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Scientists Create World's Tiniest "Ear"

Posted by samzenpus on 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."

40 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Finally by pseudofrog · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now someone can hear when I play the world's tiniest violin.

    1. Re:Finally by dfay · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And now we can finally hear what this sounds like!

    2. Re:Finally by Dexter+Herbivore · · Score: 2

      Now someone can hear when I play the world's tiniest violin.

      Yeah, but no-one would care.

    3. Re:Finally by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      I first thought it was a new crop or family of corn. Where the ears are so small, that from the picking to the canning, there is almost no manipulation to peel off the kernels.

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    4. Re:Finally by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 1

      brilliant

      --
      (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
  2. Big Deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I wanted to know what parasitic bacteria sound like, I could just as easily turn on C-SPAN.

  3. National security by SJHillman · · Score: 2

    Now Homeland Security can spy on all of the creatures within our borders, not just multicellular lifeforms! Surely this will stop the terrorists.

    personally, I bet bacteria sounds squishy.

    1. Re:National security by darkonc · · Score: 1

      No, We'll just end up with 'code red' alerts over 'planned' red-tide invasions.

      --
      Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
    2. Re:National security by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      And we can finally confirm what all those germs are really saying!

  4. And the first words we hear ... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

    Turn that damn light off, you jerks!

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    1. Re:And the first words we hear ... by Patchw0rk+F0g · · Score: 1

      Turn that damn light off, you jerks!

      ...as they flip us the pseudopod...

      --
      When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~~ Hunter S. Thompson
  5. Noise by tylerni7 · · Score: 1

    How do you deal with noise for something this sensitive? If you're trying to measure the sound of a bacterium, and someone coughs, or walks by the room, or a truck drives by, how do you cancel that out?

    I guess I just don't see how their SNR can be high enough with something that sensitive.

    1. Re:Noise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I believe noise of that magnitude would vibrate both the microphone and the bacteria at the same time, effectively canceling it out. The world of the very small is a strange place

    2. Re:Noise by hedwards · · Score: 1

      Probably similar to the way that they used to have to prepare samples for the electron microscope, at least to the point of putting it into a special chamber which in this case would be sound proofed. Those noises are pretty easy to cancel out typically and quite well understood at this point.

    3. Re:Noise by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · 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.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:Noise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      While many post gave good remarks on noise cancellation, there is also the fact that this is on a microscopic scale. That means the that noise produced is highly unlikely to produce sound within the same frequency as normal sound. Couple with the fact that the ear audio range probably can't pick up normal sounds either due to it's size.

      A good example of this effect is looking at normal microphones. They all list the frequency range it is able to pick up depending on the material and size. Sounds too low or too high are not picked up.

    5. Re:Noise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That would be plain noise cancellation (there's nothing active about it, unless you want to drive loudspeakers with anti-noise).

    6. Re:Noise by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Well, there's the word "like" in the post, obviously. But I could have expressed it in better terms, I agree.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  6. Coupled with a real good microscope.. by drewsup · · Score: 3, Funny

    And a new internet niche is born.. BACTERIA PORN!!!

    1. Re:Coupled with a real good microscope.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      O
      oo
      O-O
      O O

      Oh yeah...

  7. Congratulations: by arisvega · · Score: 2

    (applausing very very silently)

    --
    The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
  8. I would call it microphone by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would call it a microphone, but maybe that wouldn't prick up many ears.

    1. Re:I would call it microphone by TeknoHog · · Score: 3, Funny

      Seems more like a nanophone.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:I would call it microphone by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      Seems more like a nanophone.
      Has clear implications for the next-generation iPod Nano.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    3. Re:I would call it microphone by mhajicek · · Score: 1

      Actually it's the world's smallest ear-drum, not ear. The ear includes the laser apparatus.

  9. Tiny ear by machine321 · · Score: 1

    Is it affected by tinitus?

  10. What? No speakers? by sgt+scrub · · Score: 2

    They've made a guitar and a microphone but no speakers? Was this funded by the RIAA?

