Noise from commercial and military jet aircraft causes environmental problems for communities near airports, obliging airplanes to follow often complex noise-abatement procedures on takeoff and landing. It can also make aircraft interiors excessively loud.

The sound of a noisy Chicago restaurant during the breakfast rush — the clang of plates and silverware and the clamor of many voices — was the crucial test of new hearing aid technology in a study conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The persistent, annoying blare of an ignored car alarm may become a sound of the past if a cooperative, mutable and silent network of monitors proposed by Penn State researchers is deployed in automobiles and parking lots.

Just picture the scene: you’re at a cocktail party, talking to someone you would like to get to know better but the background noise is making it hard to concentrate. Luckily, humans are very gifted at listening to someone speaking while many other people are talking loudly at the same time.

An “overkill” emphasis on compliance and risk avoidance is testing operational management attitudes.

Booming noises in deserts can sometimes be heard after a natural slumping event or during a sand avalanche generated by humans sliding down the slip face of a large dune.

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) introduced a single-supply operational amplifier with e-TrimTM precision and very low noise. The OPA376 combines low offset voltage of 25uA (max) and wide bandwidth of 5.5MHz in micro-packages. In addition, the device offers low noise density of 7.5nV/sq rt Hz and quiescent current of 950uA (max).

The hearing precision that lets common barn owls find prey is helping researchers fine tune their quest to diagnose a variety of problems rooted in the human brain, not only with hearing but also with behavior and potentially damaged areas.

It is estimated that between 10 and 17% of the population has suffered tinnitus at some time in their lives, according to a number of international studies. Tinnitus is understood as the perception of noise in the ears or inside the head although there is no external source of sound, without any vibratory cochlear activity taking place (which occurs when an external noise is produced).