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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey, guys, welcome to the podcast. This

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Speaker 1: is Alison that don't milk, the science editor at how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. And this is Robert Lambs, science

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Speaker 1: writerer at how stuff works dot com. So a while back,

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Speaker 1: you guys can't see me, but I was as big

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Speaker 1: as a house because I had a baby. You had

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Speaker 1: a baby, That's right. You were gone for months at

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Speaker 1: a time there, and you just thought I went to

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Speaker 1: a ruba, But no, I was out on maternity leave. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I thought you went to a ruba and that just

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Speaker 1: came back with an extra kid. But so do you

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Speaker 1: know where I had this uh, this baby? A hospital,

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Speaker 1: I believe, and that would be a good guess. And

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Speaker 1: that is where I did actually have said baby, although

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Speaker 1: in the nick of time because baby came fast. Who um.

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Speaker 1: But I found out after the fact that maybe I

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Speaker 1: should have investigated another birthing option, mean like a like

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Speaker 1: a like a cool or a birthing swing or something.

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Speaker 1: We're making that up. Is there such a swing? But yeah,

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Speaker 1: maybe a pool. I've been interested in the idea of

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Speaker 1: water birth or even a home birth or a home

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Speaker 1: water birth. Um. But it turns out that I missed.

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Speaker 1: I missed the boat I could have I could have

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Speaker 1: had a baby in the ocean with a dolphin assisting me,

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Speaker 1: and you would have needed to be on a boat

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Speaker 1: for that probably. Well, yeah, that's true, a dolphin doula.

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Speaker 1: So today we're gonna be talking about dolphins, and uh

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Speaker 1: there's a huge amount of quackery surrounding dolphins and also

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Speaker 1: some pretty cool science and a lot of it seemingly

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Speaker 1: to uh surround the whole topic of having a dolphin

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Speaker 1: president at your present, at your birth. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of interconnection between dolphins and babies. So tell me more

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Speaker 1: about this, this dolphin doola. How does this work? Well,

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Speaker 1: there's an outfit in Hawaii called the Serious Institute. Serious

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Speaker 1: is in the name of satellite radio or the constellation,

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Speaker 1: as opposed to are you serious? Not like serious science?

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Speaker 1: Gotcha right? Rich? Um, So these people at this institute

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Speaker 1: decided that, um, underwater birth was a good thing, and

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Speaker 1: they also decided that, um, there's a clear therapeutic value

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Speaker 1: of dolphins. And so what would be the next logical step.

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Speaker 1: We'll put the two together. A water birth with dolphins. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think this Cigaroos concert is pretty relaxing,

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Speaker 1: but I wouldn't want to have a baby there. Um,

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Speaker 1: it just seems kind of weird. It does seem kind

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Speaker 1: of weird. I saw a video of it on the internet,

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Speaker 1: because the Internet has these kinds of things, and I

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Speaker 1: was on YouTube, and um, it was it was kind

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Speaker 1: of odd. And who knows if this video is real.

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Speaker 1: Of course, anything can be faked. I realized that. But

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Speaker 1: there was a woman with a you know, a very

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Speaker 1: big belly and a bikini and uh well part of

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Speaker 1: a bikini, and a baby coming out, and and a

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Speaker 1: dolphin nosing around in parts that I would not want

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Speaker 1: a dolphin nosing around. And when I was giving birth

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Speaker 1: the baby clearly real. In the it was very hard

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Speaker 1: to make out because because the dolphin could have been

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Speaker 1: a puppet too. I mean, I don't think it was

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Speaker 1: a dolphin puppet, but hey, it might have been. The

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Speaker 1: baby was kind of murky, and the photography or the

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Speaker 1: videography underwater it's not of It's not of good quality. Anyway.