    --
    Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
  11. Re:Is it tiniest as in smallest or tiniest as in m by jcreus · · Score: 1
    From TFA:

    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.

  12. Old Jim by ksandom · · Score: 1

    had a nack for spotting the next big thing. They say he had a gooooolden eeeeear!

    --
    Funnyhacks - Wierd, unusual, and fun hacks
  13. Huh? by pcwhalen · · Score: 1

    Come again? How's that? Say it slower.
    Damn thing doesn't work, I can't hear a word.
    Turn up the TV.

    --
    Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with all your metadata.
  14. Listening to a bug hatch. by darkonc · · Score: 2
    One night, when I was in my late 20s, I started hearing this weird, tonal scraping sound, but only in the right ear. I obviously considered it unusual, so I went to the hospital to get it checked out. (aside: I LOVE Canada's health care system). The doctor who examined me said that I had a textbook case of a burst eardrum. He prescribed antibiotics, and (since this was a university hospital) he asked if I could come back the next day to get a picture taken of my eardrum for teaching purposes.

    When I returned the next day, the first doctor's advisor examined my 'burst' eardrum and realized that it wasn't what it first looked like. It was a hatched bug egg. Apparently a bug egg, had somehow been deposited on my eardrum. What I'd been hearing was the sound of a baby bug hatching.

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
    1. Re:Listening to a bug hatch. by f3rret · · Score: 1

      Eeeew.

      --
      Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
  15. Obligatory Monty Python reference... by Krokus · · Score: 1

    "And now the sound of a tsetse fly blowing its nose, maginified SIXTY MILLION TIMES!"

    *a-choo*

    1. Re:Obligatory Monty Python reference... by Krokus · · Score: 1

      Damn it. I've misquoted Monty Python. I feel so much shame right now, I'm going to put a bucket over my head and I'm not coming out until somebody stands in a fish tank and sings,

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-L6TFJL1vA

  16. Women by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Women are naturally equipped with ones that are considerably smaller.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  17. Sonic Translation? by Rizimar · · Score: 1

    I really wish they had some samples of recordings from this microphone. I also kind of wonder what sort of transformation the sound undergoes in being amplified after being received from such a strange and tiny input. Would there be a lot of bass? Would it all be high-end? Whatever comes out of the speaker obviously isn't the same as the sound going in because there's such a difference in size and reception. I also can't imagine a golden particle in a laser beam being terribly accurate for certain frequencies or being able to capture all of the detail of a sound, but the article doesn't specify.

  18. The NSA would like to know... by aaronb1138 · · Score: 1

    The NSA would like to know if with a single bug with this technology, how much farther into a building could you hear than their current implementations. Also with two or more instances of the nanophone in a single chassis, how well can we use doppler, selective signal cancellation and room modeling algorithms to choose which room we listen.

    Seriously, as much scientific use as this has, usage by security services will be very interesting. A significant part of bug planting is frequently getting the bugs into low security areas, such as the lobbies of embassies, with the hope of being able to filter and get phone calls and keystrokes from adjacent higher security wings. Listening on this scale might extend to extrapolating fingerprints from the roll your finger over type scanners as an example.

    Also, this form of listening should extend past sound into other frequency ranges fairly easily (radio, light, etcetera). Consider the sensitivity increase for a CCD device where the filtering and threshold apparatuses could be suspended instead of fixed.

    You can't stop the signal...

  19. Coming next... by Atmchicago · · Score: 1

    the bananophone!

    --

    You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.

  20. Brownian noise? by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2

    So, how is this going to detect anything other than Brownian noise?

    1. Re:Brownian noise? by neonsignal · · Score: 1

      http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/1

      They are talking about sound power sensitivity rather than sound intensity sensitivity (this detector is signicantly smaller than an ear drum).

      Also, the Brownian motion pressure in water will less than in air.

      But yes, the detector does see Brownian noise, and that would be the practical sensitivity limit.