October 2022    
         
         
 
     
  The nature of sound  
     
  The way sound exists in nature is complicated. We can’t always hear it without special tools; also, it imparts far more information about our immediate—and even our cosmically distant—surroundings than we realize.  
     
  Play by ear  
     
 
 
 
     
  Image: A nectar bat swoops in for a sip. (Unsplash/Zdenek Machacek)  
     
 
     
  All bats—about 1,440 species, most of which use echolocation—belong to one of two genetic lineages: Yinpterochiroptera (Yin) and Yangochiroptera (Yang).  
     
 
  How does echolocation work?  
 
       
  UChicago scientists have determined that Yin and Yang bats have distinct architectures of the inner ear, where nerve cells carry sound to the brain, and that the two types of bats “see” the world differently.  
     
 
 
  Sound science  
     
 
     
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Bioacoustic researchers eavesdrop on nature to help protect ecosystems.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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The echoes of black holes colliding may help astrophysicists determine how fast the universe is expanding.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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Trained as a cochlear implant surgeon, Dana Suskind has taken on a new role as an advocate for American parents.
 
     
     
 
         
         
    Spotlight    
         
         
 
     
  Music conservatory  
     
 
 
 
     
  Image: Fiddlehead music notes rest on a fern scale and background. (iStock/shaunl)  
     
 
     
  If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  
     
  Experimenting with the philosophical question of whether plants “hear,” Kikù Hibino, a Japanese bibliographic assistant at the Regenstein Library, created an electronic music soundscape for the Fern Room at the Lincoln Park Conservatory.  
     
 
 
  In case you missed it  
     
 
 
 
Wellness rift: COVID-19 threw health care disparities into stark relief.
 
 
Universe unveiled: The JWST returns its first glimpses into the past.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
  Support UChicago biological sciences.  
     
 
     
 
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