My work as a snail whisperer and professional killjoy
August 31, 2016
Tags: humming, Littorina, littorine, Periwinkle, snail
Littorina littorea periwinkle snails from Quoddy Head, Maine. Photo by me.
The New York Times online Science section published a short piece earlier this month by Joanna Klein about humming to periwinkles.
Joanna contacted me for some background on this story, which has a simple premise:
People who grew up in coastal New England know this trick: To coax a periwinkle snail out of its shell, hum to it.
This was news to me, but also sounded crazy enough that there might … Continue Reading