Sound

Many drones already utilize ultrasound to detect obstacles lying directly in their path. A new drone system, however, uses sound to determine where all of the walls are within a room – providing guidance when vision- or light-based systems cannot.

If the growing proliferation of smart speakers in our homes makes you a little uneasy, researchers from the University of Chicago might have the answer: a wearable bracelet that jams the microphones in speakers, smartwatches, and smartphones alike.

While some vehicles now utilize computer vision systems to "see" items such as road signs, the urban environment consists not only of sights, but also sounds. With that in mind, German scientists are creating a noise-recognition system for cars.

A team of researchers is proposing a radical new technique for killing cancer cells using low-intensity ultrasound waves. The work is still at an early stage but cell tests have shown sound waves can destroy cancer while leaving healthy cells intact.

Exposure to sustained loud noise often results in hearing loss. But now, biologists are testing drugs they call “chemical earmuffs” in mice, which could prevent hearing loss without affecting the volume or quality of sound.

Road noise has long been a problem in cars, but it's even more obvious in electric cars. Nissan has now developed an acoustic meta-material that is as effective as the sound insulation materials currently used, but at a quarter of the weight.

Many of us frequently use Google Maps' Street View feature, to see what things look like at a given location. Well, Australian scientists are developing sort of an audio equivalent, that will let users hear various eco-regions throughout the country.

Some birds make beautiful chirps and tweets. But the white bellbird blasts an obnoxious “song” so loud that it sounds almost digital. Now, researchers have measured just how ear-splitting it is – and crowned it the loudest bird call ever recorded.

NASA has released a symphony of sounds captured by InSight on Mars including quakes, howling winds, metallic “dinks and donks” and other eerie sounds.

NASA recently tested a microphone that's 30 miles long to measure the acoustic signature of the quiet supersonic X-59 X-plane.

​Imagine if you were a spy who needed to receive secret messages while you walked around a crowded room, but you didn't want to wear an earpiece. Well, a cheap new device could help. It's billed as being "the first sound projector that can track a moving individual."

Imagine talking to someone across a crowd of thousands without using a phone, or sitting way up the back at a concert, but hearing everything perfectly. This is the promise of acoustic lenses, and researchers at the universities of Sussex and Bristol in the UK think they’ve something to shout about.