Your voice is distinct in my ears

[sovay]

Nothing this week has made me happier than learning that naked mole rats have different dialects by which they distinguish colony-mates from strangers, inculcated by nurture rather than coded by nature—and that these dialects are set by the queen of each colony. Since naked mole rats fight violently when their greeting chirps are answered in an alien tongue, I feel I am waiting now to see if they evolve interpreters. Also I am afraid I am intrigued but also extremely entertained by the idea of a unique song that only the naked mole rat queen sings while in the bathroom. "That, for example, is something that we have no idea what it means, but is a really cool direction that we want to look into in the future."