Elephantquakes and Margaret Atwood. August 13, 2021, Part 2

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Natural Sciences, Wnyc, Science, Friday, Life Sciences

4.4 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A Stomp, A Roar, An Elephantquake? An adult African elephant, the largest land animal on Earth, can weigh as much as two tons. Their activities—walking, playing, even bellowing—might shake the ground beneath them. But research in the journal Current Biology finds that the signals from an elephant’s walk are capable of traveling as far as three kilometers, while a roaring bull, or male elephant, might be detectable a full six kilometers away with just seismological monitoring tools. Biologist Beth Mortimer and seismologist Tarje Nissen-Meyer, both at the University of Oxford and co-authors of the new research, describe the signals they captured in the ground and explain how a network of seismological sensors might help us study elephants from a distance, and even protect endangered elephants from poaching. Margaret Atwood On The Science Behind ‘Oryx And Crake’ Author Margaret Atwood’s book, Oryx and Crake is set in a post-pandemic world and a genetically engineered dystopian future. In this archival interview, recorded in April 2004, Atwood says science is “a tool for expressing and perfecting human desires—and sometimes it’s a tool for counteracting human fears.” She talks about how she pulls inspiration for her ‘speculative fiction’ from news headlines, and discusses how her entomologist father influenced her writing.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato.
0:03.9	Seismologists listen to the rumblings of the ground to understand what's happening deep within the earth.
0:10.4	But some scientists are using these seismological tools to observe ground shakes created by elephants.
0:17.2	Yeah. In this next conversation from 2018, I spoke with two scientists to find out what these
0:22.8	elephant quakes could tell us about these animals. I want you to listen to a sound and guess what it is.
0:35.7	Yeah, it does sound like a heartbeat, but it is not.
0:39.2	It is the seismic sound of an elephant walking, the vibrations in the earth.
0:44.6	Let me play it again.
0:50.2	Really cool, huh?
0:51.3	That African elephant is the largest land animal still alive today, and more importantly for this story, they are the heaviest. They weigh up to two tons. So it might not surprise you to learn that we can listen to them in the shaking of the ground. Research in the journal Current Biology reports that earthquake monitoring tools are capable not just of detecting
1:12.4	elephants from distances up to six kilometers away, but also distinguishing what kind of
1:18.9	behavior is being heard, whether the elephant is walking quickly or even just roaring. And the
1:26.5	researchers speculate perhaps this information could help us monitor elephants at
1:30.9	risk of poaching, among other conservation efforts.
1:34.7	Here to talk with me about that is a Beth Mortimer, research fellow in the Department
1:38.7	of Zoology and University of Oxford and UK.
1:40.9	Welcome, Beth.
1:42.0	Hi, thank you for having me on the show.
1:44.1	And Tarye Nissomeyer,
1:45.9	Associate Professor of Geophysics,
1:48.0	also at the University of Oxford.
1:49.7	Welcome, Tarier.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Science Friday and WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Science Friday and WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.