![]() ![]() And this weird brain architecture might help the fish interpret this huge storm of electrical signals coming in.ĬHANG: OK. And the researchers told me that these fish's brains are organized completely differently from our human brains. And once a predator or something enters that field, the fish will know instantly. And if they swim near each other in a group, they create one huge electric field, and they can tap into this. So imagine each of these fish is sending out an electric field around them. But how? Like, how do these fish all network together like that?īARBER: Yeah. And they wrote about it this week in the journal Nature.ĬHANG: That is so cool. Think of it like echolocation but with electricity.īARBER: And these researchers at Columbia University have now discovered that these fish can team up and combine their electric fields to sense a much wider area than they could alone. So by putting out these electrical signals and seeing what they bump up against, these fish can much more easily navigate around this really cloudy water. These fish come from Africa, where they live in really murky rivers where it's tough to see very far. Here's what that sensor was picking up.ĬHANG: It sounds like staticky socks out of the laundry. And while I was there, he stuck this electric sensor in the tank, too, to get an idea of all of that electrical activity going on. One of the researchers in the lab actually told me he'll sometimes stick his finger in the tank and play with these fish.ĬHANG: This is not the same as sticking your finger in a socket, I trust. OZA: And to answer your question, Ailsa, these signals are weak enough that they don't shock each other or other animals. So we're talking, like, electric fish, but they don't shock themselves, right?īARBER: Well, I mean, these fish can send out weak electric signals from their tails, and they can pick up these electric signals from these sensors all over their body. But these fish have no problem with it because they actually use electricity to sense the environment around them.ĬHANG: Whoa. ![]() The researchers had this whole wall of them, where they were separated in big, dark tanks, and I was kind of struggling to see them. They're called elephant-nose fish because they have these long noses and elongated bodies. So the other day, I took a trip up to a lab over at Columbia University. Anil, I want to start with the little fishies. OZA: And finally, a new satellite that tracks climate-warming emissions from the oil and gas industry.ĬHANG: Wow. OZA: Well, the first one is about a fish that uses electricity to communicate in groups.īARBER: The next one is about a sense of rhythm that's shared among cultures around the world. So how this ritual works is you guys bring us three science stories that caught your attention this week. It's time now for our regular science news roundup with our friends at NPR's Short Wave podcast, Regina Barber and Anil Oza. ![]()
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