Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker

We thank the New Yorker for this note about Sara Niksic’s whalesong remixing, as described by Matthew Hutson:

How a Marine Biologist Remixed Whalesong

Sara Niksic, a lover of whales and electronic music, has merged her passions.

In 1971, in the journal Science, two scientists, Roger S. Payne and Scott McVay, published a paper titled “Songs of Humpback Whales.” They began by noting how “during the quiet age of sail, under conditions of exceptional calm and proximity, whalers were occasionally able to hear the sounds of whales transmitted faintly through a wooden hull.” Continue reading →