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Speaker 1: Penn and Teller wound up interviewing these guys on their

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Speaker 1: showtime show Bullshit, and they did, in fact call on

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Speaker 1: this not no surprise there. Well, it's it's interesting. Actually

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Speaker 1: have some more bulle if you will, surrounding human births

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Speaker 1: and dolphins. UM. I can't say for a fact that

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Speaker 1: if you go there now you can find this program,

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Speaker 1: but at least previously at Hotel Lost Dolphins in Lima, Peru,

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Speaker 1: they had a program going there for a while where

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Speaker 1: pregnant women would come by like once a week and

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Speaker 1: in fifteen minute sessions they would hang out with the

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Speaker 1: dolphins there at the hotel in the tank. They weren't guessed,

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Speaker 1: you know, part of the decoration, I guess if you

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Speaker 1: if you will, and they would the whole cell on

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Speaker 1: this or or the large part of it anyway, was

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Speaker 1: that the dolphins are shooting out all these ultrasonic waves

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Speaker 1: you know they use. The dolphins are heavy into using

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Speaker 1: their sound, right. Um. So the idea is that these

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Speaker 1: ultrasonic waves are going to like reach out and touch

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Speaker 1: your baby and make your baby develop faster or smarter,

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Speaker 1: you know, or be able to talk to fish and

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Speaker 1: he or she grows up. Right, And I hate to

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Speaker 1: even say there's a little truth to that, but there's

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Speaker 1: a two thousand and eight study that's pretty interesting, UM

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Speaker 1: from a team of neuroscientists at Arizona State University, and

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Speaker 1: they were looking at ways to use ultrasound to stimulate

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Speaker 1: like specific brain circuitry um and and using that as

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Speaker 1: a way to to treat things like Alzheimer's disease and

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Speaker 1: Parkinson's disease and epilepsy and things of that nature. So, yes,

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Speaker 1: there's there's truth to the idea that ultrasonic waves can

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Speaker 1: be used beneficially on the human mind. UM. Not a

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Speaker 1: lot to support the idea that that dolphins can use

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Speaker 1: sound waves to make your baby better. Um. Right, And

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Speaker 1: you can just back away from dolphins one step more

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Speaker 1: and say that you know, stimulation, um, like any external stimuli,

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Speaker 1: whether it be music or a dolphin um and and

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Speaker 1: a Mozart CDs a lot cheaper, I think, Yeah, which

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Speaker 1: manteresting the question how much was this dolphin fifteen minute session?

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Speaker 1: I wonder how much they had to pay for it? Um.

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Speaker 1: I understand it was pretty pricey. But but here's the

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Speaker 1: interesting thing. You know, they talked to the women afterwards.

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Speaker 1: You know, they're taught, like like you said, they're they're

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Speaker 1: they're feeling the baby move and any number of stimm

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Speaker 1: stimuli can actually you know, cause that that sort of

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Speaker 1: thing to happen. But then also they're talking about like, oh,

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Speaker 1: the mother was was calmed just just by being around

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Speaker 1: the dolphins. Like you said, dolphins have a very calming effect,

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Speaker 1: and that plays in UM into a lot of the

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Speaker 1: same territory as a dolphin assisted therapy, which is one

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Speaker 1: thing before we go into the next instance of dolphins

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Speaker 1: being used in a fairly interesting way. UM, you guys

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Speaker 1: need to actually kind of picture this. There's it's not

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Speaker 1: a woman who's swimming around in the pool. It's it's

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Speaker 1: a woman with her Well, the pictures are of a

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Speaker 1: woman like kneeling by the side of a pool with

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Speaker 1: her belly exposed, and the dolphins actually kind of like nuzzling.

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Speaker 1: But yes, it it's a it's reminiscent to of this

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Speaker 1: dolphin assisted therapy UM program, which is just another animal

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Speaker 1: assisted therapy program. You frequently see this involving horses where

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Speaker 1: you take often children and you put them in there

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Speaker 1: with animals and and and and a therapist. But it

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Speaker 1: helps them, helps a therapist to connect with the kid

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Speaker 1: more and uh. And it's used to treat cognitive, physical,

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Speaker 1: and social emotional responses. Right, So I've heard that this

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Speaker 1: is a treatment for this is a proposed treatment for

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Speaker 1: kids with autism spectrum disorder, stuff like that. I also

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Speaker 1: read in this topic that an Emory study is calling

