Close Encounters of the Whale Kind

Can communication with a humpback whale teach us how to talk to extraterrestrials? Researchers from UC Davis and the SETI Institute want to find out. In the waters of Southeast Alaska, scientists believe they’ve had what might be the very first human-whale communication. The interaction was designed to eventually help us detect and interpret signals coming from outer space. In this episode of Unfold, you’ll hear about the scientists’ remarkable 20-minute “conversation” with a humpback named Twain and what we can learn by studying nonhuman communication on Earth.

In this episode:

Brenda McCowan, professor, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

Josephine Hubbard, postdoctoral researcher, UC Davis

Laurance Doyle, astrophysicist, SETI Institute

Fred Sharpe, president, Olympic Peninsula Prairies