One day soon, if someone is willing to do the work, whales could be analyzed in a manner similar to what’s been done with roller derby skaters. E! Science News reports about preliminary work that’s been done Amy Apprill and colleagues performed with bacterial from the skin of humpback whales: Bacteria are invisible to the […]
Tag: whales
Killer Whales – the tax implications of
As our informed readerbase will know, Killer whales (Orcinus orca ) are not fish. What then are the tax implications for ‘owners’ of killer whales – given that US tax law has specific regulations which differ considerably according to whether one owns a killer whale (a mammal), or a large fish, say a Great White […]
Dr. Fish, Dr. Watts and their cetacean tubercules
“Major discoveries always come with a story: Newton had his apple, Archimedes had his bath tub, and Dr. Frank E. Fish, while shopping for a gift, examined a sculpture of a humpback whale in a shop and issued a fatefully inaccurate observation: ‘Look at that. The sculptor put the bumps on the wrong side of the flipper.’ […]
Thursday: Whales & herring farts in Copenhagen
A special event in Copenhagen on Thursday, October 13, 7:00-9:00 pm, HCØ (Auditorium 4), Universitetsparken 5, 2100 København Ø: Magnus Wahlberg, Ig Nobel Prize winner, Improbable Research’s Scandinavian Desk Chief, and Head of Research and Outreach, Adjunct Professor at Fjord & Bælt and University of Southern Denmark, will talk about whales and dolphins, which he is currently […]
Clarinet for whales
Do whales appreciate clarinet music? According Dr. David Rothenberg professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in the US, there is a definite possibility that they do. The professor, who is himself a clarinetist, embarked on a preliminary investigation in January-February 2007, when he played a live gig to a group […]
Whale carcass burial, or not
In her 2009 thesis ‘Beach burial of cetaceans: implications for conservation, and public health and safety‘, Ann Bui of Auckland University of Technology, writes: “Although burial is the most convenient and most economical strategy to dispose of cetacean carcass [in New Zealand], especially in mass stranding events or when cetaceans are of large size, […] […]