Why Drones Are Catching Whale Breaths

Summary

Short Wave – "Why Drones Are Catching Whale Breaths"

Date: December 26, 2025
Hosts: Emily Kwong, Burleigh McCoy
Guest: Juana Summers (Host of All Things Considered)
Main Theme:
A rapid-fire roundup of quirky, cutting-edge science stories: the use of drones to study whale health via their breath, how swearing can make us stronger, and how Los Angeles’ bird populations rapidly adapted their beak shapes during COVID campus closures.

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Episode Overview

This episode features Emily Kwong, producer Burleigh McCoy, and guest Juana Summers diving into three bite-sized science stories. Together, they explore:

• How researchers are using drones to non-invasively collect and study whale breath for disease surveillance
• Evidence that strategic swearing boosts physical strength and performance
• A real-time evolution case: LA’s dark-eyed juncos rapidly changing beak shapes in response to fluctuations in human activity during and after the pandemic

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why Catch Whale Breaths With Drones?

[03:25–06:07]

• How Whales Breathe:
  • Whales inhale/exhale through blowholes (akin to nostrils on the top of their heads). Their exhaled breath (or “blow”) contains clues about their health (03:31).
• Disease Surveillance:
  • Researchers want to detect respiratory diseases, especially viruses like cetacean morbillivirus, which previously caused mass die-offs (03:46). Traditionally, these studies happened post-mortem; drones allow live, non-invasive sampling.
• Drone Collection Method:
  • Drones fitted with petri dishes hover over surfacing whales to catch the exhale (04:11).
  • Samples in 2023/24 (in Norway and Iceland) detected cetacean morbillivirus and herpes virus in some whale groups for the first time so far north (04:44).
  • Elena Kosta (lead author) highlights the significance: “This was the first time it was detected in this area and the first time it was detected so far north.” (04:44)
• Drone Impact on Whales:
  • Minimal; whales are mostly underwater, and the drone approach is less invasive than prior methods (05:09).
• Broader Implications:
  • While treatment isn’t feasible in wild whales, tracking infections can prevent disease spread to humans (as in Norway, where people swim with whales) and monitor overall ocean health indicators (05:27).
  • “Only then we will be able to really understand the dynamics of these pathogens and how some stressors, for example pollutants or climate change, are affecting these dynamics of these diseases.” – Elena Kosta (05:51)

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2. Swearing Makes You Stronger

[06:07–08:47]

• The Swearing-Strength Link:
  • Psychologist Richard Stevens (Keel University) and his team show that swearing might physically help us by making us more disinhibited (06:30).
  • “Swearing is a cheap, readily available, calorie-neutral, drug-free means of self-help.” (06:30)
• How It Works:
  • Swearing overrides our habitual self-control (“behavioral inhibition system”), allowing us to “just go for it” (07:04).
• Study Details:
  • Participants did a chair push-up, trying to hold themselves aloft as long as possible.
  • Each performed the challenge twice: once repeating a swear word, once a neutral word (07:55).
  • Result: Swear-word sessions lasted longer, with participants reporting increased humor, confidence, and “psychological flow” (08:09).
• Broader Uses:
  • Potential for boosting confidence in a variety of situations: “Maybe when you’re hesitant to negotiate a salary rise. Maybe when you’re shy about approaching a person you’re attracted to… There are moments in life when we can overthink things, and being disinhibited is a good thing.” – Richard Stevens (08:34)
• Limitations:
  • Not advised “in front of this microphone!” – Juana Summers, highlighting social context (08:47).

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3. Pandemic-Era Bird Beak Evolution

[08:58–11:03]

• Studying Dark-Eyed Juncos:
  • These are round-bodied sparrows commonly found around LA (08:58). Wildland juncos tend to have longer, slender beaks; city birds have shorter, stubbier beaks.
• Pandemic Changes:
  • During 2021–2022 campus lockdowns, juncos hatched on empty UCLA campuses grew longer, slender beaks, resembling their wildland counterparts (09:55).
• Why the Change?
  • Fewer people = less food waste in trash cans; long beaks may have helped birds forage naturally (10:07).
  • When people returned, more food scraps reappeared, and recent generations once again developed stubby, trash-foraging beaks (10:15).
  • “Juncos born after campus got busy had stubbier, shorter beaks.” – Emily Kwong (10:37)
• What Does It Mean?
  • Evolution may occur in very short timeframes — or perhaps wild birds were simply migrating in (10:19).
  • External expert Alejandro Rico Guevara remarks: “The study is an amazing example of how much human activity is related to shifts in nature.” (10:42)

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Notable Quotes

• “Whales can catch colds?” – Juana Summers (03:45)
• “Swearing is a cheap, readily available, calorie-neutral, drug-free means of self-help.” – Richard Stevens (06:30)
• “Only then we will be able to really understand the dynamics of these pathogens and how some stressors, for example pollutants or climate change, are affecting these dynamics of these diseases.” – Elena Kosta (05:51)
• “There are moments in life when we can overthink things, and being disinhibited is a good thing.” – Richard Stevens (08:34)
• “Juncos born after campus got busy had stubbier, shorter beaks.” – Emily Kwong (10:37)
• “The study is an amazing example of how much human activity is related to shifts in nature.” – Alejandro Rico Guevara (10:42)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Whale Breath Drones & Disease – 03:25–06:07
• The Psychology (and Power) of Swearing – 06:07–08:47
• Rapid Bird Beak Evolution During the Pandemic – 08:58–11:03

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Overall Tone & Style

Playful, conversational, and accessible; hosts explain complex science in a chatty style, peppering in humor and relatable “science gifts” as a nod to the holiday season.

