Ep. 290: Sperm Whales Sleep Vertically, And They Toot Bubbles To Do It + Looks Like Cave Art Has “Organizational Grammar”
Well... That’s Interesting

Ep. 290: Sperm Whales Sleep Vertically, And They Toot Bubbles To Do It + Looks Like Cave Art Has “Organizational Grammar”

B2Upper-intermediateAugust 27, 202635 min
  • Science

The devil is in the details. Join me as we peep into the private lives of whales and our ancient ancestors. — Support and sponsor this show! Venmo Tip Jar: @wellthatsinteresting Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@wellthatsinterestingpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bluesky: @wtipod Threads: @wellthatsinterestingpod Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@wti_pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on YouTube!! Oh, BTW. You're interesting. Email YOUR facts, stories, experiences... Nothing is too big or too small. I'll read it on the show: [email protected] WTI is a part of the Airwave Media podcast network! Visit AirwaveMedia.com to listen and subscribe to other incredible shows. Want to advertise your glorious product on WTI? Email me: wellthatsinteresti

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Today is episode 290.

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And it looks like Cave Art has organizational grammar.

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0:00

Hey, welcome back to Well That's Interesting. The Wow That Took a Lot of Math to Figure Out Glad I Didn't Have to Do It edition. Today is episode 290. Sperm whales sleep vertically, and they toot bubbles to do it.

0:27

And it looks like Cave Art has organizational grammar. My friends, the last time we spoke about our large-lobed cetacean amigos known as sperm whales was exactly one year ago this week, during episode 203. In it, we met researchers from the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

0:49

and Project SETI who used a language learning program to decode 9,000 recordings of clicks and pops from 60 of these whales, all to discover… yo, they have their own phonetic alphabet. Indeed. That was the title of the episode, and if you haven't had a listen, I would suggest

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