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FOCUS ON SCIENCE: DOLPHIN TALK Recently, I interviewed Catherine Seag, an expert in marine life, about how dolphins communicate with each other. Here's what she told me. Q: Catherine, it's well-known that dolphins have their own way of speaking with each other, but can we really call it a "language"? A: Well, we've known for a long time that dolphins are very intelligent animals, and I think we're at the start of a long journey into what they are doing when they communicate. We're just beginning to realize that they do have a highly developed language of their own, which is closer to human communication than we had previously thought. And this language development possibly starts very early in a dolphin's life. We now know that mother dolphins start making a unique whistling sound just before their babies are born, and continue making this sound for a few weeks afterwards. It's possible that this is a kind of "signature" sound, and one that the mother dolphins weren't making before they became pregnant. Q: What do you mean by "signature sound"? A: While the mom is making her signature sound, researchers have noticed that other dolphins in the group keep quiet. So, it's thought that...