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Speaker 1: it pretty much bunk. Yeah, it's there. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of talk, and he said it's it's fairly controversial. So

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Speaker 1: while a dolphin may not be able to talk to

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Speaker 1: your unborn child, um, and they can definitely talk to

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Speaker 1: each other, and they can basically talk to the environment

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Speaker 1: around them. They use what we call ecolocation or bio

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Speaker 1: sonar um to basically bet to send waves of sound

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Speaker 1: through the water like a submarine, like a bat, you know,

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Speaker 1: to bounce bounce u sound waves off of objects and

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Speaker 1: then the waves bounce back and it gives them a

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Speaker 1: picture of the shape, the distance, and even the surfaces

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Speaker 1: around them in the water. It's pretty amazing. I read

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Speaker 1: in Jane McGrath's article about disarming dolphins disarming sea mins

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Speaker 1: that dolphins can tell this difference between a baby gun

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Speaker 1: pellet and a kernel of corn at fifty ft away.

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Speaker 1: This is pretty amazing. I have I have made that

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Speaker 1: mistake before. So but a dolphin never went into microwave,

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Speaker 1: But so score one point for the dolphin, your points

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Speaker 1: for human right there. So how did they actually do

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Speaker 1: this disarming of the sea minds. Well, the truth is

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Speaker 1: they don't actually disarm them. They do, however, helpfully point

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Speaker 1: them out. And what happens is, um, the dolphins learned

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Speaker 1: to search for mine and after they find one, they

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Speaker 1: swim back up to a boat because they have to

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Speaker 1: be taken to the area with the mines. And this

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Speaker 1: is where um, well animal activists have issues with with

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Speaker 1: all of it, but um, it's hard to say this

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Speaker 1: is natural behavior for the dolphin, right. And then they're

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Speaker 1: flying the dolphin in a sling in a tank, you know,

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Speaker 1: to wherever the area is, which puts cement stress on

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Speaker 1: the dolphins immune system. So, um, the wave and their

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Speaker 1: families more and stress on the dolphins family you don't know.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, so the dolphin comes up to the surface

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Speaker 1: and then the guy gives him a treat for finding

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Speaker 1: the mine, right right, essentially, and then once the once

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Speaker 1: the dolphin, once they have that interaction, the once they

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Speaker 1: have the interaction, and the trainer will give the dolphin

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Speaker 1: an acoustic transponder and it's this device that the animal

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Speaker 1: take back into the areas spot in the mine, the

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Speaker 1: device will admit some telltale sound, and um, a diver

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Speaker 1: will go back down to disarm the mind itself. So

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Speaker 1: it finds the mind, it reports the mind, then it

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Speaker 1: tags the mine, and then humans can actually come in

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Speaker 1: disarm them. Yeah. And one other interesting point, and I

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Speaker 1: would have thought this too, is that, well, why are

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Speaker 1: you gonna have dolphins doing that? Aren't they gonna set

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Speaker 1: off the mind? But actually, um, minds aren't really intended

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Speaker 1: to be set off by something as natural as marine life. However,

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Speaker 1: they are intended to go off by say, the presence

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Speaker 1: of a big ship. Right. So so, yeah, the dolphin

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Speaker 1: is it's not within the design parameters for a sad weapon.

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Speaker 1: That's true, Robert, that's true. So that's a That's it's

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Speaker 1: pretty smart. I certainly cannot spot a c mine. No, Um, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean I have no idea, but I take your

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Speaker 1: word for it. I would imagine I couldn't do it.

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Speaker 1: I feel I feel like I could bump into one

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Speaker 1: if it was there. But but yeah, I wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: able to like just go into the water and find one.

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Speaker 1: Another interesting example, um, of dolphins, and this is one.

