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Question 5 transcript:
"Challenges in marine mammals are pretty big. They're big because the animals are big. For instance, this is our head, or an example of our head, and this is a blue whale ear. So it's an ear that's almost as big as our head and it's a lot denser. This is the densest bone that's known to man. So something that is essentially the density of a bowling ball, inside that, is a very delicate structure which is the inner ear. And we have to get to that. So the first thing is you've got to find a way to approach that ear when you're dealing with something 30 meters long and you have to get in to get an ear like that. And what you have to do is just figure out how to get in there. The answer is frankly just chain saws. So we have most saws known to man. Or as I mentioned before we've got CAT scanners which let us, if the animal is small enough, to just put the whole animal through and look at it that way, and that's great. That's exactly it; in this case the one focus of my research on humans is feeding into marine mammals. But also because we learn about how human pathology looks on a scanner and of course we can investigate that surgically as well. And then with a dolphin, we bring it in, or a seal, we have seals with an ear that is oozing and the seal doesn't feel too good, and we say, "Ah, I see, this is just like an ear infection in a kid". We can't put tubes in but maybe we can give them this antibiotic or that. So the two things, it's a push-pull, but you have to keep inventing new ways to approach a wild animal that is really big with really complex ears."

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?