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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."

15 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.

  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.

  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!
  5. 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
  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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. Brownian noise? by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2

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