Feature

Things That Go Thump

Vibrational messages that we're just beginning to get

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

What in the world? The wails bleating out of the phone sound more like science fiction than science. Yet, on the other end of the line, entomologist Rex Cocroft swears that he’s playing a recording he made on this very planet. A whale with a very bad cold?

Elephants, which make low-pitched airborne sounds, are now under study to see if they pick up vibrations through the ground, as well.