00:00 These are the sounds of sperm whales.
00:09 They might not sound like much in a recording, but sperm whale vocalizations are the loudest
00:13 on earth, with these clicks reaching upwards of 230 decibels.
00:17 That's 80 decibels louder than a jet engine.
00:20 So loud, in fact, that the bodies of divers who swim near sperm whales actually heat up
00:24 from the high energy transferred via the sound waves.
00:27 Now a new analysis has revealed that those clicks are a highly sophisticated alphabet
00:33 system.
00:34 This is Dr. Jacob Andreas, a computer science and artificial intelligence expert with MIT.
00:40 Sperm whales communicate with each other using little bursts of clicking noises called codas
00:46 that sound a little bit like Morse code.
00:48 Our research shows that these codas have a complex internal structure with similarities
00:54 to aspects of some other animal communication systems and even some aspects of human language.
01:00 He adds that these codas have fixed patterns constructed using a few internal rhythms,
01:04 something he likens to music.
01:06 The researchers say this turns our understanding of sperm whale communications on its head,
01:11 as it was previously believed that the clicks were more akin to Egyptian hieroglyphics,
01:15 with each clicking pattern pertaining to a different concept, meaning we're one step
01:18 closer to deciphering their language.
01:20 But should we even try to communicate with this vulnerable species?
01:23 Right, we're just at the very beginning of this process and I think there's a lot more
01:27 research that we have to do before we know whether it's a good idea to try to communicate
01:32 with them or really even to have a sense of whether that will be possible.
01:35 [Clicking noises]
01:37 (gentle music)
01:40 (gentle music)
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