💡 Speaking With Whales

The latest from Nautilus, the top science news, and more. [View in Browser]( | [Join Nautilus]( Did a friend forward this? Sign up here Together with Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for being here. Today we explore whether humans should not only try to understand what whales are saying, but also attempt to talk back. Plus, we check in with a scientist who is making mushroom robots that can crawl and roll. And in the news: ant queen cannibalism, reversing diabetes, and more. Thanks for writing in, in response to our last question, with your most memorable experiences of competition. Mine is relatively inconsequential, in terms of how significant the contest was, but making the championship-winning shot in a middle-school basketball tournament meant a lot to me as a new kid in the community with no friends yet. Check out today’s question (on talking to animals) and free story (on narrating your life) below. Wishing you the best start to this month of October! The latest from Nautilus Speaking With Whales AI could help us understand what whales are saying. But should we talk back? [Continue Reading→]( The March of the Mushroom Robots Scientists are making mycelia-machine hybrids that can crawl and roll. [Continue Reading→]( Don’t limit your curiosity. Enjoy unlimited ad-free Nautilus stories every month for less than $5/month. [Join now]( What THIS Solo Vitamin Does for Your Brain, Bone, & Heart Health Is calcium actually good for your bone health? Bad news… In one of the largest bone health studies ever, women who took calcium and vitamin D every day did not see a difference in bone health risks. Meanwhile, a recent study found that women who ate [THIS protein]( for 6 months gained 7% more bone density… Which is how much density the average person loses in SIX YEARS! Here are 7 reasons everyone over 50 should be taking a particular kind of protein. ⇒ [Read this short article]( before you spend another penny on Calcium supplements… (You are probably being misled). [Read more]( *Any scientific claims made in advertising content are not researched, verified, or endorsed by Nautilus. Thank you for supporting our sponsors. The top science news this week • When ant queens notice that some of their larvae are infected, they eat them, and not just to halt diseases from spreading but also to reuse the nutrients to produce more offspring. [Read on Current Biology→]( • It’s possible to sequester carbon dioxide in the ground for thousands of years by simply burying tree wood—in the right conditions—to prevent organisms from decomposing it. [Read on the Washington Post→]( • Geoscientists have found that the Himalayan crust has lost weight due to river erosion within the last 100,000 years, letting Mount Everest float higher on top of the mantle layer it rests on, explaining some of its extra, astounding height. [Read on The New York Times→]( • A 25-year-old woman living in China was injected with stem cells as a treatment for her type 1 diabetes and has been able to produce her own insulin—which prevents her blood glucose levels from dangerously fluctuating—for more than a year after the procedure. [Read on Nature→]( • Mars’ early atmosphere, composed of carbon dioxide that has been thought to have been lost to space over billions of years, could actually be stuck in Martian clay. [Read on Space.com→]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... If you had the ability to communicate with animals for one month, how would you use that power? Send us your answer! Reply to this newsletter with a brief explanation of your response, and we’ll reveal the top answers in a future newsletter. This question was inspired by “Speaking With Whales.” [Read on Nautilus→]( Top answers to our previous question: On Your Most Memorable Competitive Experience I was once at an arcade in Seattle where I played Samuel L. Jackson in a game of Pop-A-Shot basketball. He seemed pretty sure that he'd win. He did not. He then warmly berated me as one imagines Samuel L. Jackson might. – Jonathan S. I’ve spent the last 6 years playing pinball casually and competitively, honing my skills and knowledge. Out of many memorable competitive experiences, last April I went to the Pintastic Pinball Expo for the fourth year in a row to compete in the Silverbelle Brawl, a women/femme only tournament where many of the best U.S. players participate. I managed to get one spot shy of the eight-player finals cutoff! I’m also delighted to count some of those top players among my friends. – Julia B. I am currently preparing for competitive exams in India, and this preparation is already more competitive than any other competitions I have ever taken part in. If the preparation itself is so competitive, I fear thinking about how the actual exam would be. I think the memories of these months will be etched in my memories throughout my life. – Pratyaksh G. Playing golf in the Oklahoma High School State Championships years ago, I hit a low approach shot from the fairway, and the ball struck a bird just taking flight about 100 yards in front of me. By the time I finished my round, the talk of the clubhouse was “the guy who got a birdie by actually hitting one with his ball.” I didn’t win the tournament, but I did make an unusual memory. – David B. What THIS Solo Vitamin Does for Your Brain, Bone, & Heart Health In 1 study, 5g of collagen/day caused a 7% increase in bone density in 1 year! Add 2 flavorless [NativePath]( scoops for [18g of protein](! [Read more]( Today’s unlocked free story PHILOSOPHY Don’t Treat Your Life as a Project Fight the tendency to see your life as a narrative journey. By KIERAN SETIYA The idea that we narrate our lives to ourselves, and that doing so is part of living well, is sufficiently commonplace that its most vocal critic, the philosopher Galen Strawson, could describe it as “a fallacy of our age.” [Continue reading]( P.S. The American psychologist Jerome Bruner was born on this day in 1915. He was among a handful of influential thinkers—including neurologist Oliver Sacks and philosopher Daniel Dennett—who propounded the idea that [it is healthy and normal to narrate our lives to ourselves](. “We become,” Bruner maintained, “the autobiographical narratives by which we ‘tell about’ our lives.” Thanks for reading! What did you think of today's note? Inspire a friend to [sign up for the Nautilus newsletter](. 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