Acoustics

It’s becoming increasingly noisy beneath the waves, but people can do something about it.
Tom Metcalfe, Contributor
Masks may make communication even more difficult for those with hearing loss or who face language barriers.
Marcus Woo, Contributor
Scientists find that aerogels may make effective, ultralightweight noise barriers.
Catherine Meyers, Editor
Separate subspecies of the fork-tailed flycatcher make different trill sounds with their wing feathers.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
Findings suggest sound was not the primary focus of the Stonehenge architects.
Tom Metcalfe, Contributor
Speakers set on bars inside the windows cancel out unwanted noise, using technology similar to that in noise-canceling headphones.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
Researchers can now measure individual phonons -- a single unit of sound.
Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer
Insect hearing systems are inspiring new microphone designs that can better identify the direction a sound comes from.
Bailey Bedford, Contributor
New findings suggest that ordinary sound has negative gravitational mass.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
A better understanding of how humans detect different voices may help design better voice recognition software.
Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer
A new way to measure vibrations may eventually help detect gravitational waves and store quantum memory.
Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer
Algorithms for mixing and mastering audio are having a growing impact on what we hear.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor