47
and could not fi nd a “start” to the terms. We wrote to perhaps 50 friends and colleagues in the fi eld to see if anyone had an idea of where the terms arose.
Interestingly, the consensus appeared to be that no one was sure of the origin of
the terms (or can fi nd them in the literature), but many people “accused” the two of
us of being the fi rst to use the words. However, to “defend ourselves,” we recently
redid a search using Google Scholar and have come to the conclusion that the term
“specialist” for some fi shes predated even our being in college, much less our participation in the fi eld. In our search, we found a quotation in a classic paper, Hearing
in Bony Fishes , by Dr. Sven Dijkgraaf ( 1960 ) that says: “Roughly we can distinguish two groups of fi shes: the ‘specialists’ in sound reception, and the ‘normal’
fi shes (Von Frisch 1936 ; Dijkgraaf and Verheijen 1950 ). The sensitive specialists
are mostly freshwater fi shes. They all possess certain sound-reinforcing structures
like the apparatus of Weber in the Ostariophysi or the gas chambers connected with
the labyrinth…” (pp. 52–53). Dr. Dijkgraaf went on to say: “In the so-called ‘normal’ fi shes, including nearly all marine species, the upper limit of the auditory range
is found at frequencies between 400 and 1000 c/s
5 ” (p. 53).
So, quite clearly, we are not the perpetrators of these words, but we did decide
that they are not appropriate and that there needed to be a new way of thinking about
fi sh hearing; the variation between species is more a “continuum” than a clear distinction between specialist and generalist (or, in Dijkgraaf’s terms, “normal”) fi shes.
We fi rst presented this idea at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and,
much to our amazement, had our talk interrupted by sustained applause by the audience. Clearly, many of our colleagues were as stymied by these terms as we and
they were delighted that we had come up with a new concept for how to think about
fi sh hearing. This work was published as Popper and Fay ( 2011 ) and the ideas seem
to have become quickly accepted.
10 End Note
We will end with the hope that this essay provides a sense of who we are and the
great satisfaction (even joy) we have had with our continued collaboration and
friendship. We suspect that a collaboration of this length is rare in science, and we
have been truly fortunate to have the opportunity to work together and to have a
friendship that spans fi ve decades. We are also truly fortunate that this friendship
has extended to our wives (Fig. 8 ) and children, and we are very much looking forward to early 2015 when our grandchildren get to meet for the fi rst time. Hopefully,
they too will appreciate the closeness of our lives and perhaps one of our grandchildren will decide to follow us into science. But for now, this essay is dedicated to
Emma Levit, Ethan and Sophie Levinsohn, and Evan, Nathaniel, and Stella Fay. We
hope they someday read this essay and take pride in the friendship and closeness of
their families and what their grandfathers have contributed to science.
5 Cycles/second, now referred to as hertz.
It Started in Hawai’i Kai: Reminiscences of 43 Years (and Counting)…
and could not fi nd a “start” to the terms. We wrote to perhaps 50 friends and colleagues in the fi eld to see if anyone had an idea of where the terms arose.
Interestingly, the consensus appeared to be that no one was sure of the origin of
the terms (or can fi nd them in the literature), but many people “accused” the two of
us of being the fi rst to use the words. However, to “defend ourselves,” we recently
redid a search using Google Scholar and have come to the conclusion that the term
“specialist” for some fi shes predated even our being in college, much less our participation in the fi eld. In our search, we found a quotation in a classic paper, Hearing
in Bony Fishes , by Dr. Sven Dijkgraaf ( 1960 ) that says: “Roughly we can distinguish two groups of fi shes: the ‘specialists’ in sound reception, and the ‘normal’
fi shes (Von Frisch 1936 ; Dijkgraaf and Verheijen 1950 ). The sensitive specialists
are mostly freshwater fi shes. They all possess certain sound-reinforcing structures
like the apparatus of Weber in the Ostariophysi or the gas chambers connected with
the labyrinth…” (pp. 52–53). Dr. Dijkgraaf went on to say: “In the so-called ‘normal’ fi shes, including nearly all marine species, the upper limit of the auditory range
is found at frequencies between 400 and 1000 c/s
5 ” (p. 53).
So, quite clearly, we are not the perpetrators of these words, but we did decide
that they are not appropriate and that there needed to be a new way of thinking about
fi sh hearing; the variation between species is more a “continuum” than a clear distinction between specialist and generalist (or, in Dijkgraaf’s terms, “normal”) fi shes.
We fi rst presented this idea at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and,
much to our amazement, had our talk interrupted by sustained applause by the audience. Clearly, many of our colleagues were as stymied by these terms as we and
they were delighted that we had come up with a new concept for how to think about
fi sh hearing. This work was published as Popper and Fay ( 2011 ) and the ideas seem
to have become quickly accepted.
10 End Note
We will end with the hope that this essay provides a sense of who we are and the
great satisfaction (even joy) we have had with our continued collaboration and
friendship. We suspect that a collaboration of this length is rare in science, and we
have been truly fortunate to have the opportunity to work together and to have a
friendship that spans fi ve decades. We are also truly fortunate that this friendship
has extended to our wives (Fig. 8 ) and children, and we are very much looking forward to early 2015 when our grandchildren get to meet for the fi rst time. Hopefully,
they too will appreciate the closeness of our lives and perhaps one of our grandchildren will decide to follow us into science. But for now, this essay is dedicated to
Emma Levit, Ethan and Sophie Levinsohn, and Evan, Nathaniel, and Stella Fay. We
hope they someday read this essay and take pride in the friendship and closeness of
their families and what their grandfathers have contributed to science.
5 Cycles/second, now referred to as hertz.
It Started in Hawai’i Kai: Reminiscences of 43 Years (and Counting)…