Part 2

Von Frisch’s discovery was a one-way avenue of understanding. But if the ants and the bees were much larger and more intelligent, we can assume that a demonstrative style of language could be devised for mutual communication.

To our scientists it is obvious that before our spacemen confront alien beings on a distant planet, we must learn the fundamentals of developing communication with a non-human but intelligent species right here on earth. And this is now in progress with “Project Dolphin.”

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Bottle-nosed dolphins are not fish, but aquatic mammals. Often, but inaccurately, called porpoises, they are well known as clever, frolicsome entertainers at marineland exhibits.

Dolphins are by far the most intelligent animals other than man, and their brain power in some respects may even be superior to man’s. The dolphin brain is 40 per cent larger than the human, although smaller in proportion to body weight, and the cerebral cortex--the layer of gray matter that originates rational thought--is just as complicated.

Dr. John C. Lilly, a neurophysiologist and a noted authority on the mammal, is in charge of the project. The research is principally being conducted at the Communications Research Institute of Charlotte Amalie, located at the U.S. Navy base on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

Dr. Lilly is working under a contract awarded in 1962 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The contract is for basic scientific research “on the feasibility and methodology for establishing communications between man and other species.”

Dolphins have a complex vocal language. They talk to each other with sharp, high-pitched whistles and they talk almost continuously. Dr. Lilly has determined that the dolphin distress call is “an undulating sound,” with a rasping noise made periodically for range-finding.

Interpreting the dolphin vocabulary will not be easy since the creature emits heavy breathing sounds and there are other masking noises.

In experiments with ESB (electric stimulation of the brain), Dr. Lilly located the portion of the dolphin brain that created a feeling of pleasure. The dolphin almost immediately learned how to turn on a switch producing the current. For comparison, in similar tests it was found that monkeys required 300 or more tries before they attained their ability.

One day the electrical device broke down. The dolphin, annoyed at losing his pleasurable sensation, began making a series of sounds in imitation of the laboratory equipment. Dr. Lilly made a tape recording of these sounds.

Later the doctor played back the recording and in order to more distinctly hear the sounds he decided to run the tape at one quarter its normal speed.

It was then that Dr. Lilly made an astonishing discovery.

With exaggerated slowness, he listened to his own voice on the tape announcing the footage--“three, two, three”--and the dolphin immediately and clearly repeated the words in high-pitched whistles. Other tape recordings of what had seemed to be an unintelligible series of squawks and quacks, when played at half or quarter speed with the sound volume lowered, confirmed the discovery.

The dolphins were not only distinctly imitating the human words they heard, but were compressing their mimicry as to time. They were talking at a rate eight times faster than humans.

One dolphin, Dr. Lilly recalls, “mimicked my speaking voice so well that my wife laughed out loud, and he copied her laughter.”

When one of the doctor’s assistants who had a southern drawl talked to one dolphin, the animal’s voice came back in clear imitation ... complete with the southern accent.

The next step--and it’s a big one--is to learn the dolphin language. The high-pitched, high-speed chatter must be broken down into definite meanings.

Dr. Frank D. Drake, director of Project Ozma (the recent attempt to receive possible messages by radio telescope), considers the dolphin language study to be of great importance.

He says the project “needs the skills of the radio astronomer in extracting signals from noise, and then the work of the linguist, and, perhaps, the cryptographer. It could well be, if the dolphin studies are correct, that we have right here on earth another intelligent race that is even more alien than some we might encounter in space.”

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Second, there is the problem of interpreting and transmitting information through radio communication.

In April, 1960, Project Ozma was launched. The 85-foot radio telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W. Va., was focused by government scientists on two stars in an attempt to pick up artificially produced signals.

The stars were Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, 11 light-years or about 66 trillion miles away. They were chosen because they were similar to our own sun in size and rate of rotation.

The frequency at which natural hydrogen emits radio energy in space is 1,420 megacycles, and thus it is a universal constant. Dr. Drake tuned the receiver on both sides of this band.

Day after day the impulses were transmitted to a pen that traced erratic lines on a moving paper roll. But no repetitive pattern appeared that would indicate deliberate signals.

Early in 1961 it was announced that Project Ozma was being suspended. It is expected to be resumed when the new 600-foot radio telescope is completed.

The failure of Project Ozma to receive a message during a few months in operation is no surprise. In fact, it would not be a surprise if no signals were received during daily operation for a millennium.