Rechargeable batteries like the ones in our smartphones typically last a few years, but a new project out of Australia could lead to batteries that last nearly a decade. And that's thanks in part to sound waves.
Scientists once thought stingrays were silent, but a recent recording project found out they make noise after all. Now they want to know why the rays make noises - and for who?
Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology took stem cells and treated them with high-frequency sound waves, which was enough to convert them into bone cells.
Most years February is 28 days long. Every fourth year it has 29. But one time, in one country, for one year, there was a February 30th.
Today is National Radio Day, so it's a good day to talk about one of the legends of old-time radio: sound effects virtuoso Ora Nichols. Plus: researchers at The Ohio State University say they’ve found a weed commonly grown on farms that could help make a greener, more sustainable jet fuel, only its name isn't the most inspiring.
People like to collect all kinds of things, but Mark Davis had a collection that even he thought was a little unusual: cassettes containing the music and announcements that K-Mart stores used to play over their speaker systems, complete with announcements from "KMRT - K-Mart Radio." Plus: on National Pig Day, a story about a pig in the 70s who had an unusual job.
Today is (we think) the birthday of Victor Lustig, perhaps the most notorious scammer of all time. He swindled Al Capone once and "sold" the Eiffel Tower twice! Plus: if you need help relaxing these days, try the ambient soundscapes of Swiss artist Zimoun.
This week in 1960, Richard Nixon campaigned at a cookout in Sullivan, Illinois, eating some of a Buffalo barbecue sandwich before giving his speech. A young Boy Scout, Steve Jenne, took the rest of Nixon's sandwich home and has kept it in the freezer for the last 60 years! Plus: if you're missing cubicles and conference tables these days, there's a new soundscape, Calm Office, that might help.
In 1939 some ranchers in the West proposed taking parts out of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana and creating a new state, called Absaroka. It never won approval from Congress but it did have its own license plates and beauty pageant. Plus: how come a spot in Tulsa is known as the center of the universe?
Before there was digital recording, we had cassettes, reel to reels, phonographs, and even wire recordings! That's a little-known system that was invented at the very end of the 19th century. Plus: meet a building in Italy that's been designed to replicate the shape of an orchestra.
