Stonehenge produces concert-hall-like acoustics

What Stonehenge sounded like

Researchers built the first scale model of the world's best-known prehistoric stone circle, Stonehenge, to study its acoustic properties. Built approximately 5,000 years ago, the landmark in southern England has puzzled historians for centuries, but...

The anechoic chamber at Bell Labs absorbs 99.999% of created sound

The space nearly eliminates sound wave reflection, allowing visitors to become aware of noises created by their own bodies, including their heartbeat and skeletal conduction. Experiments inside have contributed to the development of digital audio and phone touch tones.

An artist recreated Stonehenge as a bounce house in 2012

Though Stonehenge is sacred to many modern druids and pagans, artist Jeremy Deller reimagined it as a giant inflatable bouncy house—touring Paris, London’s 2012 Olympics, and even Stonehenge itself.

Take a virtual tour inside Stonehenge

Prehistoric visitors approached Stonehenge along a processional route known as the Avenue, where the sunrise of the summer solstice aligns with the sarsen stones. This interactive 3D tour recreates that experience with explainer videos and detailed sidebars.

BBC Radio 4 tackles the history of Stonehenge

On this podcast, host Greg Jenner humorously unpacks Stonehenge’s biggest myths and mysteries—from what a “henge” actually is, to how alien theories emerged, and why the monument was once sold for just £6,000.

BTS' 2026 Seoul concert turned the city into a distributed sound system

The K-pop band's first show after six years turned Gwanghwamun Square into a large open-air venue. Scientists present measured sound levels and noted that the music carried well across vast distances, thanks to good design of the sound system.

Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ revolutionized girl groups—and pop music

The method captured a room of live musicians and transmitted the sound into a basement outfitted with more speakers and microphones. That sound was then sent into the central control room, producing a massive recording that sounded unlike anything else in pop music.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Studying 'sonic' black holes

If a fish screams as it falls down a cascading waterfall accelerating to ridiculous speeds, will his fish friends above hear him scream? This analogy, odd as it is, has become an essential tool in the astrophysicists kit for learning how enigmatic black holes operate. Lab experiments mirroring the so-called sonic black hole have achieved insights for their cosmic counterparts. Read how it works in this brief piece.

Sound can shatter glass if its frequency matches the material's natural vibrations

The sound made by an object when struck is its resonant frequency, which is the sound made when energy is dissipated. Providing energy at that frequency amplifies the vibrations, rather than allowing them to dissipate, which can deteriorate the object's structural integrity.

The physics behind opera singing

How can opera singers project their voices to audiences in huge auditoriums without using microphones and overpowering the orchestra? This video explains this phenomenon, using animation to demonstrate the physics of the human voice and how opera singers hone their technique to hit higher frequencies and a distinctive ringing timbre known as their squillo.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Modern sound mixing has contributed to audiences needing subtitles

Hidden, high-tech microphones allow actors to speak more softly, rather than yelling to be picked up by a distant boom mic, but this sacrifices clarity. The problem is exacerbated by mixing often prioritizing booming sound effects and soundtracks and audiences listening with small speakers on mobile devices.

Watch a pyromusical display to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”

The same principles behind fireworks also power the types of pyrotechnic displays in some live events. Here, you can see an application of the technology in a pyromusical set to rock band AC/DC’s iconic song, “Thunderstruck.”

Drum shields help prevent mic bleed and dampen drum sound

Made of plexiglass or acrylic, the shields are commonly seen in churches and live venues to prevent drums from overpowering other instruments, improving the quality of the audio mix.

The high-tech mechanisms of the Roman Colosseum

The Roman Colosseum is one of the most iconic amphitheaters in the world and still partially stands today. Aside from its sheer size, the arena was equipped with some of the most high-tech engineering from the classical world, including sophisticated lifts, a huge retractable awning, and an underground network of tunnels, elevators, and trapdoors.

Tone Transfer recreates any piece of audio into instrumental recreations

Using machine learning models and Differentiable Digital Signal Processing, this tool can transform any 15-second sound clip into a flute, saxophone, trumpet, or violin reproduction. Researchers behind the open-source experiment hope the technology will enable musical creation through creative sound combinations.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Counterweights can dampen the impact of seismic activity on buildings

Japan’s Tokyo Skytree uses a free-moving central column inspired by ancient pagodas, while Taiwan’s Taipei 101 contains a 660-ton pendulum on its 92nd floor that swings out of sync with the building.

What (and why) is ASMR?

ASMR podcasts and videos are appearing all over social media, so what exactly is it, and what does it do? This immersive article explains the phenomena of ASMR, which stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. ASMR is when certain sounds or...

How radio works

Antennae tune a radio to a particular frequency (determined by the listener on their radio's dial) while tuning out all the other stations being broadcast. AM, short for amplitude modulation, and FM, short for frequency modulation, decode audio signals differently, leading to differences in sound quality and the distance a station can travel.

Hear examples of what tinnitus can sound like to those suffering from it

This video, from a Scottish branch of the UK National Health Service, features different types of ringing, crackling, and other sounds that tinnitus sufferers experience. Individual responses to such phantom sounds may vary widely.

The speech software's origins at MIT led to Hawking's trademark voice being American

Stephen Hawking's trademark voice is called "Perfect Paul," but it mimics Dennis Klatt, an American researcher at MIT who developed the speech synthesis technology. Klatt used his voice during this development, which was immortalized through Hawking.

How the buildings you occupy may affect your brain health

Beautiful spaces filled with light and natural motifs aren't just aesthetic, but likely key to your health. Researchers had study participants view photographs of two distinct buildings, one designed with more natural elements while the other featured more abstract shapes and lines. Using electroencephalograph readings of each participant, they discovered participants had less brain inflammation while viewing the "biophilic," or natural, architecture. Learn more about the interdisciplinary framework of so-called neuroarchitecture here.

Spikes of light around stars are artifacts of light bending around the mirror supports

Through diffraction, electromagnetic waves can bend around obstacles, as observed in the silver linings at the edges of clouds, where light should be blocked. Within reflecting telescopes, starlight diffracts around struts—beams holding a secondary mirror in place—and spreads perpendicular to them, creating pairs of spikes.

Speleothems are diverse mineral formations that form in air-filled caves

Speleothems like stalactites and stalagmites form when water deposits minerals after a cave rises above the water table and fills with air. These formations preserve the mineral deposits, which may serve as climate proxies, for as long as a million years.

Sculpting the unrivalled stone, marble

Marble is considered the chief material for sculpture due to its intrinsic beauty, stemming from its white translucence which makes the light appear to come from the stone. In this video, sculptor Simon Smith recreates Donatello's 15th-century Prato Pulpit panel which still hangs on the outside of a church. Watch as he explains the painstaking process and reveals the beautiful final output.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.