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Speaker 1: This is actually I think a more entertaining example because

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Speaker 1: it shows them pulling one over their humans masters and

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Speaker 1: not just simply finding minds for them, which, let's face it,

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Speaker 1: I mean, the humans kind of got themselves into the

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Speaker 1: whole mine issue anyway, right, and now they got to

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Speaker 1: pull the dolphins into it. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But at

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Speaker 1: the Marine World at Marine World Africa, USA, they had

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Speaker 1: some some dolphins in the in the tank there and

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Speaker 1: apparently they would get garbage. Um, you know, garbage would

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Speaker 1: have blown off off the roof, et cetera and wind

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Speaker 1: up in the tank. All right, and dolphins are curious,

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Speaker 1: and they got concerned about the dolphins like finding the

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Speaker 1: garbage and like eating it and then damaging uh you know,

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Speaker 1: their their intestines and whatnot. So they started training the

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Speaker 1: dolphins that if they found garbage, they could bring the

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Speaker 1: garbage in and receive a tasty fish um as a

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Speaker 1: treat and as a reward. Right. So it sounds like

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Speaker 1: a good system, right that the dolphins started started gaming

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Speaker 1: the system. I love that. Yeah. They figured out that

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Speaker 1: all right, I find some garbage, I can actually just

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Speaker 1: hide it at the bottom of the tank near the

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Speaker 1: filtration system. And then every time I get hungry, I

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Speaker 1: want a little extra snack, I can go down and

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Speaker 1: break a little piece off of the roofing shingle or

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Speaker 1: whatever it is I have squirreled away down there, bring

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Speaker 1: it up and get my treat. So they, the people

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Speaker 1: at the at the aquarium, finally figured this out, and

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Speaker 1: and we're amazed by it. You know what, I'm still

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Speaker 1: thinking that dolphins are ahead of us, of this whole

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Speaker 1: smart I don't know. I think that one's a tie.

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Speaker 1: I think that shows that that, like humans, they can

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Speaker 1: figure out how to take a seemingly fair system and

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Speaker 1: manipulate it for their gain. Well, here's something they can

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Speaker 1: do that we can do too. They can recognize themselves

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Speaker 1: in the mirror. You wouldn't think that's such a big deal,

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Speaker 1: but actually, mirror self recognition is considered pretty special in

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Speaker 1: the animal kingdom. Although lately, when I was looking into

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Speaker 1: this one, it seems like a lot of animals are

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Speaker 1: gaining this ability or already had this ability and we

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Speaker 1: just discovered it. Um like the great apes and pigs

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Speaker 1: and bottlenose dolphins and hey elephants and even magpies. So

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Speaker 1: if that kind of puts us on the same plane

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Speaker 1: as magpies, And so is that is that one for

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Speaker 1: dolphins or one for us? I think it's I think

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Speaker 1: it's probably time. Well I have one where I think

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Speaker 1: they definitely have a speed. Um. All right, my name

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Speaker 1: is Robert Lamb. Right, I do a Google search for

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Speaker 1: Robert Lamb, and I get I get me, but and

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Speaker 1: then I also get like a serial killer and some

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Speaker 1: guy who like drew stuff for the Heman cartoon. Likewise,

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Speaker 1: I don't know you have a more distinctive last name,

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Speaker 1: So do you? There are a couple of als and

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Speaker 1: lodermulks flitting around. Well, apparently every dolphin has like a

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Speaker 1: particular whistle that is that signifies who it is. That like, basically,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't go so far as to call it a

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Speaker 1: name because as far as we know, they don't have

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Speaker 1: a language. But each dolphin has its own whistle. But

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Speaker 1: they do have a way of communicating. We should say that, yes,

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Speaker 1: they do communicate, and and they use their sonic abilities

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Speaker 1: to do that, which is really more of a more

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Speaker 1: of a nasal think. Most of the sound is generated

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Speaker 1: um in the nasal cavities, kind of like most country

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Speaker 1: music that comes out of Nashville. Um, so that that's

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Speaker 1: how they communicate. And yeah, each one has a signature whistle.

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Speaker 1: And I don't have a signature whistle. I don't even

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Speaker 1: really have a signature name. Even if I spell the

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Speaker 1: whole thing out, that's true. Now they do I although,

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Speaker 1: how do they know that it's signature? I mean, how

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Speaker 1: do they know that it's not duplicated within the dolphin pod?

