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Just the thought of nails raking across a chalkboard is enough to send shivers down many people's spines — but the reasoning behind this reaction has remained a mystery for decades. Scientists have attributed it to everything from the visual stimuli associated with the sound to an inborn reaction that helps preserve one's hearing — there's even been an Ig Nobel Prize awarded for nail-on-chalkboard research. More »
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Human ears are fine and dandy, but they lack the ability to blot out any aggravating noises. To rectify this morphological oversight, designer Alex Braidwood has designed charmingly goofy tube headphones that allow humans to block out offending din. More »
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The damp, dingy tunnels below Waterloo station in London are hardly your typical concert hall. But last weekend, as part of the Mindful exhibition, artist Oliver Beer brought a choir down to create ethereal music by turning the space into a giant musical instrument. To make the space resound, the singers needed to tap into the natural resonant frequencies of the building. "You sing a high to low range of notes and you listen acutely," explained Beer, as he prepared for the inaugural performance. "At one point, if you sing really quietly under your breath, so that it's just a whisper of a note, suddenly it gets amplified and the whole room zings with something you don't believe you've created." More »
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Technically, any sound moves electrons, since electrons are part of the atoms that move in pressure waves. But now scientists are using sonic waves to move an electron down a wire perfectly - with no loss of information. Then they played ping-pong with it. Typical. More »
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Symmetry is beautiful, right? People with symmetric faces are considered more attractive. Almost all animals have symmetrical bodies. Self-help books always blather on about 'symmetry and balance'. But when you hunt under water, does symmetry become a hindrance? More »
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Do I need to tell you any more? Can't we just let that sentence stand, knowing that it's out there, and go on with our lives? No? Okay. Here's some more detail. More »
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Scientists have come up with a super-sensitive microphone that works underwater. What did it take? The same thing it takes to accomplish anything worth doing: lasers. More »
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China's concave-eared frogs are one of two amphibians that use ultrasonic frequencies to communicate. There's only one small problem: the males and the females have evolved along such vastly separate lines that females are completely deaf to the males' ultrasonic cries. More »
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The famous one-way mirror used in police interrogations isn't really one-way - it's just a trick of clever lighting. But physics could produce true one-way mirrors, and even walls that are only soundproofed in one direction. More »
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How do we know what ancient Egyptian sounded like, or Old English? Linguistics gives us the tools to reconstruct lost languages from the words we speak today. Here's how it's done. More »
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A depressing study shows that military and industrial noise may be killing off cephalopods. On the bright side, at last we have a way to fight squid-like monsters. More »
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The World Health Organization calculated deaths and disabilities caused by noise pollution. Turns out the numbers are second only to air pollution. Find out how noise kills. More »
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Brontides, deep booming noises without any defined source, are audio cryptids. Have you heard one? More »
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Refrigerators are the source of much joy in the world, and the fridge is made possible by continually-cycled, selectively-pressurized gas. But someday, sound waves may replace this system in your fridge. More »
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Find out what a sonic boom is, and how you can create it in the privacy of your own household. More »
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There's a simple way to measure the speed of sound. It's low tech and unimpressive, but you get to blast an air horn. How many times can you say that you're using one for science and not sheer obnoxiousness? More »
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Eric Archer drove from New Jersey to Brooklyn and scored the trip using a photodiode-to-audio circuit. Using this technology, the headlights of cars become blaring horns and a flashing truck pounds out a Kraftwerkian beat. [MAKE] More »
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According to evolutionary biologists, movie music contains "unexpected" sounds that trigger primal reactions from audiences. In other words, our brains are hardwired to respond with fear to the Jaws soundtrack. More »
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Infrasound is too low-frequency for humans to hear. It has been mistaken for ghosts, has been known to cause nausea and headaches in humans, and is used to monitor the testing of nuclear weapons. More »
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Acoustic levitation is some day going to be used to brush the dust off machinery on Mars. Learn why sound can lift objects off the ground and see an acoustic levitation chamber in action. More »
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Imagine a giant tank that can roll into town emitting literally no sound. This could be the future of stealth warfare. Scientists have recently devised a "sonic black hole;" any sound that passes its edge can never come out again. More »
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Much of the excitement over the Phoenix Lander of late has focused on its discoveries of water on Mars. The Phoenix has touched Martian ice, found the planet’s internal plumbing, and even seen it snow. Now the team is preparing the Phoenix for a different sort of first, as NASA scientists prepare to turn on its microphone and, for the first time, listen to the sounds of Mars. More »
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While I was at the Skywalker Ranch facilities on Monday, I did more than ogle George Lucas. I was lucky enough to meet Academy Award-winning sound editor Matt Wood, who is supervising sound editor on Clone Wars as well as the guy who voices most of the droids. Wood did a software demo with me where he turned me into a droid, which was awesome. But even more awesome was when he shared his big plans for an all-droid episode of Clone Wars where we meet a droid family and "learn all about their trials and tribulations." Do you think he was perhaps being sarcastic? Watch the video and find out. More »
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You've probably heard the Wilhelm Scream dozens of times in different movies and television shows without realizing it, but it's one of those things that once you hear, you'll always be able to identify it afterwards. It's now become an in-joke amongst sound editors who try to insert it into their films whenever there's a perfect moment that just needs an over-the-top scream. It began as a Warner Bros. stock sound effect, but was revived and put to serious use by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt. Now the thing just won't die. Find out more in our screaming triviagasm below. More »
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For years there have been urban legends about a "brown sound" or "brown note," a frequency so low that it'll literally cause you to shit yourself. Not only has this elusive weapon been sought by governments, but it also crops up in science fiction. Just think about what this insidious weapon could do in the hands of an evil villain! It turns out the legend was born after several real-life tests of the Republic XF-84H "Thunderscreech" airplane in 1956, which earned the honor of being the loudest airplane ever built. Find out more about the poop plane and the quest for the sound of brown inside. More »
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