Acoustics News

February 23, 2025

Top Headlines

Feb. 10, 2025 — Entanglement -- linking distant particles or groups of particles so that one cannot be described without the other -- is at the core of the quantum revolution changing the face of modern technology. While entanglement has been demonstrated in very ...

Music Can Touch the Heart, Even Inside the Womb

Feb. 4, 2025 — Researchers have used mathematical analysis tools to study the effect of classical music on a fetal heartbeat and identify patterns in heart rate variability. They recruited 36 pregnant women and played two classical pieces for their fetuses. By ...

New Training Approach Could Help AI Agents Perform Better in Uncertain Conditions

Jan. 29, 2025 — AI agents trained in simulations that differ from the environments where they are deployed sometimes perform better than agents trained and deployed in the same environment, research ...

Lost Score Revives Sound of Music and Voices from Centuries Past

Dec. 18, 2024 — A fragment of 'lost' music found in the pages of Scotland's first full-length printed book is providing clues to what music sounded like five centuries ago. Scholars have been investigating the origins of the musical score -- which contains only 55 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:09pm EST

Research Shows How Music Can Reduce Distress

Dec. 19, 2024 — A new study has demonstrated for the first time how and why music can reduce distress and agitation for people with advanced dementia. The study involved interviews with staff and music therapists on ...

Bringing the Power of Tabletop Precision Lasers for Quantum Science to the Chip Scale

Dec. 12, 2024 — For experiments that require ultra-precise measurements and control over atoms -- think two-photon atomic clocks, cold-atom interferometer sensors ...

Shape-Changing Device Helps Visually Impaired People Perform Location Task as Well as Sighted People

Dec. 10, 2024 — A groundbreaking piece of navigation technology that uses the ability to sense information through touch can help people with visual impairment ...

The Parasaurolophus' Pipes: Modeling the Dinosaur's Crest to Study Its Sound

Nov. 21, 2024 — Scientists have presented results on the acoustic characteristics of a physical model of the Parasaurolophus' crest. They created a physical setup ...

Do Pipe Organs Create an Auto-Tune Effect?

Nov. 20, 2024 — The pipe organ stands as a bastion in concert halls and church sanctuaries, and even when not in use, it affects the acoustical environment around it. Researchers performed a sine-sweep through ...

Ouch! Commonalties Found in Pain Vocalizations and Interjections Across Cultures

Nov. 12, 2024 — An interdisciplinary team explored possible regularities in vocal emotional expressions by comparing expressive interjections, such as 'wow,' to ...

AI Headphones Create a 'Sound Bubble,' Quieting All Sounds More Than a Few Feet Away

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have created a headphone prototype that allows listeners to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 ...

Researchers Are Making Jet Engines Fit for the Hydrogen Age

Nov. 8, 2024 — Hydrogen-powered planes are set to take wing around the world in the future. To make this possible, engineers have to develop the jet engines that will power them. Experiments by researchers are now ...

Bach, Mozart or Jazz

Nov. 5, 2024 — Physicists have investigated to which extent a piece of music can evoke expectations about its progression. They were able to determine differences in how far compositions of different composers can ...

The 'Queen of the Night' Does Not Whistle

June 18, 2024 — Opera singers have to use the extreme limits of their voice range. Many pedagogical and scientific sources suggest that the highest pitches reached in classical singing can only be produced with a ...

Enhancing Nanofibrous Acoustic Energy Harvesters With Artificial Intelligence

June 3, 2024 — Scientists have employed artificial intelligence techniques to improve the design and production of nanofibers used in wearable nanofiber acoustic energy harvesters (NAEH). These acoustic devices ...

Spider Silk Sound System

May 16, 2024 — Researchers have investigated how spiders listen to their environments through webs and found that the webs match the acoustic particle velocity for a wide range of sound frequencies. Playing sound ...

Metalens Expands Its Reach from Light to Sound

May 14, 2024 — Engineers achieve a wide field-of-hearing acoustic metalens free from ...

