Noise pollution from humans and technology alters animal behavior

Noise from data centers may disrupt wildlife and local residents

Individuals living where local ordinances have allowed data centers to be built next to residential areas have reported that the constant humming and vibrations from cooling systems have prevented them from sleeping and exposed them to chronic noise, which the American Public Health Association says can lead to cardiovascular disease and increased stress.

Stress affects different animals in different, but useful, ways

Animals feel stress when they experience actual dangers—such as a zebra chased by a lion. Humans often feel stress from worries, memories, or even thoughts about problems that may occur in the future. For this reason, animals tend to experience stress in short, intense bursts. Conversely, people can feel stressed for long periods, which can eventually be harmful to their health.

Nine different studies exploring animals' relationship to music

Researchers have conducted multiple studies attempting to answer a certain question: do animals like human music? Across species, they observed different results and no clear pattern. Primates appear to prefer silence, and cockatoos appear to dance to funky beats.

The science behind why some noises have color names

Different noise colors (white, brown, pink, blue) have been proven to affect mood and focus. An audiologist explains that these sounds are named after specific light wave frequencies. While individual preferences vary, certain noises consistently impact sleep, stress reduction, cognitive performance, and problem-solving. The article highlights how these sounds can enhance productivity, relaxation, and even gaming experiences.

Extreme heat is neurologically impairing animals

Dog bites increase in summer, birds struggle to learn, and goats pick more fights. Scientists are unraveling new details about how heat impairs animals' neurological systems.

People with tinnitus should avoid silence—sound-rich environments distract the brain

This podcast from an audiologist discusses common questions about tinnitus. It notes that tinnitus could be described as a phantom sound associated with hyperactivity in the brain. It's linked with loud sound exposures above 85 decibels, hearing loss associated with aging and stress, among other factors.

Animals get SAD—especially those in zoos, like pandas

Giant pandas in locations outside their evolved latitudinal range (from southeast Asia to northern regions around Beijing) exhibit more sluggish behavior, even when they were born there. Researchers have observed that similar sensitivities to "photoperiods" (or time with light) impacts many animals, including birds, insects, and our pets. (Nautilus imposes a metered paywall.)

Some animals may speak because of duplicated connections in the brain

Neuroscience suggests that connections responsible for motion made during embryonic brain development—such as those connecting hearing and movement pathways that allow reactive motion when started—are duplicated and connected to the larynx in some animals. This allows some mammals and song-learning birds to speak, provided they have the necessary physiological structures.

Fireworks contribute to air, water, and soil contamination and disrupt wildlife

Fireworks displays have far-reaching environmental consequences, including acid rain from displays during storms and microplastic pollution in water supplies. Wildlife has also been seen abandoning sites during fireworks and never returning.

Light pollution is giving oysters insomnia

Oysters, bivalve mollusks that have light-detecting cells along their skin, can't sleep with all this artificial light. According to a 2022 study, oysters' sleep cycles are disturbed by light dimmer than that provided by the full moon. As with humans, it's possible that these bouts of insomnia could have adverse health effects and contribute to the development of disease over time.

Window collisions and cats kill more birds than wind turbine farms

Researchers are developing solutions to reduce bird fatalities due to wind turbine farms, including radar systems integrating AI to detect birds and shut down systems. Painting blades with various patterns is also being tested, which may reduce bird strikes by 70%.

The highly contaminated Chernobyl region suffers from reduced biodiversity

Although isolation and radiation have driven adaptations in some organisms, decades of radiation have caused ongoing harm to wildlife and vegetation, including population declines in birds and insects. Higher rates of deformities and tumors have also been seen compared with animals in surrounding regions.

Once whale songs were discovered, conservation efforts boomed

Until the 1950s, humans believed whales were mute. Once American underwater surveillance systems caught their sounds during the Cold War, the perception of the creatures changed, leading humans to campaign for whaling bans and long-term conservation efforts. These captivating whale songs can be heard throughout the ocean.

Noise-canceling headphones cancel out environmental sounds with sound of its own

If sound waves are perfectly out of sync, they can undergo destructive interference, canceling each other out. A microphone in noise-canceling headphones picks up external sounds, and an out-of-sync version is emitted to cancel them out in your ears.

Circadian rhythm disruption can influence various mental health disorders

This 2020 research overview surveys the relationship between disrupted circadian clocks and disorders including schizophrenia, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. It incorporates findings and therapeutic approaches drawing from human night shift studies and jet lag studies alongside animal research.

A closer look at why people snore

Snoring is simply noise caused by improper airflow during sleep—and while it’s something that most people will do at some point in their lives, it can also be indicative of larger health problems. Generally speaking, snoring occurs when soft...

When common sounds become disturbing

Misophonia causes certain sounds to feel violating, triggering a "very visceral kind of experience" filled with extremely unpleasant emotions, including annoyance, anger, and disgust. A 2017 study found that people with misophonia have elevated activity in the brain's anterior insula—a region associated with interoception, emotional processing, and behavioral responses—when exposed to trigger sounds. Ongoing research suggests trigger sound context affects the severity and manifestation of the condition.

Agricultural intensification has accelerated declines in pollinator populations

The practice of using farmland more frequently to increase its yield increases the number of residual pesticides and decreases botanical biodiversity. These processes tend to decrease carrying capacity for pollinators by eliminating food sources and nesting habitats.

Unlike the roars in movies, dinosaurs likely cooed, rumbled, and boomed

Fossil evidence and CT scans suggest that many dinosaurs produced low-frequency sounds using resonating crests, closed-mouth vocalizations, or organs similar to those of birds and crocodiles. Larger sounds would not have been helpful for sneakily hunting prey.

Modern conveniences may be contributing to allergy increases

A combination of genetics and how the environment changes our genes are likely contributing to the rise in allergies. But daily conveniences, such as dishwashers and packaged baby food, also change the level of bacterial exposures in early life, with potential implications for allergy development, experts from Mount Sinai Health System state in this video discussion.

Making sense of Mexico City's traffic honks and horns

A car's horn makes just one sound, but somehow, drivers across the world manage to use the monotone for a surprising variety of purposes. This audio-inflected essay takes readers into the nuanced horns of Mexico City's famously congested traffic, providing a "claxonomy" (taxonomy + claxones, or horns) of its drivers' honks.

Read Charles Darwin's description of his tinnitus suffering

When he was 57 years old, Darwin wrote to a new doctor about his suffering from a variety of maladies, including "singing of ears", vomiting, recurring flatulence, vomiting, and more. He noted how he believed his stress contributed to these symptoms.

Humans may be the ultimate invasive species

Originating in East Africa, Homo sapiens migrated across the world beginning about 60,000 years ago and directly harmed countless species by consuming resources and modifying ecosystems to serve our needs. While meeting the definition of an invasive species, some ecologists argue the opposite, claiming that humans have helped preserve numerous species.

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.

Farm animals help maintain the grounds at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport

Since 2013, a herd of goats, sheep, and a donkey have grazed on the scrub vegetation at the airport. In the process, they also help keep out animals that can be dangerous for pilots, like coyotes.

Mapping migrations of hundreds of bird species

The birds we see throughout the year are long distance fliers, often traveling over thousands of miles to reach optimal nesting grounds, better feeding, and more. This thorough interactive map tracks over 450 types of bird on their annual migrations, depicting both their route as well as some of the conservation hurdles each species faces. Fly along with your favorite bird here.

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

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

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

Animal phobias are likely the most common type of phobias, followed by an extreme fear of heights.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

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

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

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.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

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.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.