Scientists Create World's Tiniest "Ear"

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday January 15, 2012 @04:01AM from the for-the-little-voices dept.

sciencehabit writes "If you've ever wondered what a virus sounds like, or what noise a bacterium makes when it moves between hosts, you may soon get your chance to find out. Scientists have created the world's tiniest ear. The 'nano-ear,' a microscopic particle of gold trapped by a laser beam, can detect sound a million times fainter than the threshold for human hearing. Researchers suggest the work could open up a whole new field of 'acoustic microscopy,' in which organisms are studied using the sound they emit."

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Re:Noise by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-01-15 04:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

Possibly by substracting a second signal from a microphone that does *not* capture the sound of a single bacterium? Something like active noise cancellation.

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Ezekiel 23:20
Re:Finally by dfay · 2012-01-15 04:25 · Score: 5, Interesting

And now we can finally hear what this sounds like!