US Navy Growler Jet Noise Over Whidbey Island Could Impact 74,000 People's Health

May 10, 2024 — As often as four days a week, Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island fly loops overhead as pilots practice touch-and-go landings. The noise is ...

This Sound-Suppressing Silk Can Create Quiet Spaces

May 7, 2024 — Researchers developed a silk fabric, which is barely thicker than a human hair, that can suppress unwanted noise and reduce noise transmission in a large ...

Why Getting in Touch With Our 'Gerbil Brain' Could Help Machines Listen Better

May 7, 2024 — Researchers have debunked a 75-year-old theory about how humans determine where sounds are coming from, and it could unlock the secret to creating a next generation of more adaptable and efficient ...

Data-Driven Music: Converting Climate Measurements Into Music

Apr. 18, 2024 — A geo-environmental scientist from Japan has composed a string quartet using sonified climate data. The 6-minute-long composition -- entitled 'String Quartet No. 1 'Polar Energy ...

Caller ID of the Sea: Tagging Whale Communication and Behavior

Mar. 25, 2024 — Biologists use a novel method of simultaneous acoustic tagging to gain insights into the link between whale communication and ...

What Kinds of Seismic Signals Did Swifties Send at LA Concert?

Mar. 13, 2024 — Seattle may have experienced its own Swift Quake last July, but at an August 2023 concert Taylor Swift's fans in Los Angeles gave scientists a lot of shaking to ponder. After some debate, a ...

Advanced Noise Suppression Technology for Improved Search and Rescue Drones

Mar. 6, 2024 — Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are beneficial in search and rescue missions during natural disasters like earthquakes. However, current UAVs depend on visual information and cannot detect victims ...

Pythagoras Was Wrong: There Are No Universal Musical Harmonies, New Study Finds

Feb. 27, 2024 — The tone and tuning of musical instruments has the power to manipulate our appreciation of harmony, new research shows. The findings challenge centuries of Western music theory and encourage greater ...

Fundamental Equation for Superconducting Quantum Bits Revised

Feb. 14, 2024 — Physicists have uncovered that Josephson tunnel junctions -- the fundamental building blocks of superconducting quantum computers -- are more complex than previously thought. Just like overtones in a ...

Photonics-Based Wireless Link Breaks Speed Records for Data Transmission

Feb. 1, 2024 — Researchers demonstrated a 300 GHz-band wireless link that was able to transmit data over a single channel at a rate of 240 gigabits per second. The wireless communication system employs signal ...

Sound-Powered Sensors Stand to Save Millions of Batteries

Jan. 29, 2024 — Researchers are developing a new type of sensor that reacts to certain sound waves, causing it to vibrate. The sensor is a metamaterial that acquires its special properties through the structuring of ...

Virtual Noise Assessment for Passenger Jet of the Future

Jan. 25, 2024 — Instead of tubular commercial aircraft, other designs could be used in the future: Jets with a blended wing body would fly more efficiently and make less noise -- but how would the noise emissions ...

Uncovering the Secrets Behind the Silent Flight of Owls

Jan. 23, 2024 — Owls produce negligible noise while flying. While many studies have linked the micro-fringes in owl wings to their silent flight, the exact mechanisms have been unclear. Now, a team of researchers ...

Towards the Quantum of Sound

Jan. 18, 2024 — A team of scientists has succeeded in cooling traveling sound waves in wave-guides considerably further than has previously been possible using laser light. This achievement represents a significant ...

Molecularly Designing Polymer Networks to Control Sound Damping

Jan. 11, 2024 — The world is filled with a myriad of sounds and vibrations -- the gentle tones of a piano drifting down the hall, the relaxing purr of a cat laying on your chest, the annoying hum of the office ...

Teaching Physics from the Din of Flying Discs

Dec. 4, 2023 — The sound a disc makes while soaring through the air is full of information about how fast the disc is flying and how quickly it spins. This inspired Kyle S. Dalton of Penn State University to ...

New Percussion Method to Detect Pipeline Elbow Erosion

Nov. 20, 2023 — An engineering research team is pioneering a new method, based on percussion, to detect pipeline elbow erosion to prevent economic losses, environmental pollution and other safety issues. ...