Acoustical Society of America

Thieving whale caught on video gives rare clues about hunting strategy, sound production

For decades scientists have been intrigued by the variety of sounds emitted by sperm whales, partly due to a popular theory that suggests that the sounds might contain information about the animals’ size. But historically it has been extremely difficult to demonstrate that these curious clicking noises can reveal information about the physical characteristics of the massive marine mammals.

Tone language is key to perfect pitch

Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Sinatra and Hendrix ? these and many other of the world’s most famous musicians have had “perfect” or “absolute” pitch. The ability, defined as recognizing the pitch of a musical note without having to compare it to any reference note, is quite rare in the U.S. and Europe, where only about one person in 10,000 is thought to have it.

A sound way to turn heat into electricity

Utah physicists have developed small devices that turn heat into sound and then into electricity. The technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars. “We are converting waste heat to electricity in an efficient, simple way by using sound,” says Orest Symko, a University of Utah physics professor who leads the effort. “It is a new source of renewable energy from waste heat.”

Ray Charles really did have that swing

Ray Charles was really good at snapping, said musical acoustician Kenneth Lindsay of Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Charles’s snaps that open “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” are timed so well that he is never more than 5 milliseconds off the tight beat.

Noise-cancelling stethoscope helps medics in noisy situations

A new type of stethoscope enables doctors to hear the sounds of the body in extremely loud situations, such as during the transportation of wounded soldiers in Blackhawk helicopters. Using ultrasound technology, the kind used to generate images of internal organs, muscles and unborn fetuses, the new stethoscope design will be presented later this week at the Fourth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of American and the Acoustical Society of Japan, which will be held at the Sheraton Waikiki and Royal Hawaiian Hotels in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Ocean Noise Has Increased Considerably Since 1960s

With populations increasing around the globe in recent decades, no one would be surprised by an increase in the amount of noise produced in terrestrial environments. Now, a unique study involving researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has shown that the underwater world also is becoming a noisier place, with unknown effects on marine life.

Researchers build an ultrasound version of the laser

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at the University of Missouri at Rolla have built an ultrasound analogue of the laser. Called a uaser (pronounced WAY-zer) — for ultrasound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation — the instrument produces ultrasonic waves that are coherent and of one frequency, and could be used to study laser dynamics and detect subtle changes, such as phase changes, in modern materials.