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Sound Recordings

Caedmon’s lofty slogan was “A third dimension for the printed page.”

The Christmas Tale Spoken Record That Launched the Audiobook

Narrated by Dylan Thomas, the album would go on to sell 400,000 copies

Sssh.

Cool Finds

Researchers Are Recording New York to Make it Quieter

A high-tech aural map could reduce noise nuisances throughout the city

New Research

Why Certain Songs Get Stuck in Our Heads

A survey of 3,000 people reveals that the most common earworms share a fast tempo, unusual intervals and simple rhythm

Just look at that vampiric cutie.

How Bats Ping On the Wing—And Look Cute Doing It

Researchers reveal how bats turn echolocation signals into a 3-D image of moving prey

Paris, 1739.

Cool Finds

This Is What 18th-Century Paris Sounded Like

A bygone age comes back to life in this painstaking reconstruction of the sounds of 1739

A reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

New Research

Hear the Recreated Voice of Ötzi the Iceman

Using CT scans of the Neolithic man’s vocal tract, Italian researchers have approximated the way he pronounced his vowels

Cool Finds

You, Too, Could Own a Copy of the Voyager Golden Record

Ozma records is producing a box set of the album sent into the cosmos to reach out to potential extraterrestrial life

New Research

Watch Acoustic Holograms Create Complex Shapes and Levitate Droplets

These mesmarizing effects are created using only a plastic 3-D printed plate and speaker

Cool Finds

This Is What Jupiter Sounds Like

Listen as Juno bursts into the gas giant’s magnetosphere

Robert Frost in 1941

Cool Finds

Listen to Robert Frost Read His Poems

Recordings offer a chance to really listen to the meaning behind classics like “The Road Not Taken”

Friends or strangers? Listeners may be able to tell just from the sound of the pair’s laughter.

Who’s Laughing Now? Listeners Can Tell if Laughers are Friends or Not

We laugh differently with friends, and the reasons may lie deep in our social evolution

A black-belly dragonfish is just one of the small fish living in the mesopelagic zone 660 to 3300 feet below the surface of the ocean.

New Research

This Sound Might Mean Dinnertime in the Deep Sea

Researchers record a chorus of deep sea animals as they migrate through the ocean

The Apollo 10 lunar module prepares for redocking.

Trending Today

Mysterious “Music” Spooked Apollo 10 Astronauts

Archival audio reveals eerie sounds heard by astronauts on the dark side of the moon

Listen to J.R.R. Tolkien Read Songs and Poems from ‘The Lord of the Rings’

A rare recording captures the famed author’s voice

Sinatra on the radio

Listen to Never-Before-Released Tracks From Frank Sinatra’s Earliest Years on the Radio

You haven’t heard Ol’ Blue Eyes quite like this

Cool Finds

Now Available: The Ultimate Old-Timey Playlist

Listen to digitized recordings of wax cylinders, an obsolete technology that revives turn-of-the-century culture

Setting up sound monitors in Papua New Guinea.

Scientists Are Recording 24-Hour Soundtracks of Rainforests

The bioacoustic data gives Nature Conservancy researchers clues about the health of an ecosystem

Cool Finds

Why Are Urban Planners Collecting City Soundscapes?

This is a journey into sound

Cool Finds

Here’s How to Make a Record Out of a Tortilla

Yes, it’s edible

Turning New York City’s Subway Into a Symphony

Musician James Murphy wants to replace the beeps of the system’s turnstiles with beautiful music

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