The study of dolphin cognition involves intensive research of animal vocalizations. Marine mammalogists commonly study a specific sound type known as the whistle found in dolphin communication. However, one of the main problems arises from noisy underwater environments. Often waves and splash noises will partially distort the whistle making analysis or extraction difficult. Another problem is discovering fundamental units that allow research of the composition of whistles. We propose a method for whistle extraction from noisy underwater recordings using a probabilistic approach. Furthermore, we investigate discovery algorithms for fundamental units using a mixture of hidden Markov models. We evaluate our findings with a marine mammalogist on data collected in the field. Furthermore, we have evidence that our algorithms enable researchers to form hypotheses about the composition of whistles.

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We introduce the concept of LabLinking: a technology-based interconnection of experimental laboratories across institutions, disciplines, cultures, languages, and time zones - in other words experiments without borders. In particular, we introduce LabLinking levels (LLL), which define the degree of tightness of empirical interconnection between labs. We describe the technological infrastructure in terms of hard- and software required for the respective LLLs and present examples of linked laboratories along with insights about the challenges and benefits. In sum, we argue that linked labs provide a unique platform for a continuous exchange between scientists and experimenters, thereby enabling a time synchronous execution of experiments performed with and by decentralized user and researchers, improving outreach and ease of subject recruitment, allowing to establish new experimental designs and to incorporate a panoply of complementary biosensors, devices, hard- and software solutions.

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