Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog

This Blue Whale Wants You To Relaaaaaaax

Posted by Shelley Batts on April 10, 2007
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i-d01a0dbf13b3b2307d59ca0b667268ac-blue whale 2.bmp

Wow, why is this so relaxing? I think this slow-moving up-close-and-personal whale thingamajig could supplant bubble baths and candles as most relaxing thing ever. If they had added whale-song in the background I think we’d have the cure for insomnia and hypertension.

And while you’re feelin’ so fine, why not read about blue whales here? A blue whale, while the largest animal, doesn’t have the largest brain. That honor goes to the sperm whale, who’s brain weighs in at 20 pounds. A blue whale’s brain is 15 pounds, and a human’s is about 6 pounds.

From the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, as seen on Fish Feet.

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Comments

  1. #1 sean
    April 10, 2007

    The blue whale does, however, have the largest penis — a bit over 6 feet.

  2. #2 mike
    April 10, 2007

    Human brain, 6 pounds? Shouldn’t that be roughly half of it?

  3. #3 Shelley
    April 10, 2007

    Yep, humans have a very large brain to body ratio while the blue whale has a small ratio. And people don’t have the highest ratio though: dolphins do. Some scientists believe that brain to body ratio is a crude measurement of intelligence (maybe, although its rarely that simple.)

  4. #4 GreatDane
    April 10, 2007

    I think it’s neat that they included marine snow in this animation (or whatever it’s called). It’s all in the details… Marine snow is missing in some scenes in, for example, Titanic, showing which scenes were made in a tank and which were made in situ. In Finding Nemo they remembered to animate marine snow throughout, which I found very cool indeed!