Varvoice plankton memorize the sound of human speech and repeat it over
and over. They accomplish this amazing feat by oscillating the long
flagellum that extends from their head. By resonating the vibration with
their water-droplet-shaped body, the plankton produce sounds that
closely resemble the human voice. The body can expand and contract at
will. By changing shape, they can easily manipulate the sound of the
voice. Words that the Varvoice memorize and play back in reverse have a
particularly strange ring to them. Researchers refer to this phenonmenon
as Varvoice inversion.