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Who Should Listen?

Anyone curious about unconventional scientific discoveries, nature, animal health, psychology, or human impact on wildlife—especially those who enjoy learning surprising trivia in just a few minutes.

Transcript

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[Emily Kwong]

Hey, everyone. Emily Kwong here. Just a word before today's episode 2025 is almost over. And at NPR and our local stations, we are excited to begin a new year. This year was tough, the loss of federal funding for public media attacks on the free press. But despite it all, we are not shying away from our jobs, from exercising the critical right to editorial independence guaranteed by the First Amendment. With your support, we will continue our work without fear or favor. And we will continue to produce a show that introduces you to new discoveries, everyday mysteries and explains the science behind the headlines. If you're already an NPR supporter, thank you. And if you're not a supporter, please become one today before the end of the year, at least. @plus.NPR.org Sign up to unlock a bunch of perks like bonus episodes and more from across NPR's podcast. Plus, you get to feel good about supporting public media while you listen. So end the year on a high note and invest in a public service that matters to you. Visit plus.NPR.org today. Thank you. You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Hey, Short Wavers.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Emily Kwong here and producer Burleigh McCoy.

[Emily Kwong]

With our bi weekly science news roundup featuring the host of All Things Considered. And today we have Juana Summers.

[Juana Summers]

Hi. I'm excited to be here. And I hear that we're talking about drones collecting whale breaths.

[Emily Kwong]

Yes. And how swearing may make you physically stronger.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Plus, how bird beaks may have rapidly evolved during the COVID pandemic.

[Juana Summers]

Ooh, good mix this time around.

[Emily Kwong]

Holiday gifts for you all on this episode of Short Wave, the science podcast from npr.

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[Juana Summers]

All right, so let's start off with these whale breaths, but first I need some information. How does a whale breathe?

[Burleigh McCoy]

Yeah. So the air goes in and out of their blowholes, like having nostrils on their head. And the reason scientists wanted to collect breaths is because they contain clues about the whale's health, including signs of a respiratory disease.

[Emily Kwong]

Wait a second.

[Juana Summers]

Whales can catch colds?

[Burleigh McCoy]

Yes.

[Emily Kwong]

They can also get infected by cetacean morbilivirus. That's a respiratory virus that has caused mass die offs in whales and dolphins. And researchers say that using drones is a non invasive way to study whale infection rates, which have usually only been collected once a whale has died.

[Juana Summers]

Okay, so these scientists flew the drones over surfacing whales as they exhaled through their blowholes. Okay, but what did they find?

[Burleigh McCoy]

So the team collected Arctic whale blowhole samples around Norway and ICELAND starting in 2022. So they'd fl drones close to surfacing whales and then, based on live drone footage, hover it over a whale that looked like it was about to blow. And the drone had a petri dish attached that would catch the blow, AKA the exhale. And the team did detect cetacean morbillivirus on the petri dishes in two groups of asymptomatic humpback whales in 2023 and in one sick looking sperm whale in 2024.

[Elena Kosta]

And this was the first time it was detected in this area and the first time it was detected so far north.

[Emily Kwong]

That's lead author Elena Kosta at Nord University. She said the team also detected herpes virus in five whale groups over different years. But they didn't find avian influenza nor brucella, a bacteria that animals can pass to humans. The work was published in the journal BMC Veterinary Research.

[Juana Summers]

And the whales don't mind the drones?

[Burleigh McCoy]

Not really. Whales spend most of their time underwater, where sound doesn't propagate nearly as much as in air. And the scientists we spok with said drones collecting blow samples are much less invasive than Taking a skin sample, for example.

[Juana Summers]

Okay, so help me understand what this all means. What can scientists do with this information?

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah, you can't really treat a sick whale in the wild, but knowing which whales are sick can help scientists prevent those viruses from jumping into people like in Norway, where people actually swim with whales. And understanding whale health can tell scientists about ocean health.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Elena says the plan is to monitor whales over several years, which will answer questions only long term data can reveal.

[Elena Kosta]

And only then we will be able to really understand the dynamics of these pathogens and how some stressors, for example pollutants or climate change are affecting these dynamics of these diseases.

[Juana Summers]

Interesting. All right, let's go to topic two, which is about the psychology of swearing. I'm intrigued. Are there people who study that?

[Emily Kwong]

There are turns out. And without breaking FCC guidelines. Wanna I want you to imagine your favorite swear word. Don't say it, just hold it in your mind.

[Juana Summers]

I had to pick just one. I'm holding it.

