Biology | Physiology
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Chapter one
Soothing
Biology | Neuroscience
We Weren’t Designed to Appreciate Good Perfume
Our sense of smell may have evolved to detect danger, not beauty.
Biology | Neuroscience
This Is Your Brain on Silence
Contrary to popular belief, peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head.
Ideas | Physics
Brian Eno Plays the Universe
A physicist explains what the composer has in common with the dawn of the cosmos.
Chapter two
Shaking
Matter | Earth Science
The Last of the Earthquake Predictors
A handful of underfunded researchers still believe science can defy the odds.
Ideas | Art
These Nature Photographs Aren’t What They Seem
The visual playfulness of Simen Johan.
Matter | Aerodynamics
The Sound So Loud That It Circled the Earth Four Times
The 1883 eruption on Krakatoa may be the loudest noise the Earth has ever made.
Matter | Physics
The Noise at the Bottom of the Universe
The origin of quantum noise is the modern incarnation of a millennia-old debate.
Chapter three
Medley
Culture | Music
How Noise Makes Music
We use music to make sense of the squawks, creaks, and roars around us.
Culture | Music
Ingenious: Jonathan Berger
The composer on transforming noise into music.
Matter | Physics
The Hidden Science of the Missing Gravitational Waves
A relatively unknown experiment is already drawing conclusions from the sound of silence.
Biology | Environment
Decoding Nature’s Soundtrack
The health of an ecosystem in the Earth’s own words.
Biology | Animals
Why the Songbird’s Serenade Is Going Off Key
Urban din is forcing animal mating calls to be either unsexy or unheard.
Matter | Physics
Spark of Science: France A. Cordova
The director of the National Science Foundation on what brought her back to science.
Numbers | Architecture
The Man Who Designed Ghost Armies and Opera Houses
The storied career of the centenarian and acoustician, Leo Beranek.
Chapter four
Background
Ideas | Physics
This Physics Pioneer Walked Away from It All
Why Fotini Markopoulou traded quantum gravity for industrial design.
Culture | Neuroscience
Noise Is a Drug and New York Is Full of Addicts
We may complain about a defining feature of the city, but we also feed off it.
Ideas | Physics
Her Second Act: Fotini Markopoulou on Life Beyond Physics
It was time to work with her hands, not only her mind.
Numbers | Technology
Joys of Noise
The reliability of some technologies depends on just the right amount of randomness.
Biology | Health
The Case For Leaving City Rats Alone
A Vancouver rat study is showing us how pest control can backfire.
Related Facts So Romantic
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” —Jules Verne
See All Blog Posts-
Matter
7 Ways Humans Have Tried to Predict Earthquakes
Humans have been trying to predict earthquakes at least since first-century China, when the device of choice was a vessel fitted with metal dragons facing each compass direction. If the…
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Biology
50 Million Tinnitus Sufferers Just Got Some Bad News and Some Good News
Fifteen years ago, almost as soon as she arrived in the Cleveland suburbs, her hometown, a high-pitched ringing disturbed Katie Hellmuth Martin’s sense of peace. She was looking forward…
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Matter
Aristotle at the Gigafactory: Why Physics Is a Philosophy
On Friday, in Storey County, Nevada, a woman at Tesla’s Gigafactory inauguration hollered, “Beam me up, Elon!” Elon Musk, the electric car company’s chief executive officer, had…
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Ideas
Politicians Need to Understand This Computer Science Concept Better
I have an idea that would keep 100 percent of foreign-born terrorists out of the United States. Not only that, it’s far simpler than any presidential candidate’s proposals. All we have…
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