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. Their work was recently published in PeerJ.

In the latest episode of Unfold, called “Close Encounters of the Whale Kind,” 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. Host Amy Quinton and co-host Kat Kerlin take you on an acoustic journey with sounds from humpbacks in this episode. It’s truly a “pod-cast.”

In this episode:

• Brenda McCowan, professor, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
• Josephine Hubbard, postdoctoral researcher, California National Primate Research Center
• Laurance Doyle, astrophysicist, SETI Institute
• Fred Sharpe, president, Olympic Peninsula Prairies

The Signal Award-winning podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, on your smart speaker or wherever you get your podcasts. Original music for Unfold comes from UC Davis alumnus Damien Verrett and Curtis Jerome Haynes. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, at @Unfoldpodcast. Find all our podcast episodes at www.ucdavis.edu/unfold.

Media Resources

Media Contacts:

• Amy Quinton, News and Media Relations, 530-601-8077, amquinton@ucdavis.edu
• Kat Kerlin, News and Media Relations, 530-750-9195, kekerlin@ucdavis.edu