It's easy to take hearing for granted. We hear thousands of things every day, and much of it fades into the background. The hum of your refrigerator, the sound of cars on the road, the wind in the leaves, and so much more. It's the wordless song of the modern world, and it has too many verses to count. But every now and then, you hear a new sound in this cacophony, a sound you never thought you'd ever hear, if only because you didn't know such a sound existed. And it turns out there are more than you think, so let's check out ten.
10. The heart of a blue whale can be heard from 2 miles away.
The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. They put even the mightiest of dinosaurs to shame. They can grow up to 100 feet long and weigh over 200 tons. Even the largest dinosaur that ever lived, Argentinosaurus, was only slightly longer thanks to its tail, but weighed about 100 tons less .
If that wasn't enough, dig a little deeper and take a look at the blue whale's heart. This massive organ weighs 400 pounds . When they dive 1,000 feet below the surface, their heart rate can slow to just a few beats per minute. And the thunderous sound their heartbeat makes can be heard two miles away.
9. A bee's penis makes a loud popping sound after mating.
The insect world is harsh and devoid of compassion. We all know that the female praying mantis eats her partner's head after they reproduce, and many female spiders eat males if they can't escape. Insects have it tough, and bees are no exception. Some bees die when they sting you, and it turns out that some die after mating, too. And it's not because the queen is vicious and deadly, like these praying mantises. On the contrary, it's because the male reproduces with such ferocity that..., when he finishes, he explodes his penis with with an audible pop .
The only purpose of a male drone is to potentially reproduce with the queen. They live for only about three months and must gather where the queen is located and then attempt to mate. A few drones, about one in 1,000, will successfully reproduce. The rest will miss their chance and likely die, their life's purpose unfulfilled.
Those who succeed in this experience the most explosive mating ritual . It may only last a few seconds, but once the male successfully penetrates the queen, the chest muscles put pressure on his penis so that he ejects the necessary genetic material with enough force that the penis itself is pulled right out of the bee's body and remains inside the queen. .
8. The Caribbean Sea makes a whistling sound that can be heard in space
There are many noises in the world that originate from ordinary, natural phenomena. The wind can howl in a cave, a stone can rumble and crack with temperature changes, and while this may sound vaguely ominous to the human ear, that's just how the world works. This is probably the best way to cope with the knowledge that the Caribbean Sea whistles.
Based on decades of research, scientists have observed that something called a Rossby wave, which is a large, westward-moving wave, has an unusual interaction with the ocean floor. This causes the wave to die out and then reappear further away. While most waves die out, some survive and create new waves. fluctuations so powerful that they actually affect the Earth's gravitational field.
The oscillations, called "sloshing," occur every 120 days. The sound they produce, a whistling sound, is A-flat and can be picked up by satellites in space, although it is actually below the audible range that the human ear can detect.
7. Number stations produce mysterious radio signals
If you've ever watched the TV series "Lost," you're all too familiar with the idea of mysterious numbers that could hold great and important significance in the world. And who knows, maybe these digital stations are telling us the entire combination to a secret vault, or the identity of some mysterious person, or the code for the end times. Or maybe it's just spyware.
Sometime during the Cold War, shortwave radio operators began picking up strange transmissions. Sometimes they would play short pieces of music, but mostly they were just lists. Letters or numbers would be spoken by men, women, sometimes even children. Nothing else. The numbers seemed random.
To this day station numbers still exist. They still transmit what may or may not be a coded message, and the mystery of who is sending them and to whom they are being sent remains.
It is believed that this connection with spies From other countries where normal communication is impossible. The shortwave radio is simply switched off; it is not monitored, modified, or intercepted. The receiver is untraceable because anyone with a radio can hear it. They just need to know what the code means; for everyone else, it's cryptic gibberish.
6. You can hear the giant Gippsland earthworm moving in its tunnels.
While it's not a hard and fast rule, it's often the case that the larger something gets in nature, the creepier it becomes. Even small, seemingly innocent animals become terrifying when they get big enough. So, when you hear about a creature called the Gippsland giant earthworm, you might already feel a little on edge. The longest one ever discovered was 13 feet long , and that makes it even more unpleasant.
