Seeing the Milky Way’s central black hole, and calling dolphins by their names

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s show: The shadow of Milky Way’s giant black hole has been seen for the first time, and bottlenose dolphins recognize each other by signature whistles—and tastes It’s been a few years since the first image of a black hole was published—that of the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy came about in 2019. Now, we have a similar image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way—our very own galaxy. Staff Writer Daniel Clery joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss why these images look so much alike, even though M87’s black hole is 1600 times larger than ours. We also discuss what’s next for the telescope that captured these shots. Also this week, we take to the seas. Bottlenose dolphins are known to have a “signature whistle” they use to announce their identity to other dolphins. This week in Science Advances, Jason Bruck and colleagues write about how they may also recognize other dolphins through another sense: taste. Jason, an assistant professor in the department of biology at Stephen F. Austin State University, talks with Sarah about what this means for dolphin minds. In a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Sean Sanders, director and senior editor, interviews Gary Michelson, founder and co-chair of Michelson Philanthropies, about the importance of supporting research in the field of immunology—and where that support should be directed. This segment is sponsored by Michelson Philanthropies. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. [Image: Dolphin Quest ; Music: Jeffrey Cook] [alt: bottlenose dolphin peeking its head out of the water with podcast symbol overlay] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Daniel Clery Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add0515 About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Morgan State University, a Baltimore, Maryland Carnegie R2 doctoral research institution,
0:05.0	offers more than 100 academic programs and awards degrees at the Baccliorate, Masters, and Doctoral Levels,
0:12.0	is furthering their mission of growing the future leading the world.
0:16.0	Morgan continues to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment.
0:20.0	With a four-year quadrupling of research, more than a dozen new doctoral programs,
0:25.7	and eight new National Centers of Excellence, Morgan is positioned to achieve Carnegie R1 designation in the next five years.
0:33.7	To learn more about Morgan and their ascension to R1, visit morgan.edu slash research.
0:40.5	This podcast is supported by the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, one of America's leading research medical schools.
0:48.1	Icon Mount Sinai is the academic arm of the eight hospital Mount Sinai health system in New York City.
0:55.7	It's consistently among the top recipients of NIH funding. Researchers at ICONMount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries in
1:02.0	many fields vital to advancing the health of patients, including cancer, COVID and long COVID,
1:08.8	cardiology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.
1:12.6	The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way.
1:22.4	This is the science podcast for May 20th, 2022.
1:26.3	I'm Sarah Crespi.
1:29.3	Each week we talk about the most interesting news and research from science and the sister journals. First up, staff newswriter Daniel Clary.
1:36.0	We talk about the first image of the giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It looks a lot
1:42.8	like a great blurry donut and a lot like the first image
1:46.9	taken of a black hole at the center of a different galaxy a few years ago. We talk about why it's
1:51.9	a good thing that they look the same. After that, we have researcher Jason Brooke. We discuss how
1:57.8	bottle-nosed dolphins recognize each other through signature whistles and signature tastes.
2:03.6	And what using taste and sound for identification tells us about the way dolphins, minds work.
	...

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