Have you ever wondered what songbirds are actually saying to each other with all of their

chirping?

Or what your cat could possibly be yowling about so early in the morning?

Well, powerful new technologies are helping researchers decode animal communication and

even begin to talk back to non-humans.

Advanced sensors and artificial intelligence might have us at the brink of interspecies

communication.

Today we're talking about how scientists are starting to communicate with creatures

like bats and honeybees, and how these conversations are forcing us to rethink our relationship

with other species.

I'm Kelso Harper, multimedia editor at Scientific American, and I'm Sophie Bushwick, tech editor.

You're listening to Science Quickly.

Hey, Sophie.

Hi, Kelso.

So, you recently chatted with the author of a new book called The Sounds of Life.

How digital technology is bringing us closer to the worlds of animals and plants.

Yeah, I had a great conversation with Karen Bacher, a professor at the University of British

Columbia, and a fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Her book explores how researchers are leveraging new tech to understand animal communication

in the burgeoning field of digital bioacoustics.

Digital bioacoustics.

Huh.

...