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Speaker 1: I don't know that. Well, I mean I guess it

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Speaker 1: would be duplicated in the dolphin pod, but yeah, maybe

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Speaker 1: like globally, like maybe there's another. And I sure wish

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Speaker 1: I had rehearsed a fake dolphin whistle, no, because that

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Speaker 1: would make a good joke. But but no, yeah, how

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Speaker 1: would add how would they know? And then also where

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Speaker 1: does where does the whistle come from? Right? Like does

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Speaker 1: a dolphin at one point wake up and say I

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Speaker 1: will be you know wha? Yeah exactly, like like did

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Speaker 1: they just say oh, that's my name or or or

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Speaker 1: you know, does the mother say, hey, junior, your name

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Speaker 1: is something another? You know? Maybe they have imagination and

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Speaker 1: creativity too. Yeah well you well you said that you've

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Speaker 1: read somewhere that they're capable of of abstraction, right their

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Speaker 1: brains can generate abstraction. Well, there's a little bit of

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Speaker 1: debate on this one, you know, whether dolphins can comprehend

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Speaker 1: abstract concepts like um, love right, sex? Sex is an

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Speaker 1: interesting one. Um, if we've yeah, we've covered enough to

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Speaker 1: get into the sex part here. Apparently, UM, dolphins and bonobos,

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Speaker 1: which is a monkey are the only animals other than

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Speaker 1: humans that engage in sex for pleasure. There's a whole

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Speaker 1: article on Snopes about this, most of which goes into

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Speaker 1: exactly what is um sex for pleasure versus sex purely

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Speaker 1: for reproductive reasons? And basically this is the the trio

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Speaker 1: of animals that will actually engage in sex when there's

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Speaker 1: no possibility of of any kind of a reproductive process

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Speaker 1: taking place. So kidding, that's kind of been rest So

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Speaker 1: that's definitely a one for one there. I think they've

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Speaker 1: they've died us and and but nobos are somewhere in

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Speaker 1: the mix as well. But that's a separate podcast altogether. Okay.

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Speaker 1: On a little less boring note, they thought it was

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Speaker 1: not boring that. I'm sorry, that's not what I want

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Speaker 1: to say. On a slightly tamor note, Um, dolphins can

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Speaker 1: use tools. I read about an instance in which I

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Speaker 1: still don't believe that. I really hope his YouTube video

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Speaker 1: as well. There is an article about dolphins um using

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Speaker 1: marine sponges on their beak and they break them off

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Speaker 1: from the sea bed and they they use them as

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Speaker 1: a fishing tool, I guess to kind of stop other fish.

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Speaker 1: They make like it's like an ocean shiv. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: but I know that it was observed over in a

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Speaker 1: shark Bay, Australia. And so this is evidence of um.

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Speaker 1: This is pretty exciting evidence of learned behavior being shared

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Speaker 1: among dolphins, right this, I mean this is again, this

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Speaker 1: is one of those things that like tool use is

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Speaker 1: another thing that we tend to associate with the higher primates.

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Speaker 1: And here's a dolphin doing it on the ocean. Oh

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Speaker 1: and then for all of you cooks out there, apparently

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Speaker 1: dolphins can cook somewhat on a basic level and prepare

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Speaker 1: food and can prepare food. Right, So, some dolphins have

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Speaker 1: been observed chasing down their prey cuttlefish, which is sort

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Speaker 1: of like squid and stuff of that of the cephalopods.

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Speaker 1: I believe, Yeah, are they Are you sure that I

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Speaker 1: know they're cute? I know that much. Some of them.

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Speaker 1: The ones that get query mere adorable, but they get

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Speaker 1: bigger and get kind of they kind of look like

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Speaker 1: old bearded men. But the little ones are very adorable. Well, anyway,

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Speaker 1: the dolphin recipe for cuttlefish go something like this, get

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Speaker 1: the cuttlefish, you shake it around and get rid of

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Speaker 1: all that ink in the cuttlefish, because I guess it

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Speaker 1: doesn't taste all that good. And then you drag said

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Speaker 1: cuttlefish along the seafloor to get rid of the bones,

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Speaker 1: and then you eat the cuttlefish. There you go. Julie

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Speaker 1: Child couldnot do better. Everybody can try that one at home,

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Speaker 1: tell us how it turns out. So, Robert, I'm kind

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Speaker 1: of thinking that the dolphins came out ahead in this web.

