But in 1940 two Harvard students, Donald Griffin and Robert Galambos, conducted a series of experiments that proved bats get around by generating high-frequency sounds and then listening for the echoes of these sounds. From these echoes they can tell, to within an inch or less, what something is in which direction it is moving , how fast it is traveling , and what kind of body shape and serface it has. Spallenzani, who thought we would" never have any idea." Would be surprised at how much we have learned about bats.