Interview Question 10
with Dr. Darlene Ketten

10. What continues to inspire you about your work?

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Question 10 transcript:
"The thing that inspires me the most is the unanswered question. Just like any field you can sometimes get a bit burnt out and you don't really like getting called at 2 o'clock in the morning saying something is dead and it's been dead for quite a while and its going to be really ugly and then somebody says, and it's a species you've never looked at before. Even those bones are going to be worth looking at. And sure enough it's always a surprise. In the last 3 years there has been a huge surprise about beaked whales and their sensitivities and their effects. But it is not even necessarily their hearing. It might be their physiology that is quite different. But it is not limited to just dolphins and whales and marine mammals. I'd love to get my hands on a giant squid. I wonder if they hear and if so is the last thing that they ever hear the click that a sperm whale makes? So it's all those questions and the ocean is an incredible place. We don't even know exist out there. Every time we go deeper with more sensors. That's something dolphins have given to us is a way to sense in the deep, to use sound. Sound is so important for them and for us. We keep finding new stuff down there and new ways there're adapted."

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Interview Questions:
  1. How did you first become interested in science?
  2. What is the focus of your research and why did you choose this field of study?
  3. What have been some of the recent discoveries about how marine mammals hear?
  4. How do you study the hearing of marine mammals?
  5. What challenges have you faced in studying the hearing of marine mammals?
  6. What has most surprised you about the hearing of marine mammals?
  7. What skills are important in your area of research?
  8. What are the opportunities in studying the hearing of marine mammals? Can people without PhDs participate in some way in this type of research?
  9. What is the greatest impact/relevance of your research?
  10. What continues to inspire you about your work?
  11. What advice would you give a high school student who expressed an interest in pursuing a career in your field?

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