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Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. I've got one more scenario that

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Speaker 1: I think that. I don't know if this one will

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Speaker 1: push the dolphins completely ahead or maybe bring it back

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Speaker 1: in our direction. But um, I found this This awesome

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Speaker 1: article is a two thousand seven news article out of Australia,

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Speaker 1: and it said that like apparently about the hundred richest

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Speaker 1: people in the world, and we're talking like people just

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Speaker 1: so like grotesquely rich that we can barely comprehend how

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Speaker 1: they feel their days. You know, we're talking like um,

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Speaker 1: like Saudi princes and like Russian oil barons. Yeah, these

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Speaker 1: types of yeah, guys who on in Google. You know,

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Speaker 1: these these type guys, they can actually afford luxury private submarines.

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Speaker 1: Like like the people who make these submarines are located

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Speaker 1: out of Dubai, you know, to give you an idea

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Speaker 1: on the island that's shaped like a palm tree, yeah,

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Speaker 1: or Tracy Jordan's face one of the other I can't remember,

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Speaker 1: but but yeah. So anyway, these hundreds or so guys

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Speaker 1: are taking these, uh, these submarines out and apparently a

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Speaker 1: popular thing to do is to go down in front

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Speaker 1: of the panoramic glass view of the of the of

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Speaker 1: the of the underwater environment and to like make mad

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Speaker 1: passionate love to whoever you make mad passionate love to

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Speaker 1: when you're that rich and uh and they and they

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Speaker 1: observed it a curious thing happening. Dolphins would come up

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Speaker 1: to the glass and like watch through the glass and

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Speaker 1: start like tapping on the glass while they're doing it.

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Speaker 1: And what is it having me? Do you think? I

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Speaker 1: don't know? Like I was seeing, Like are they critiquing

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Speaker 1: what's going on, or clothes the curtain's body, who knows.

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Speaker 1: But but I mean it's kind of like the mirror thing,

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Speaker 1: I guess, you know. I mean, how many other animals

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Speaker 1: come and like tap on windows or are basically voyeurs

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Speaker 1: A dog maybe dog, I don't know, but but that

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Speaker 1: one was definitely before which side winds on that one?

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Speaker 1: Before we get off this, I have to say, I mean,

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Speaker 1: who first reported this, you know? I think it was

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Speaker 1: one of those things that arose within the community of

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Speaker 1: luxury private submarine owners, like I'm guessing may have like

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Speaker 1: their own magazine, like Luxury Submarine Owners Weekly, you know,

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Speaker 1: and and and people. I mean, apparently people were like

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Speaker 1: complaining about it, and they were like, what are we

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Speaker 1: gonna do? And basically the only idea that came out

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Speaker 1: is like, well, we should put up curtains or just

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Speaker 1: get used to dolphins hanging out all right? So so

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Speaker 1: where does that put us? I don't know. On one hand,

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Speaker 1: dolphins are kind of creepy and looking in on rich

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Speaker 1: guys doing it, And on the other hand, humans are

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Speaker 1: spending awful lot of money to go down and do

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Speaker 1: it underwater. So it's like we're both kind of creepy

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Speaker 1: in that regard, I guess, and equally smart. Maybe dolphins

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Speaker 1: get the I think I'm going to give dolphins the

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Speaker 1: fish on this one. So if you want to read

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Speaker 1: more about your favorite animals, whether they're dolphins or ants

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Speaker 1: or actually, all right, all right, if you want to

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Speaker 1: read more about cuttlefish, why don't you do head on

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Speaker 1: over or swim on over to how stuff freak dot

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Speaker 1: com and also check out the blogs that blogs that

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, where we right about just

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Speaker 1: about everything from dolphins to uh, you know, preepy Russian billionaires.

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Speaker 1: All right, thanks for listening, guys, See you next time

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Speaker 1: for moralness and thousands of other topics. Is that how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check

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Speaker 1: out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: home page