acoustics

Freezing the liquid core of an optical fiber produced an extreme environment where light and sound interact more than 1,000 times more strongly than in ordinary fibers. Researchers used the effect to create optoacoustic memory, potentially paving the way for lower-energy photonic computers and advanced quantum technologies.

Nature Communications, Published online: 21 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-76908-3 Here, the authors show that erratic non-Hermitian skin localization allows acoustic waves to localize at disorder-dependent bulk positions while retaining ballistic transport, linking this behavior to the extreme-value statistics of random walks.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 21 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-66449-6 Passive acoustic monitoring of tidally controlled bubble phase transitions at the seabed

Lightning and thunder are produced by the same event, but light reaches us far faster than sound. Here's why—and how the delay can provide a rough estimate of distance. #science, #weatherscience, #physics, #lightning, #thunderstorms, #supereducational

Acoustic topological insulators have the excellent characteristic of the pseudospin-dependent one-way transmission of sound edge states immune to backscattering. We realize the broadband acoustic pseudospin topological edge states with subwavelength generalized topological insulators, which is achieved by reverse pseudospin-orbit coupling. The subwavelength band and broadband nontrivial bandgap c…

On The Acoustics of Cocktail Parties Only parties of well-mannered guests will be considered. If you, like me, tend to practice punctual arrival at parties, you’ve likely noticed that most parties start out quiet. Folks are talking in small groups, using their normal voices, and having productive conversations. As more people arrive, the background noise increase. First a little, allowing guests …

Japan’s NEC Corporation has been awarded a contract for "Research on Underwater Acoustic Foundation Models Using Self-Supervised Learning (Part 1)," with a focus on dual-use applications, as part of a program conducted by the Defense Innovation…

Many of us have a mental image of strings vibrating like a swinging jump rope, but that’s not quite what you actually see. Instead, plucked strings often look strangely triangular, as Henry explains in this Minute Physics video. This more complicated shape comes from the way the string’s tension responds to the applied force of […]

Many materials, both living and engineered, are powered from within. Scientists have thoroughly investigated how such ‘active’ materials operate, but so far, mostly in circumstances where the curvature of the environment does not play a role. In research published in Physical Review Letters this week, a team of physicists proposes a framework to describe how […]

In JASA, researchers set out to understand the acoustics behind "aegyo," the playful cuteness put on by adults to win someone's affection. They discovered that speakers were increasing their formant frequencies when speaking with aegyo, suggesting they changed their voices to make it sound like they had a shorter vocal tract.

What if dolphins are listening in on their prey--and their prey are listening right back? Researchers spent two months eavesdropping on dolphins along Florida's Atlantic coast, using an autonomous wave glider to capture their underwater sounds and clues about where they socialize and hunt. The study revealed distinct acoustic hotspots where dolphins gathered and socialized, and where they hunted …

Adults make their voice sound more childlike by shortening the vocal tract. The post What Makes ‘Aegyo’ Speech So Cute? first appeared on Acoustics.org .

What if dolphins are listening in on their prey--and their prey are listening right back? Researchers spent two months eavesdropping on dolphins along Florida's Atlantic coast, using an autonomous wave glider to capture their underwater sounds and clues about where they socialize and hunt. The study revealed distinct acoustic hotspots where dolphins gathered and socialized, and where they hunted …

While building a browser-based speaker cleaner, I kept running into one deceptively simple product question: if vibration can move a water droplet, can it also clean dust? The tempting answer is yes. The useful answer is narrower. Water and dust can both make a phone speaker sound muffled, but they are different physical problems. Treating them as one problem would make the interface simpler at t…

D.L. Adams Associates Location: Kailua, O'ahu, Hawaii The post Senior Acoustical Engineer/Consultant appeared first on Acoustical Society of America .

Lios develops thin acoustic materials specifically engineered to address this challenge. By rethinking how acoustic energy gets absorbed at the material level, it becomes possible to achieve superior low-frequency performance in profiles up to four times thinner than conventional solutions. The post Thin Acoustic Materials for Low-Frequency Noise in 2026 appeared first on Lios - Advanced Acoustic…

Surfers Jason Kutch and Peter Westwick — both USC scholars — discuss the science and mysteries of the ocean’s primordial force. The post Good Vibrations: The Healing Power of Waves appeared first on USC .

The ocean's deepest waters contain an acoustic superhighway that whales mastered millions of years before humans even knew it existed.