The Whale Dictionary

In a seminar room at Radcliffe, researchers asked a question that sounded like science fiction: could machine learning finally let us read what animals are saying? The Whale Dictionary follows the scientists, listeners, and engineers trying to answer it. From the sperm whale families off Dominica, whose rhythmic clicks carry tempo, rubato, and ornament, to songs that change every year across an ocean, to crows, songbirds, elephants, and bees, the book explores what we truly know about animal communication and what we only hope to find. Learn how drones, tags, and walls of microphones capture the sounds, how AI hunts for vowels hidden in clicks, and why a fish-eye view of a whale's world may matter more than any word-for-word translation. Rigorous, wonder-filled, and honest about the limits of the science, this is a guide to the strange new frontier of listening, and to the hard question at its end: if we could answer, should we?