The Quantum Computer

Peter Teglberg Madsen, professor of sensory physiology at the Department of Biology at Aarhus University, gives a lecture on whales and the technology that has opened researchers' eyes to animal life that was previously almost inaccessible.

Whales are the largest animals ever to exist on Earth, but most of their behaviour has occurred beyond our reach - far from the coast and deep beneath the ocean surface. Drones and suction-cup-mounted measuring equipment have fundamentally changed this: now researchers can follow the animals while they hunt, rather than merely observing them in brief glimpses at the surface or examining dead specimens.

The lecture draws on examples including harbour porpoises hunting in Danish waters, sperm whales foraging more than 1,000 metres down, and Greenland whales surviving in Disko Bay. It also explores how a humpback whale mother can give birth to and nurse a calf without eating for half a year. Throughout, the question of sustainable coexistence with these apex predators is addressed.