Today in Science: WWI-era shipwrecks have a rich second life

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September 26, 2025—Echolocation may be a touch-like sense in dolphins. Plus, a WWI-era "ghost fleet" of ships, and scientists track families of asteroids. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TODAY'S NEWS Wrecks near the coast in Mallows Bay. Duke Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Lab Nearly 100 years ago dozens of ships from WWI were abandoned in a shallow bay of the Potomac River in Maryland. Today plants and animals are thriving on the skeletons of these vessels. | 3 min read In a museum in Australia, a recent exhibition allowed visitors to hear sounds generated by neurons grown using the blood of dead composer Alvin Lucier. | 25 min listen Good conversations don't require everyone to agree, brain scans show. | 5 min read  The lineages of groups of asteroids called "families" are difficult to trace. | 4 min read Autism research quietly advanced this week despite talk of a Tylenol link: The NIH is investing $50 million into research on genetic and environmental factors underlying autism. | 4 read More News Science you can trust. Stories that matter. Support our work with a subscription to Scientific American. Today in Science readers get special discounts! TOP STORIES A pod of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Chris A Crumley/Alamy Stock Photo Sonar Touch People often think of echolocation as "seeing" with sound, like a sonar device that turns sonic waves into visual images. But the skill might be more like "touching" with sound. Researchers measured how water diffused along nerve fibers in preserved brains of three echolocating dolphin species and compared that with the same measurements from a sei whale (which doesn't echolocate). In the dolphins, the researchers found a strong connection between two parts of the brain, one that helps relay audio, and another that processes senses and determines actions.    How it works: The brain's inferior colliculus relays auditory input in the ear to the cerebellum. In the cerebellum, information from senses and bodily movements are processed in order to calculate the body's next best move. So the dolphins emit sonar, perceive what bounces back through the auditory system, which transmits the information to the part of the brain that processes physical touch. This relationship leaves out the visual cortex, which scientists previously believed played a role in echolocation.   What the experts say: It's hard to know for certain what an animal's experience of echolocation is actually like. "There may be things other animals do for which there is no model in our sensory system," says Lori Marino, a neuroscientist and president of the Whale Sanctuary Project. "We just have to realize that." —Andrea Tamayo, Newsletter Writer

PLAY NOW Test out how well you read Scientific American this week by taking today's science quiz! And then take a stab at today's Spellements puzzle. Remember to send any words missing from the puzzle to games@sciam.com. This week Rick C., Jim H., Neil H. and Louisa T. alerted us of dyne, which is a measurement of force in the centimeter-gram-second system of units. Outstanding! More Games MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK Does Tylenol Use during Pregnancy Cause Autism? What the Research Shows | 6 min read Deep-Earth Diamonds Reveal 'Almost Impossible' Chemistry | 3 min read Infections of Drug-Resistant 'Nightmare Bacteria' Are Surging in Hospitals | 3 min read​ Echolocation seems like a superpower reserved for bats and dolphins. For visual creatures like humans, sight rules our perception of the world. Yet research shows that with just weeks of training, both blind and sighted people can learn to echolocate, and their brains even begin routing echoes through the visual cortex. It's a reminder that the mind is astonishingly flexible—and that some of the limits we take as fixed may not be limits at all. Thanks for reading Today in Science this week. Send your ideas and suggestions to: newsletters@sciam.com. Enjoy the weekend.   —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

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