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A Dolphin By Any Other Name
SloppyElvis writes "CNN is reporting that scientists have proven that Dolphins can communicate with each other by name. From the article: 'researchers synthesized signature whistles with the caller's voice features removed and played them to dolphins through an underwater speaker' to which the mammals responded. This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world." Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.
On a related note, what the heck does "clinically proven" mean?
It usually means that a randomized clinical trial was performed and the null hypothesis was rejected. If you haven't had any statistics yet, that means that you hypothesize two treatments have the same effect and run a trial. If the results observed would be highly improbable under the equal effect hypothesis (and this probability is very clearly defined), then you have 'clinically proven' treatment A superior, for instance. Statistical hypothesis testing is basically applying the same principle as a reductio ad absurdum from logic. In general, you usually don't 'prove' things in science like you do in math, but that's another topic.
...it can be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
"reasonable doubt" is a legal term, not a scientific one.
:wq