Ultrasound 'magic' of dolphins can improve current medical techniques

Recently, researchers have discovered an extremely surprising and interesting thing: dolphins emit up to two beams of ultrasound, not the same as previously thought.

As early as the 1960s, scientific studies have shown us that marine mammals such as dolphins, communicate with each other by sound waves (partly in the ultrasound spectrum) on the principle of sonar.

Dolphins communicate with each other by sound waves.

Sonar (navigation navigation and ranging) method. There are two types of sonars, the active type spontaneously impulse waves and record echoes, while the passive type only records sounds from ships or other sources emitted in the country. The audio frequency used in sonar is very wide, infrasonic words to normal sound (sonic) and ultrasonic. Sound waves emitted by dolphins belong to active ultrasound type.

But recently, GS. Josefin Starkhammar, a researcher on marine acoustics at Lund University (Sweden) and two colleagues discovered something very surprising and interesting: dolphins emit up to two beams of ultrasound rather than one. we still think now.

These two ultrasonic beams are transmitted in different directions and the back beam is slightly deviated from the previous beam slightly. In addition, the head of each beam has a slightly higher frequency than the rest, thus creating a higher sound field. And this is the secret to decoding: the high sound field has the ability to go further and help eliminate other noises that interfere with the signal, and the next low sound field helps the dolphin record the picture. shape object correctly.

To gain this insight, the researchers used the end of the beam and reproduced both the original sound beams. These two beams are transmitted very accurately and completely complement each other. This is what our ultrasound methods currently cannot do.

Dolphins emit up to two beams of ultrasound, not the same as previously thought.

Surprised by this discovery, GS. Josefin Starkhammar called this an operating algorithm "like a magic formula!" and intends to apply current ultrasound techniques in medicine to develop new biological imaging techniques.

By using at the same time many dolphin-style beams, but horizontally , we will be able to obtain 3D images, measuring the thickness of organs deep within the human body, which is not always received on ultrasound today. And yet, this technique can also be applied in geology to check the layers of soil deep beneath the road surface without having to dig a sample.

However, according to GS. Josefin Starkhammar, in the short term, thanks to an understanding of ultrasound emission to communicate and locate objects of dolphins, we can better protect this intelligent animal from human activities. disturbance affects this sound.