The common worm has the good qualities of at least moving quietly, but not as quietly as the Gippsland giant worm. Not only can you hear these creatures moving in their underground burrows and tunnels, they actually very loud and they sound very much like they have digestive problems. The sound is a gurgling, slurping, gurgling noise that comes from underground, so you'll never see its source, you'll just hear it beneath your feet as you walk.
5. The acoustics in part of Central Station allow you to hear whispers in the room
Traditionally, if you don't want someone nearby to hear you, you whisper. Whispering is a surefire way to keep things secret and/or make yourself appear even more suspicious to others who now know you're saying something but are trying to avoid being overheard. It's also polite in the library or during a particularly boring work meeting.
Go to the dining room on Central Station New York City, and you'll find that whispering isn't exactly a secret, at least in one part of the building. There are whispering gallery , a place where you can hear whispers from across the room, even over the noise of the crowd, if you put your ear to the wall.
If one person stands against the wall of the arch and a friend walks in the opposite direction, they can maintain a conversation thanks to smart acoustics, despite the fact that there is a whole crowd of people between them.
4. You can hear the sound of a sea urchin grinding its teeth on the rocks.
Sea urchins look like small aquatic cacti covered in spines, even though they're animals. And beneath that spiky, plant-like exterior lies more than most of us realize. For example, if you flip a sea urchin over, you'll see a tiny hole on the underside, which is the urchin's mouth. And inside its mouth are tiny calcite teeth, which it uses to cut through rocks and miraculously self-sharpening all the time, so it never gets dull.
Equally remarkable is that this process involved grinding these teeth, and the sound could be heard. It is described as part of the surrounding sound ocean, when small urchins chew on rocks to cut out holes in which to hide.
3. You can hear caterpillar poop
The natural world is filled with countless sounds we all recognize. A cow mooing, a duck quacking, and so on. Even some insects are easily recognizable by sounds like the buzzing of a bee or the chirping of a cricket. But what sound does a caterpillar make? Traditionally, not much. And it turns out that's only because we haven't been listening closely enough or the groups aren't large enough. If you try hard enough, you can actually hear caterpillars pooping.
In the case of a gypsy moth caterpillar, you don't necessarily hear a grunt or other biological sound. Gypsy moth caterpillars have a habit of reproducing in in huge quantities . For several years, thousands of them can swarm an area. When this happens, so many of them can gather in one place that the sound you hear is like spanking thousands of caterpillar excrements falling to the ground like the soft patter of rain.
2. Some types of tinnitus can be heard by others.
William Shatner is known to have, suffers from tinnitus due to an accident on the set of the original series «Star Trek» back in 1969. Explosion special effects damaged the hearing of both Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, leaving him with what he described as a static-like hissing sound in his ears that continues to this day. This is commonly what people with tinnitus experience—a ringing or hissing sound that doesn't originate from an external source.
There is one type of tinnitus that is much more unusual than the others, which is sometimes called objective tinnitus . This type produces a sound that can be heard by others. This usually requires a stethoscope, but in some cases it can be heard simply by placing your ear next to the sufferer's ear, like listening to a seashell on the beach.
Venous tinnitus is one of the specific forms of objective tinnitus that can be heard by outside listeners. It is caused by changes in blood flow , often due to anemia. Essentially, you hear your own blood in your veins, and you usually notice it more often in your right ear than in your left.
1. Perseverance recorded the sound of Mars in 2021
One of the most amazing things you could ever hear as a human, as a sentient being on planet Earth, is the sound of another world. Perhaps in a thousand years, it will be as boring as listening to the wind at home. But right now, today, when no human has yet set foot on an alien world, it's quite astonishing. And thanks to NASA's Perseverance rover, we actually have access to the sounds of Mars.
In February 2021, the first ever cases were registered Martian sounds , which gave scientists the opportunity to study the Red Planet's acoustic landscape. The idea was that they could gather new information about the planet to help us better understand it. After all, every little bit helps. If the planet had a pervasive dance rhythm in the background, that would be a significant find.
Despite what you might think, the rover's two microphones haven't been recycled in the slightest. In fact, they were off the shelf and are available for purchase. You can listen for yourself You can hear sounds and the Martian wind, as well as the rover's operating sounds, including the sound of lasers firing at rocks. In practice, it's not very exciting, and the sounds aren't particularly unusual, but the idea of hearing something in the atmosphere that changes how sound works compared to what we hear on Earth is quite astonishing.