Scientists have modeled shipping noise on a global scale. The world-wide maps will be presented for the first time at the 21st International Congress on Acoustics (ICA 2013), held June 2-7 in Montreal.
With the flick of a switch, inflatable sound absorbers can turn classical music halls into houses of rock. The scientist who developed the technology will present his work at the 21st International Congress on Acoustics (ICA 2013), held June 2-7 in Montreal.
The 21st International Congress on Acoustics (ICA 2013 Montreal) will be held June 2-7, 2013, at the Palais des congrès in downtown Montreal. The meeting will feature more than 1,600 presentations on sound and its applications in physics, engineering, and medicine.
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is seeking nominations for its 2012 Science Writing Awards in Acoustics, which are intended to recognize excellence in the presentation of acoustics-related topics to a popular audience.
Concern is growing that human-generated noise in the ocean disrupts marine animals that rely on sound for communication and navigation. In the modern ocean, the background noise can be ten times louder than it was just 50 years ago. But new modeling based on recently published data suggests that 200 years ago – prior to the industrial whaling era -- the ocean was even louder than today due to the various sounds whales make.
An acoustic navigation system being developed by a team of University of Texas at Austin researchers studying the science of sound propagation inside burning buildings may one day become a life-saving addition to firefighters’ arsenal of tools.
Japan’s Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear disaster that occurred in 2011 -- a result of the strongest earthquake on record in the country and the powerful tsunami waves it triggered -- underscored the need for a method to monitor the status of nuclear fuel rods that doesn’t rely on electrical power.
People with perfect pitch seem to possess their own inner pitch pipe, allowing them to sing a specific note without first hearing a reference tone. This skill has long been associated with early and extensive musical training, but new research suggests that perfect pitch may have as much to do with genetics as it does with learning an instrument or studying voice.
Physics of the Blues, making hospitals quiet, and sound waves for planetary exploration are just some of the lay-language versions of papers being presented at the 164th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), held Oct. 22 – 26 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Media invited to webcast press briefing at 10:30 a.m. CDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on Tuesday, October 23, 2012. The briefing will cover select topics being presented at the 164th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). See: www.aipwebcasting.com
Hard collisions can lead to player concussions, but the physics of how the impact of a helmet hit transfers to the brain are not well understood. A research team from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., has created a simplified experimental model of the brain and skull inside a helmet during a helmet-to-helmet collision.
Global temperatures directly affect the acidity of the ocean, which in turn changes the acoustical properties of sea water. New research suggests that global warming may give Earth’s oceans the same hi-fi sound qualities they had more than 100 million years ago, during the Age of the Dinosaurs.
Noise can be distracting, especially to a person trying to concentrate on a difficult task. Studying annoying noises helps architects design better building environments and policy makers choose effective noise regulations. To better understand how short noise bursts affect humans’ mental state, researchers from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln played quarter-second-long white noise clips to test subjects as they worked on arithmetic problems.
Miss hitting the “sweet spot” on a baseball bat and the resulting vibrations can zing your hands. Bat companies have tried for decades to reduce these painful shocks with limited success. But Daniel Russell, a professor in the graduate program in acoustics at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, has figured out that bat vibrations between 600 and 700 hertz (Hz) cause the most pain and that specifically tuned vibration absorbers are the best at combatting the sting.
Earthquakes sway buildings, buckle terrain, and rumble – both audibly and in infrasound, frequencies below the threshold of human hearing. New computer modeling by a team of researchers indicates that most of the low-frequency infrasound comes from an unexpected source: the actual “pumping” of the Earth’s surface. The researchers confirmed their models by studying data from an actual earthquake.
Perfect pitch, dolphin communication, and noise in the community and in nature are just some of the intriguing topics that will be presented at the 164th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).
An acoustic diode, enabling the one-way transmission of sound waves, could dramatically improve the quality of medical ultrasound imaging and lead to better sound dampening materials. Such a device has now been created by researchers at China’s Nanjing University.
For the ears, a cocktail party presents a chaotic scene: glasses clink, voices buzz, light piano music may waft down from the stage. A group of researchers at The John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., is trying to understand how the brain makes sense of such complex auditory environments. The team is testing how humans track sound patterns over time, and under what circumstances the brain registers that the pattern has been broken.
Toothed whales navigate through sometimes dark and murky waters by emitting clicks and then interpreting the pattern of sound that bounces back. The animals’ hearing can pick up faint echoes, but that sensitivity can be a liability around loud noises. Now researchers have discovered that whales may protect their ears by lowering their hearing sensitivity when warned of an imminent loud sound.
To gain new insights into how dolphins communicate, researchers in Japan created a prototype of an extremely broadband “dolphin speaker” capable of projecting dolphins’ communication sounds, whistles, burst-pulse sounds, as well as detection sounds such as echolocation clicks.