James Rule
speaker
92 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 31 Jul
James Rule’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The Science Show · Looking inside cells, and how seals hear so well underwater · 31 Jul 2026
podcast
Seals are actually quite unique in that they hear just as well underwater as they do in air.
And I like to say they have a superpower in that they're the only mammals with amphibious hearing.
And we sort of know this based on experiments
all evidence from seals in aquaria, where they essentially set up a little experiment in air out of the pool.
And they play the seal little sounds.
And if it hears it and presses the correct button, they get a little fish as a treat.
And using this, scientists can reconstruct what's called an audiogram, where they test different frequencies and different volumes to essentially determine what frequency and volume the seal hears best at.
And it turns out they hear quite well when they're hearing in air.
And then they take that exact same setup and they put it under a pool and they repeat the experiment and seals essentially can hear almost as well underwater as they can in air.
And in some seals, like the true seals, like a harbour seal, elephant seal, etc., they can hear even better underwater than they can in air.
It's not as good as ours, but it's also not bad.
So they can still hear in air quite well.
And some seals, such as fur seals and sea lions, they're called the eared seals, they hear quite well in air, and that's because they do a lot of talking to each other.
They spend a lot of time on beaches.
They go on the beach in big groups, and they're very chatty.
Whereas other seals, such as the true seals, um,
They're a little bit more solitary.
They spend more time alone underwater.
And so they're better hearing underwater than they are in air.
We might think of the ocean as very silent.
Showing 1–20 of 92 · page 1 of 5
Next →