Texting With the Fishes

In New York City, fish and other river creatures are getting in on the whole text messaging thing. You send them a message and they’ll send you one back about how they’re doing, and even a little bit on the state of the river’s health at that precise moment. Really.

The project is called Amphibious Architecture, and is organized by artists and scientists at New York University. You can also see a light show that depicts the movements of the aquatic life below. BBC Digital Planet's Laura Sheeter has been investigating. Click here to listen.

The Amphibious Architecture project is part of a larger effort underway in New York called Toward the Sentient City. Another project is called Trash Track, in which researchers placed tiny sensors in garbage bags to track the journey of our waste around the world. We spoke to one of the project’s leaders back in July, and you can listen to that interview here.

(Photo courtesy The Architectural League NY)