Since they were discovered songof whales nearly 60 years ago, scientists are trying to decipher their lyrics, reports Carl Zimmer via the New York Times. Animals produce complex human-like messages language or do they share more simple information? Or are they communicating something else that we don't yet understand? 
In 2020, a team marine biologists and computer scientists joined forces to analyze the songs of whales, which swim in most of the world's oceans. On Tuesday, scientists reported that whales use a much richer set of sounds than previously known, which they called the "whale phonetic alphabet."
In the study that was published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers found that whales communicate using sequences of clicks, called codas, that exhibit contextual structure and combinations.
The MIT News he says:
The researchers identified something like a "whale phonetic alphabet," where various elements the researchers call "rhythm," "tempo," "rubato" and "ornamentation" interact to form a vast array of distinct codes. For example, whales systematically modified some of their codes in the context of a conversation, such as changing the durationof calls – rubato – or by adding additional decorative clicks.
But there is something even more remarkable. Scientists discovered that the basic building blocks of these codas could be combined, allowing the whales to create a huge repertoire of different vocalizations.
By developing new data visualization and analysis techniques, CSAIL researchers found that individual whales could emit various coda patterns in long conversations, rather than just repetitions of the same coda.
"One of the interesting aspects of our research is that it parallels the hypothetical scenario of our contact with extraterrestrial species. It's about understanding a species with a completely different environment and communication protocols, where their interactions are distinctly different from human norms," says Pratyusha Sharma. PhD student at MIT.
"We explore how to interpret the basic units of meaning in their communication. This is about decoding a naturally evolved communication system within their unique biological and environmental constraints. Essentially, our work could set them fundamentals for deciphering how an "alien civilization" might communicate, providing information for creating algorithms or systems for understanding completely unknown forms of communication."
