7	and what do these strange vocalizations
1:10.9	say about their cognitive abilities and how they perceive the world.
1:14.8	Well, scientists have recently begun to crack the communication code of a different whale species. Scientists think that these sounds include the alphabet of the sperm whale.
1:27.0	Could whales be communicating in a complex language?
1:30.0	And if we could decipher what they're saying, could we one day learn what they're thinking?
1:34.5	I'm Seth Shostak, and this is Big Picture Science from the SETI Institute.
1:39.3	I'm Molly Bentley, and in this episode, what, if anything,
1:42.5	separates human language from the communication
1:44.8	of other animals, and the importance of finding
1:47.6	that in the oceans at least, there might be animal alphabets.
1:57.0	A, B, C, D, E, F, G. If you speak just about any language, English, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic,
	...

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