Last year, I spent a fascinating two weeks learning about the work Denise Herzing and the Wild Dolphin Project have been doing with Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. I wrote about the experience for Outside, in a story called Talk To Me (which will also be published later this year in Best American Science And Nature Writing 2013).
It was perhaps the most interesting science I have ever seen, and the possibilities it opens up could change how humans view themselves and the other species on the planet.
Here is Herzing describing her work, in a newly released TED Talk:
The Earthist Chronicles 