A British scientist is working on a device to represent dolphin communication as a sort of hieroglyph, but we can save him the suspense: They're just thanking us for all the fish.
The Cymascope, which is the creation of acoustics engineer John Stuart Reid and American dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz, allows dolphin vocalizations to vibrate a very small pool of water, which is then converted by software into a graphic on the screen. The visual aspect is new and very important; humans aren't capable of hearing much of the dolphin's vocal range.
They'll then, presumably, crack the code by putting these new symbols in context. It doesn't necessarily seem like they'll be able to pick up on specific dolphin social cues or the no doubt subtle nuances of dolphin discourse, but with any luck they'll be able to figure out how to say "DUDE! CHECK OUT THIS FISH!" in dolphin. [News and Star]
