“It’s absolutely clear to me that these are extremely intelligent animals,” says Patrick Hof of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and co-discoverer of the whale spindle cells with Estel van der Gucht of the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, both in the US.

The first time I read about Spindle Cells they were described as “the cells that make us human”, they are responsible for advanced social interaction, consciousness and awareness, as well as feeling love and emotional pain.

Most interesting, though, is that Blue Whales not only posse a far higher count and percentage of these specialized brain cells, but they developed Spindle Cells millions of years before humans. 

Source: newscientist.com

Q:Why whales? :)

can1d

Hey Gary, I love that this is my 1st question on Tumblr! Ok, so why are blue whales the thing I seem to think of when I’m stressed or when I need to feel inspired? 

I guess the short answer is, I find them absolutely amazing. 

But, a longer answer would include, being younger and reading about the major arteries of a blue whale being large enough for an adult to swim through, I thought that was so interesting when I was growing up. Knowing that they are the largest living creatures ever found on Earth - but that they are gentle. How they move through the oceans with such patience. 

There’s always been a part of me that believes I don’t necessarily find blue whales in general to leave me feeling the way I do - but, that there is one blue whale out there, one that has been living just as long as I have, and all these years it has been swimming the oceans and growing and learning, and both of us are on a path to one day meet face to face. I admit, I have an extreme fear of the open ocean - an extreme fear - all the same, I intend to travel out one day to search for and touch my hand on a blue whale, and maybe when that moment happens, the parts of me that are still young will feel complete. 

I realize that might sound silly. But, either way, it has always made me feel safe inside. 

In the last few years, in reading about cetaceans, I’ve learned even more that I’ve found fascinating, especially regarding their social behaviors and their brains: 

Some [whales], in fact, contained large concentrations of spindle cells — often referred to as the cells that make us human because of their link to higher cognitive functions like self-awareness, a sense of compassion and linguistic expression — with the added kick that whales evolved these same highly specialized neurons as many as 15 million years before we humans did…

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