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'Name That Tune'

padmini's picture

When all people are cloned, we will not be able to identify our own kids (can we call them ours anymore?) and then may be we too will learn something from nature. So will human beings also behave like any other animal or bird?
Penguins may look pretty much alike even to other penguins, but they don't sound alike. To generate their unique calls, scientists have discovered, the birds use two voice boxes. That lets them emit different calls simultaneously, modulating frequency, amplitude and beat. The interaction of two frequencies generates beats that penetrate solid objects such as, huddled penguin bodies as dense as 10 birds per square meter. In addition, the system creates a huge variety of "vocal signatures."
Adults emit highly individual calls of four to eight syllables. A chick, which memorizes dad's call during the five weeks it spends sitting atop his feet, plays a life-or-death game of "name that tune," identifying him as he waddles through the colony like a bowling pin with feet and calls at regular intervals.
Playing recorded calls for king penguin chicks, Prof. Aubin and Prof. Jouventin find that even a syllable or two is enough for most hatchlings to recognize mom or dad (though they usually wait for at least four before leaving the crèche, apparently wanting to be sure).
From acoustics alone, the chicks should not be able to distinguish their parents' call from more than about 25 feet, beyond which the signal-to-noise ratio drops below 1. Yet, just like humans in the din of a cocktail party, they can pick out their partner's voice across the room (especially if the voice says something like, "Wow, you look terrific; have you been working out?"). Penguins can recognize a mate's or parent's call despite background noise and acoustic jamming by other calls.
"Chicks have an exceptional capacity to discriminate the correct call from extraneous calls," conclude the scientists.
Shall we start this game before we all decide to be cloned ?


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Great thinking!

But cloning will come to prctice at one stage or other.Let us hope more good things will happen from cloning.Imagine hundreds of Padminis created by cloning.It is good for the readers,Am I right?Many people will get benefits from the writings of Padminis.

Cloning...

Padmini I wonder how man is going to react to cloning human beings.
That was a really good article!
Best wishes!
Uma

nice

nice

Your blog is good too

thanushanth85 and anupama thanks
wishing you perfect health forever.

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Oh that's true

Nice Padmini