Tell us what, you know, what that means to you and, and, uh, uh, what you, how you feel about having that distinction now.

Well, uh, uh, I- I'm beyond honored to have an award from the SETI Institute, first of all, because as I've told people for many years, you know, the, the SETI scientists that I know and that community are some of the best scientists I've, I've ever known.

Um, and they're asking the big questions and the right questions.

And of course, to be given an award, uh, in the name of someone like Frank Drake is, is so important to me because of, of who he was and what he's meant, and how he and I, he, have interacted over the years since the time I met him, and I'll say more tomorrow night on my, uh, on my talk.

But, um, it's, it's really an honor that, that is, is very difficult to, to, uh, wrap my head around, and, and I'm, I'm just very, it's, it's very important to me.

I, I do think, though, that, you know, beyond all that, it's, it's kind of important because all those years and all those years of work, I know now have had an influence.

People were listening.

Yeah, I think it's, it's, uh, it's, it's fraught with, uh, with difficulty to be projecting-

Dr. Marino, like why, what is your speculation on why these belugas died? Is it too much stress?

I think that it's difficult to say.

However, at one level, it is about the stress of living in concrete tanks.

We know from years of welfare science that these animals don't do well living in concrete tanks, entertaining and being crowded together.

And that causes chronic stress, which has all kinds of welfare and health consequences.

And so at one level, it's very clear that these are animals who have been under stress their whole life, and they're going from one concrete tank to the next, which is another stressful situation.

And that adds to whatever health problems they may have come with.

So what what's being done now with the remaining Marine land whales? Like how many whales were there and how many whales are still around? So live?

Can you kind of give us a little overview through evolutionary history of how different mammal brains have evolved? You know, primates compared and contrasted with marine mammals, whales and dolphins.

Well, you know, the study of the, or the history of brains is fascinating and goes, you know, way back, way back, you know, 500 million years ago to when multicellular animals evolved.

And some would argue that the principles of our brains today were laid down with the emergence of life, even unicellular life on this planet.

But brains as we know them tend to be very conservative.

In other words, when you look at brains of different species, you see.

Pretty much a lot of the same thing.

And then you have a tweak or an addition of some kind.

What could that mean, vowel-like sounds in their communication?