Science Talk

Inside the Nail-biting Quest to Find the 'Loneliest Whale'

It’s a tale of sound; the song of a solitary whale that vocalizes at a unique frequency, 52 Hertz, that no other whale—as the story goes—can seemingly understand. It’s also a tale about science, and ocean life, laced with fantasy, mystery and mostly shrouded in darkness. The whale, of unknown species and nicknamed ‘52’, was originally discovered in 1989…