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. Sounds like staticky socks out of the laundry. Here's what that sensor was picking up.ĬHANG. 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.
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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.
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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 elephantnose fish 'cause they have these long noses and elongated bodies. So the other day, I took a trip up to a lab over at Columbia University.
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OZA: And one story about a fish that uses electricity to communicate in groups.īARBER: All that on this episode of SHORT WAVE, the science podcast from NPR.īARBER: All right, Ailsa, as our guest, which topic do you want to start with? What calls to you the most?ĬHANG: Well, I'm kind of into all of them.ĬHANG: But I really, really have a bias towards little fishies. And another one is about a sense of rhythm that shared among cultures all over the world. And as always, we're going to share three science stories in the news that have caught our attention recently.ĬHANG: And I hear one of the stories is about a new satellite that tracks climate warming emissions from the oil and gas industry.īARBER: Yep. Always a pleasure to be here.īARBER: Thank you, thank you. Thanks for letting me hang out again.īARBER: Always, anytime. And this time, I've got two of our favorites for our regular roundup of science news. EMILY KWONG, BYLINE: You're listening to SHORT WAVE.