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Whales, as the largest mammals on Earth, have long been an important resource for human societies, whether it be for food, oil, or other materials. According to a report by Popular Science, hunter-gatherers in present-day Spain and France have been crafting essential tools from whale bones for much longer than previously thought. A new study analyzed 83 bone tools found at sites along the Bay of Biscay and 90 additional bones from the Santa Catalina cave in Spain. The investigation relied on mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating to determine that humans living in the region have been making whale-bone tools,...

Sperm whales communicate with each other using rhythmic sequences of clicks, called codas. It was previously thought that sperm whales had just 21 coda types. However, after studying almost 9,000 recordings, the Ceti researchers identified 156 distinct codas. They also noticed the basic building blocks of these codas which they describe as a "sperm whale phonetic alphabet" – much like phonemes, the units of sound in human language which combine to form words. Pratyusha Sharma, a PhD student at MIT and lead author of the study, describes the "fine-grain changes" in vocalisations the AI identified. Each coda consists of between...

The legend goes that whale sick – ambergris – is extremely valuable. But evidence suggests that ambergris is not vomited up by whales at all. In fact, it may come out of the other end…Generally, we don’t think too much about our excretions – we like to dispose of them as soon as possible. However, one group of whales, sperm whales, produce an excretory substance called ‘ambergris’ that is very valuable indeed. There are three species of sperm whale. The iconic sperm whale, which is the largest toothed whale on the planet, and then the much smaller and less...

"It's odd how rarely you hear the problems with American men publicly acknowledged. Our leaders pledge to create more opportunities for women and girls, whom they imply are failing. Men are fine. But are they? The numbers say otherwise."