[Emily Kwong]

Okay. Next time you need to summon your physical strength, say one of these words.

[Richard Stevens]

Swearing is a cheap, readily available, calorie neutral, drug free means of self help.

[Burleigh McCoy]

This is Richard Stevens, a senior lecturer in psychology at Keel University in the uk and he told us scientists have long known that swearing is linked to improved physical performance, but weren't total sure why.

[Emily Kwong]

And now his team at Keel and the University of Alabama in Huntsville has a possible explanation. That the choice to swear to break social taboos and shed inhibitions through words moves a person into a state where they act in a more disinhibited way and just go for it.

[Richard Stevens]

What we're theorizing swearing does is it is it silences our behavioral inhibition system, which just means those stopping thoughts, voices just got go a little bit quieter. So we're a bit freer to listen to the go voices and push ourselves.

[Emily Kwong]

Psychologists even have a term for this state, disinhibition. They published these results in the journal American Psychologist last week.

[Juana Summers]

Okay, I have to say I'm taking notes for the next time I go to the gym. I do want to know though, how did they test this out exactly?

[Burleigh McCoy]

So the researchers looked at hundreds of participants doing a chair push up. And basically from a seated position on a sturdy chair, participants gripped the seat and held themselves in the air as long as possible. Do you want to try?

[Juana Summers]

Maybe not right now. I've got a show to host, but maybe I'll try this a little bit later. So let me guess, they did this and then they just cussed up a huge storm.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Yeah, well, Participants did this test two times. One time they repeated a swear word of their choice every two seconds. The other time, they repeated a neutral word of their choice every two seconds. And which test they did first was randomized.

[Emily Kwong]

And it turns out that swearing participants held their body weight for much longer. And they also reported more positive emotion, humor, distraction, self confidence, and psychological flow, all of which are linked to state disinhibition.

[Juana Summers]

Interesting. So what I'm taking away from this is that I can use swearing strategically then for strength.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Yes. And maybe in other situations where you need a confidence boost when you're afraid.

[Richard Stevens]

Of public speaking, maybe when you're hesitant to negotiate a salary rise. Maybe when you're shy about approaching a person you're attracted to. There are moments in life when we can overthink things and being disinhibited is.

[Juana Summers]

A good thing, but definitely not in front of this microphone. Okay, I will keep all of that in mind. Let's go to our third science story. We are moving on to bird beaks. Which birds are we talking about here?

[Burleigh McCoy]

Dark eyed juncos, these adorable sparrows with almost perfectly round bodies and tiny little feet. Evolutionary biologist Pam Yeh studies these birds at the University of California, Los Angeles, or UCLA. They weigh about 15 to 20 grams, so it's not much at all. And they just pop along the ground. I know. And they hop around and they're usually together. They usually hop with somebody else.

[Emily Kwong]

But not all of these birds look the same. Juncos in the wildlands outside LA have longer, more slender beaks, whereas the juncos within Los Angeles, including the birds on the UCLA campus, have shorter, stubbier beaks. But the shapes of the city bird beaks changed during COVID How have they changed?

[Burleigh McCoy]

Yeah, we spoke to Ellie Diamant, an author on this study with Pam. She says the birds that hatched at UCLA in 2021 and 2022 had longer, more slender beaks, much like the local wildland juncos.

[Emily Kwong]

And her team thinks it has to do with campus closures. When campus is full of people, the trash cans are, you know, full of food waste, and stubbier beaks could be good for foraging in that environment.

[Burleigh McCoy]

But when the campus was emptier during COVID lockdown, those food resources changed. So the longer A type beaks may have been more advantageous.

[Juana Summers]

Wait, help me understand this. Can evolution happen that quickly?

[Emily Kwong]

It is a tricky question. We usually think of evolution happening over a much longer period than just two years. But Pam and Ellie say it is possible, especially because they saw the bird beaks change again once campus opened back up. Juncos born after campus got busy had stubbier, shorter beaks.

[Juana Summers]

Oh, cool. So those generations of birds were more like the pre Covid. Juncos.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Exactly. An evolutionary biologist who didn't work on the paper, Alejandro Rico Guevara, says it's also possible that the changes were an example of evolution, but there are other possible explanations, like if more wild birds came into the city. Either way, he says, the study is an amazing example of how much human activity is related to shifts in nature.

[Juana Summers]

Loving all of these science gifts for.

[Emily Kwong]

Our holiday season anytime. Please come back on the show.

[Juana Summers]

Please have me back.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Yeah, that was fun.

[Emily Kwong]

You can hear more of Juan on consider this, NPR's afternoon podcast about what the new means for you.

[Burleigh McCoy]

And for more science stories just like this one, follow Short Wave on whatever app you're listening to.

[Emily Kwong]

This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson and Kai McNamee. It was edited by Patrick Jaron Watananan.

[Burleigh McCoy]

Tyler Jones checked the facts. Maggie Luthar and Peter Elena were the audio engineers. I'm Brlee McCoy.

[Emily Kwong]

And I'm Emily Kwong. Thank you for listening to Short Wave, the science podcast from npr.

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