This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Eli Chen.

Got a minute?

How do you attract a mate?

If you're a male mouse, you take the Franks Sinatra approach.

And your cheeks so soft. You sing. take the Franks Sinatra approach.

You sing.

There is nothing for me but to love.

Scientists have known about crooning male mice for years, and past experiments show that if you leave male mice alone with an unconscious female or even with just a trace of her urine, the males will sing.

If you reverse roles, the females do not sing.

So scientists believe that in courtship,

males made all the noise until now.

The problem with the field is we've never had a way

to figure out who's vocalizing.

Neuroscientist Josh Nunebel at University of Delaware, he realized that researchers

needed better listening tools.

So Nunebel built a mouse-sized recording studio. His team lined a small closet with

nylon mesh and foam, which absorbed sound rather than reflect it. And they

installed ultrasonic microphones because mice make sounds at a frequency

that's above the range of human hearing.

That's a mouse singing slowed down so we can hear it.

Nunebell setup made it possible for the researchers to determine that some songs were in fact coming from female mice.

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