Sure I could have lab full of undergraduates, graduate students, and post doctoral fellows working away at my research. On the other hand I could use narwhals…that is if toxic algae doesn’t kill them off too. Now if we could just get our cephalopod brethren to help out.
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A dentist discovered the Narwhal’s tusk was an “enlarged sensory organ” capable of detecting changes in pressure and temperature. The posted story alludes to this. It’s cool that a DDS stepped out of the box to do this kind of research.
More on Narwhals at NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06arctic/welcome.html
Actually, using animals as living bathythermographic samplers has been around at least as long as acoustic tagging has, but is even more commonplace now that the satellite tag technology allows for independent reporting without long days in chase boats.
As I’d mentioned to my advisor, it’s probably not surprising that narwhals got the WashPost article before the fishes on this use — not only are they marine mammals, and therefore always “cuter” from a public relations perspective, but as anyone who has had a little girl knows, you should NEVER compete with a unicorn.