Dr Karl

So the half that's awake is just following what the other dolphins do.

Pelicans can do it to a minor degree, but they don't go into a total sleep and they do that hemispheric one side of the brain or the other.

There are some birds that do a lot of gliding.

And I think that the albatross can stay on the wing for literally months.

And so apparently they can do this thing.

And how do we know?

We've got these incredibly lightweight sensors and radio transmitters where we can monitor stuff.

Like in your phone, you've got five radio transmitters

each one about the size of a head of a pin.

And I remember when, in Physics 101, I built a radio receiver transmitter, it was the size of a microwave.

And now they're the size of a pin and you've got five of them.

So that's how they find this stuff out.

You got another question, Dr Rees?

They've got various navigation methods.

So they've set themselves up to go with or against the wind.

And according to Jim, L-A-L, Khalili, K-H-A-L-I-L-I in his book, Quantum Life, they've got little tiny nanoparticles of iron that act in a quantum fashion to pick up the Earth's magnetic field.

My God!

Wow.

Okay.

Whereas you and I, we need a compass or a smartphone.