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News tagged with acoustics

Ship noise boosts stress in whales, 9/11 reveals: study

The steady drone of motors along busy commercial shipping lanes not only alters whale behaviour but can affect the giant sea mammals physically by causing chronic stress, a study published Wednesday has reported ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Quantum microphone captures extremely weak sound

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Chalmers have demonstrated a new kind of detector for sound at the level of quietness of quantum mechanics. The result offers prospects of a new class of quantum hybrid circuits ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Rap music powers rhythmic action of medical sensor

(PhysOrg.com) -- The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body.

Technology / Engineering

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Revolutionary tool will methodically track ocean populations

Oceanographer Chuck Greene envisions a day when he will be able to observe the ocean the way a meteorologist observes the weather -- with continuous streams of data that allow him to see changes as they happen ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Researchers transfer the concept of an optical invisibility cloak to sound waves

Progress of metamaterials in nanotechnologies has made the invisibility cloak, a subject of mythology and science fiction, become reality: Light waves can be guided around an object to be hidden, in such a way that this object ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 20, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Researchers' new recipe cooks up better tissue 'phantoms'

The precise blending of tiny particles and multicolor dyes transforms gelatin into a realistic surrogate for human tissue. These tissue mimics, known as "phantoms," provide an accurate proving ground for new photoacoustic ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 30, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Seeing sound in a new light

The National Physical Laboratory Acoustics team has been investigating acoustic cavitation – the formation and implosion of micro cavities, or bubbles, in a liquid caused by the extreme pressure variations ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 24, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Bats, dolphins, and mole rats inspire advances in ultrasound technology

Sonar and ultrasound, which use sound as a navigational device and to paint accurate pictures of an environment, are the basis of countless technologies, including medical ultrasound machines and submarine ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Seeing sound: Team develops noninvasive method to visualise sound propagation

High-performance loudspeaker manufacturers have been able to improve sound quality dramatically over the years, but still face the issue of dead spots.

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 08, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Keep the beat say, rhythm researchers

Why we do move when we hear good music? Researchers at McMaster University have found that tapping to the beat measurably enriches the listening experience, broadening our capacity to understand timing and ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Oct 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Scientists develop new technology to detect deep sea gas leaks

A new ultra-sensitive technology which can monitor leaks from underwater gas pipelines has been developed by scientists at the University of Southampton.

Technology / Engineering

created Oct 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Multibeam sonar can map undersea gas seeps

A technology commonly used to map the bottom of the deep ocean can also detect gas seeps in the water column with remarkably high fidelity, according to scientists from the University of New Hampshire and ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 06, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Moon's shadow, like a ship, creates waves

During a solar eclipse, the Moon's passage overhead blocks out the majority of the Sun's light and casts a wide swath of the Earth into darkness. The land under the Moon's shadow receives less incoming energy ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Generation of spin current by acoustic wave spin pumping

Tohoku University, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) announced on August 22, 2011 that Kenichi Uchida, a PhD student, and Professor Eiji Saitoh of Tohoku University and their ...

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Growth hormone helps repair the zebrafish ear

Loud noise, especially repeated loud noise, is known to cause irreversible damage to the hair cells inside the cochlea and eventually lead to deafness. In mammals this is irreversible, however both birds and fish are able ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Acoustics

Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics can be seen in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio and noise control industries.

Hearing is one of the most crucial means of survival in the animal world, and speech is one of the most distinctive characteristics of human development and culture. So it is no surprise that the science of acoustics spreads across so many facets of our society—music, medicine, architecture, industrial production, warfare and more. Art, craft, science and technology have provoked one another to advance the whole, as in many other fields of knowledge. Lindsay's 'Wheel of Acoustics' is a well accepted overview of the various fields in acoustics.

The word "acoustic" is derived from the Greek word ἀκουστικός (akoustikos), meaning "of or for hearing, ready to hear" and that from ἀκουστός (akoustos), "heard, audible", which in turn derives from the verb ἀκούω (akouo), "I hear".

The Latin synonym is "sonic", after which the term sonics used to be a synonym for acoustics and later a branch of acoustics. Frequencies above and below the audible range are called "ultrasonic" and "infrasonic", respectively.

For more information about Acoustics, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.