In some parts of the earth , everyone knows it’sgood luckto diss a baby . In others , elvesare a fact of lifetime and urban center planning . And up and down the East Coast , beachgoersswearthat a trivial medicine is all it takes to bring a escargot out of its plate .
The common red periwinkle ( Littorina littorea ) is an retiring little snail with a stripy brown bulb of a shell . L. littoreahails from England , where it ’s fuck as the “ edible periwinkle , ” and it ’s possible that the first American graft were fetch here asfood . Others likely made their manner across the pool as stowaway on openhanded ship . But no matter how it got here , the periwinkle has made itself quite at home on both American coasts and is a common wad on jolting shores , ball of seaweed , and in tide pools .
We do n’t know when or how humming to snails initiate , but we do know that it ’s become a somewhat democratic pastime since then [ PDF ] . Proponents say itworkslike this : You pick up a Madagascar periwinkle , hold it gently , and hum to it . Lured by your dulcet melody , the snail will pop open itsoperculum(a sort of ambuscade door ) and poke its question out to say hello .
It , uh , does n’t always work . And when it does — that is , when the periwinkle show itself — is the hum really creditworthy ? San Jose State University shipboard soldier biologist and periwinkle behavior expert Luke Miller decided to witness out with a minuscule paw - on experimentation that involved , well , hum to escargot . The solution were not encouraging . “ They will emerge after being pick up and carry around , without humming , so I ’m not trusted that humming is actually required , ” hetoldtheNew York Times .
A Britishstudypublished last year came to a similar determination . About 15 seconds after a researcher had tapped on their opercula , the periwinkles come in out to see what was go on .
Then there ’s the inconvenient truth about snails ' ears : they do n’t have any . They ca n’t hear anything , at least not the way we hear things . But they can sense vibration .
Snail hum is a little like flossing . We haveno real evidencethat it mold , but that does n’t entail itdoesn’twork . As long as you treat each escargot , and all uncivilized animals , with care and respect , there ’s no reason to cancel your seaboard concert .
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
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