All Articles Tagged As: sound

How long does a tuning fork ring? (3/11/2011)

Researchers at the University of Vienna and Technische Universitaet Muenchen have solved a long-standing problem in the design of mechanical resonators: the numerical prediction of the design-limited damping. They report their achievement, which has a broad impact on diverse fields, in the forthcoming issue of Nature Communications. The article describes both a numerical method to calculate the mechanical damping as well as a stringent test of its performance on a set of mechanical microstructures. ...> Full Article

Sound creates light (6/27/2010)

Researchers at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt have found an elegant solution to transmit an optical frequency with extreme precision: they employ fiber Brillouin amplification. The new method simplifies the comparison of newly developed optical clocks and it is likely to have applications in other areas where precise synchronization is needed, for example in radio astronomy. Experts in geodesy have already approached the PTB researchers with suggestions for joint projects. ...> Full Article

Quantum leap for phonon lasers (2/23/2010)

Physicists have taken major step forward in the development of practical phonon lasers, which emit sound in much the same way that optical lasers emit light. The development should lead to new, high-resolution imaging devices and medical applications. Just as optical lasers have been incorporated into countless, ubiquitous devices, a phonon laser is likely to be critical to a host of as yet unimaginable applications. ...> Full Article

Researchers create first hyperlens for sound waves (10/27/2009)

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed the world's first acoustic hyperlens, a device that provides an eightfold boost in the magnification power of ultrasound, underwater sonar and other sound-based imaging technologies. ...> Full Article

A new technique identifies versions of the same song (10/23/2009)

A team of researchers from Pompeu Fabra University has developed a system to identify common patterns in versions of songs, which will help to quantify the similarity of musical pieces. The technique, which appears in the New Journal of Physics, could be applied to analyze time series of data in other fields, such as economy, biology or astronomy. ...> Full Article

Lasers generate underwater sound (9/9/2009)

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are developing a new technology for use in underwater acoustics. The new technology uses flashes of laser light to remotely create underwater sound. The new acoustic source has the potential to expand and improve both Naval and commercial underwater acoustic applications, including undersea communications, navigation and acoustic imaging. ...> Full Article

I'm forever imploding bubbles (4/8/2009)

New sensor ensures our hospitals are hygienic by listening to collapsing bubbles ...> Full Article

Micro honeycomb materials enable new physics in aicraft sound reduction (9/30/2008)

Honeycomb-like structures composed of many tiny tubes or channels can reduce sound more effectively than conventional methods ...> Full Article

Researchers demonstrate super-sensitive explosives detector (6/28/2008)

Using a laser and a device that converts reflected light into sound, researchers can detect explosives at distances exceeding 20 yards. ...> Full Article

An 'Invisibility Cloak' For Sound? (1/10/2008)

Theoretical device could mask sound in 3-D ...> Full Article

Reversible Data Transfers from Light to Sound (12/17/2007)

New experiments address a barrier to efforts at developing computer networks that can run on light instead of electrons ...> Full Article

Researcher studies the sound of rough (9/21/2007)

What is the sound of rough? That might seem like a question for armchair philosophers, but a engineering professor's answer has garnered him kudos and a substantial funding commitment from NSERC. ...> Full Article