Raffaela Lesch is impressed by the team’s experiment and its choice of species. She works at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. As a bioacoustician, she studies how animals use sound to communicate.

“Working with [voice boxes] this small is not an easy task,” she says. But for Lesch, learning more about how rodents produce sound is exciting. They’re “such a diverse group with such fascinating social, behavioral and ecological adaptions,” she says. 

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amplify: To increase in number, volume or other measure of responsiveness.

biologist: A scientist involved in the study of living things.

birds: Warm-blooded dinosaurs with wings that first showed up at least 150 million years ago. Birds are jacketed in feathers and produce young from the eggs they deposit in some sort of nest. Most birds fly, but throughout history there have been the occasional species that don’t.

cartilage: (adj. cartilaginous) A type of strong connective tissue often found in joints, the nose and ear. In certain primitive fishes, such as sharks and rays, cartilage provides an internal structure — or skeleton — for their bodies.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

deceased: An adjective that describes someone who has died.

ecological: An adjective that refers to a branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. A scientist who works in this field is called an ecologist.

organ: (in biology) Various parts of an organism that perform one or more particular functions. For instance, an ovary is an organ that makes eggs, the brain is an organ that makes sense of nerve signals and a plant’s roots are organs that take in nutrients and moisture.

pitch: (in acoustics) The word musicians use for sound frequency. It describes how high or low a sound is, which will be determined by the vibrations that created that sound.

primate: The order of mammals that includes humans, apes, monkeys and related animals (such as tarsiers, the Daubentonia and other lemurs).

range: The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal’s range is the area over which it naturally exists.

reptile: Vertebrate animals belonging to a group known as Reptilia. Most reptiles have skin that is covered with scales or horny plates. Snakes, turtles, lizards and alligators are all reptiles. Once considered their own separate group, birds now belong to this order. With the exception of modern birds, most modern reptiles are cold-blooded (or ectothermic).

respiratory tract: Parts of the body involved in breathing (also called the respiratory system). It includes the lungs, nose, sinuses, throat and other large airways.

rodent: A mammal of the order Rodentia, a group that includes mice, rats, squirrels, guinea pigs, hamsters and porcupines.

social: (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups. (noun) A gathering of people, for instance those who belong to a club or other organization, for the purpose of enjoying each other’s company.

society: An integrated group of people or animals that generally cooperate and support one another for the greater good of them all.

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body's circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation's railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.

tone: (in acoustics) The pitch of a sound, especially for musical notes.

tract: A particular, well-defined area. It can be a patch of land, such as the area on which a house is located. Or it can be a bit of real estate in the body. For instance, important parts of an animal’s body will include its respiratory tract (lungs and airways), reproductive tract (gonads and hormone systems important to reproduction) and gastro-intestinal tract (the stomach and intestines — or organs responsible for moving food, digesting it, absorbing it and eliminating wastes).

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.

valve: Something that can reduce or shut off the flow of some gas or liquid through a pipe or other passageway. Some specialized valves may allow a liquid or gas to flow in one direction only.

voice box: The hollow, muscular organ forming an air passage to the lungs and holding the vocal cords in people and other mammals. It’s also known as the larynx.

Jake Buehler is a freelance science writer, covering natural history, wildlife conservation and Earth's splendid biodiversity, from salamanders to sequoias. He has a master's degree in zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.