Tyson's Blog

Have you ever wanted to have a conversation with your pet? Or just wanted to know what they are trying to say to you when they start making noises? Personally I have wanted to be able to talk to my dog ever since I watched the Disney channel show “Dog with a Blog” as a child. So when I saw the article “The Animal Translators” written by Emily Anthes I had to give it a read.

Scientists have begun researching animal communications in hopes of one day being able to understand and communicate with animals. Research on mole rats, fruit bats, crows, and whales is already underway. The scientists are using machine learning to listen in on these animals and catch patterns in their communication.

Machine learning makes it possible to start decoding the squeaks and noises that human ear can’t really differentiate or catch. Dr. Barker, one of the lead scientist behind the mole rat project, has had success with machine learning. Dr. Barker’s team has accomplished a few things in their research thus far; using machine learning to analyze 36,000 soft chirps in seven mole rat colonies, as well as discover each mole rat has its own vocal signature and each colony has its own dialect that seems to have been passed down.

For the other animals that are being researched similar process are taking place to make steps towards understanding the noises the animals are making and why they are making them. Interestingly, in the research on whale communication slightly different measures have to be taken due to the animal living in the ocean and just being as large as it is. To record the sounds the whales make scientists have set up underwater microphones in areas the whales tend to be, as well as development of robotic fish with microphones to get up close for clearer recordings.

This is news to both animal lovers and scientists alike. Anyone with pets, an interest in animals, or someone who has walked through the zoo once or twice has wondered what an animal is thinking. To those people this news is exciting. This being said, while it is news that will be interesting and intriguing to some people, others will not care about the subject until breakthroughs that will allow some kind of understanding or communication is available.

This isn’t news that is going to break the internet or be on your local news station it is still important for scientists to share their research and show the world that things that we thought impossible are becoming more feasible each and everyday. Even though the article could be considered unimportant to most people at the moment the next article could be titled “First Conversation with the Whales” and be breaking news all over the world.

Jonah is a sophomore here at Morningside University. He is from Brush Colorado which is in the northeastern part of the state, and is approximately a 7 hour drive from Sioux City. He enjoys the mountains and aspires to live near them.

Jonah’s Birthday is on September 6th 2002 making him 19 years old and turning 20 very soon. He also has 3 siblings, an older sister, younger sister, and younger brother who all still live in Brush. Growing up in Colorado made Jonah a Denver Nuggets fan. His favorite player on the Nuggets is Nikola Jokic.

Jonah is a thrower for the track team here at Morningside. He throws the weight and the hammer. In high school Jonah went to state his senior year to throw the shotput. He also played some basketball in his youth and early high school years.

Double majoring is no easy task but Jonah is both a marketing and graphic design major. This summer he made some logos for friends who planned to start small businesses/social media accounts. He plans to work for a business making marketing campaigns focusing on graphic design.

Away from school Jonah is very interested in technology. He actually wears a pair of prescription glasses that double as headphones. Also he owns 162 unique pairs of socks and counting, previously he ran a “socks of the day” snapchat story to show off his collection.