Scientists Create World's Tiniest "Ear" 64
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."
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
And now we can finally hear what this [oddmusic.com] sounds like!
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Now someone can hear when I play the world's tiniest violin.
Yeah, but no-one would care.
Re:Finally (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.
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Big Deal (Score:5, Funny)
If I wanted to know what parasitic bacteria sound like, I could just as easily turn on C-SPAN.
National security (Score:3)
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.
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And the first words we hear ... (Score:4, Funny)
Turn that damn light off, you jerks!
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Turn that damn light off, you jerks!
...as they flip us the pseudopod...
Noise (Score:2)
I guess I just don't see how their SNR can be high enough with something that sensitive.
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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
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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.
Re:Noise (Score:5, Interesting)
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That would be plain noise cancellation (there's nothing active about it, unless you want to drive loudspeakers with anti-noise).
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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
Coupled with a real good microscope.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Coupled with a real good microscope.. (Score:5, Funny)
O
oo
O-O
O O
Oh yeah...
Congratulations: (Score:3)
I would call it microphone (Score:5, Insightful)
I would call it a microphone, but maybe that wouldn't prick up many ears.
Re:I would call it microphone (Score:4, Funny)
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Seems more like a nanophone.
Has clear implications for the next-generation iPod Nano.
Coming next... (Score:2)
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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.
Tiny ear (Score:2)
Is it affected by tinitus?
What? No speakers? (Score:3)
They've made a guitar and a microphone but no speakers? Was this funded by the RIAA?
Old Jim (Score:2)
Huh? (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.
Listening to a bug hatch. (Score:3)
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.
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Eeeew.
Obligatory Monty Python reference... (Score:1)
"And now the sound of a tsetse fly blowing its nose, maginified SIXTY MILLION TIMES!"
*a-choo*
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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 [youtube.com]
Women (Score:2)
Women are naturally equipped with ones that are considerably smaller.
Sonic Translation? (Score:1)
The NSA would like to know... (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 i
Brownian noise? (Score:3)
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http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/1 [aps.org]
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.