3. Dolphins Casually Using Complex Nonlinear Mathematics
Can you use complex, nonlinear mathematics? Because dolphins can. When dolphins hunt, they produce "bubble nets", blowing them around their prey to confuse them. However, dolphins generally hunt using sonar and, as one boffin named Tim Leighton noted as he was watching "Blue Planet", there is no known sonar system that can operate in such a chaotic, bubbly environment. So, either dolphins were effectively blinding themselves with bubbles at the most crucial moment, or they have figured out a way of overcoming the interference. Prof. Leighton and his team started by modelling the echolocation patterns used by dolphins but, rather than processing them like normal sonar, the researchers used complex nonlinear mathematics to see if it would be possible to "see" through the bubbles. They figured out that, for dolphins to be able to hunt, they would send out pulses of varying amplitudes. It must then remember what the ratios of the two pulses were, multiply the second echo by that and add the echoes together. This makes the fish visible. It then has to multiply the second echo by three and then subtract them from each other, this makes the fish, but not the surrounding bubbles, "invisible" and confirms its position. This is all in a matter of seconds. Follow that? Don't worry if not. There are, however, some out there who are very keen to understand exactly how the dolphins use enhanced sonar, even in turbulent or bubbly water in order to improve our own, relatively primitive systems.
