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This is Scientific American 60 Second Science, I am Mariette DiChristina. Got a minute?
Maybe you've heard that sound. It's an Orca, a killer1 whale. We know that whales have a kind of language. Families and closely related groups even share dialects.
Are they letting members of the pod know where the food is, crooning a romantic ballad2 to a potential mate, or something else altogether? That's what researchers want to know--and where citizen scientists come in.
The first step in understanding whale talk is cataloging the calls. You might organize your messy drawer by matching up the socks--at our website, citizen scientists can match up the whale calls. You listen to an uncategorized call, then find one that it sounds like it [similar sound].
So far, more than 5,000 volunteers have matched 100,000 calls. That effort would have taken professionals years. The data will help answer questions like: How many kinds of calls do whales make? And: What does the number of calls say about intelligence? The studies will also help researchers develop guidelines to reduce the impact of man-made sounds on marine3 life. To lend us your ears, just go to whale.scientificamerican.com
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American, I'm Mariette DiChristina.
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1 killer | |
n.杀人者,杀人犯,杀手,屠杀者 | |
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2 ballad | |
n.歌谣,民谣,流行爱情歌曲 | |
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3 marine | |
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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