But while playing back the recordings, the Saratoga High School senior recognized musical patterns she had encountered while practicing piano sonatas.
Zhang listened to these recordings as part of collaboration with John Ryan, a senior research specialist who studies ocean soundscapes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and discovered structural similarities between whale songs and human sonatas. On Thursday, Zhang presented their research as part of the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in New Orleans.
The project began when Zhang decided to take her science studies outside the classroom. “I wanted a practical application of the things I learned,” she said.She turned to Ryan, her father’s old colleague. Ryan remembers hearing Zhang play the piano in the background of work conversations when she was just a child. When Zhang mentioned that she was interested in a research project with whales, Ryan sent her recordings of whale songs previously collected with underwater microphones in the Monterey Bay and simply asked her to listen to the sounds of ocean giants.
Ryan said that Zhang “recognized the structure in a whale song that was actually like the structure of a sonata, which I didn’t know.”
Zhang discovered that the whale songs, like human music, had different sections. Three parts make up a sonata in human music: exposition, development and recapitulation.
“The exhibition has a main theme that is repeated in the third part. So the first part and the third part are very similar, and the second part is the development – it’s a little more unique and flows naturally,” said Zhang. The whale song sections showed a similar pattern. Nestled between an introduction section and an ending, Zhang found a familiar pattern: exposition, development, and recapitulation. “Her musical mind picked up on that right away,” Ryan said.
Zhang and Ryan shared their findings with the broader scientific community at the AGU conference, which brings together more than 20,000 scientists to share discoveries ranging from topics from volcanoes to space. Zhang was accepted as part of AGU’s BrightSTaRS program, which highlights research by middle school and high school students.
“Students gain experience conducting research and then communicate that research through a poster displayed at the AGU Annual Meeting,” said Michelle Nichols, Education Department representative for the AGU Annual Meeting Program Committee. “It gives you the whole science process from start to finish, and I think it’s absolutely fantastic.” According to Nichols, Zhang’s poster will be displayed in the same hall as posters presented by professional scientists, on display for thousands of conference attendees.
Zhang says the experience strengthened her passion for STEM and taught her about the complexities of whale song. “I think a lot of people don’t realize how musical they actually are. We think animals just make random sounds, but they really have so much pattern and structure when you dig deep,” she said.
While most researchers at the conference are concerned about travel logistics and financing, Zhang faced a challenge familiar to every high school student: final exams. The conference took place during her exam week, so she couldn’t attend in person. Instead, she decided to present her research on whale song virtually, a reminder that even promising scientists need to finish high school.
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