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"Scientists have recently made some remarkable discoveries about non-human sounds. With the aid of digital bioacoustics - tiny, portable digital recorders similar to those found in your smartphone - researchers are documenting the universal importance of sound to life on Earth. By placing these digital microphones all over Earth, from the depths of the ocean to the Arctic and the Amazon, scientists are discovering the hidden sounds of nature, many of which occur at ultrasonic or infrasonic frequencies, above or below human hearing range. Non-humans are in continuous conversation, much of which the naked human ear cannot hear. But digital bioacoustics helps us hear these sounds, by functioning as a planetary-scale hearing aid and enabling humans to record nature's sounds beyond the limits of our sensory capacities. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), researchers are now decoding complex communication in other species."

"But can you actually hear something that does not emit a sound? Certainly, said Chris Plack, a professor of audiology at the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, who researches acoustic reflexes and auditory processing. "Hearing," as he defines it, does not require external noise; rather, it is "having the experience of a sound.""

"Reporting the frequency range for hearing in dogs and other species is not a straightforward task - the "how" of determining hearing frequency ranges must first be explained. Testing in animals differs from the method commonly used with humans of voluntarily reporting if a sound is heard."

"Noise is the top quality-of-life complaint to 311, and those complaints are on the rise. But our relationship with noise is very complicated, with lots of advantages, too. What noises drive you crazy, calm you down, damage your hearing or peace of mind, help you create? Callers sound off on noise and we hear from guests, including environmental psychologist Arline Bronzaft, acoustics consultant Alan Fierstein, sound historians Emily Thompson and David Hendy, and hearing specialist Eric Smouha."

"Hearing is a vastly underrated sense. We tend to think of the world as a place that we see, interacting with things and people based on how they look. Studies have shown that conscious thought takes place at about the same rate as visual recognition, requiring a significant fraction of a second per event. But hearing is a quantitatively faster sense. While it might take you a full second to notice something out of the corner of your eye, turn your head toward it, recognize it and respond to it, the same reaction to a new or sudden sound happens at least 10 times as fast. "

"A cochlear implant is a medical device surgically placed in the inner ear, which transmits sound signals to the brain and can allow some deaf people to hear again, or hear for the first time. For hearing people, a video of a deaf person experiencing sound may look like a scientific and personal triumph. But for a deaf person, even a cochlear implant user like me, these "feel-good" videos are often a bit tasteless at best, ableist at worst."

Oorwonde is an interactive aural installation in which the visitor becomes a willing 'patient' to hear, feel, influence and manipulate the soundtrack of a fictitious operation. Speakers, electro-magnets, vibrator motors and piezoelectric disks entwine with the human body, creating a unique composition and performance. Based on Bernhard Leitner's philosophy that "listening is understood to extend to all parts of the body and sound to touch a deep nerve", Oorwonde explores the concept of bodily hearing as multiple elements target different body parts. Hearing is no longer restricted to the ears.

"Writer Frank Swain has been able to hear Wi-Fi signals for the past week, and no, it's not "the result of a sudden mutation or years of transcendental meditation," he says. Swain wears a special hearing device that gives him the ability to translate wireless frequencies into sounds. Alongside sound artist Daniel Jones, Swain created Phantom Terrains in order to give those invisible data fields that surround us a bit more presence. "

"The ear has 20,000-30,000 hair cells, the nerve endings responsible for carrying the electrical impulses through the auditory nerve to the brain. These delicate receptors bend or flatten as sounds enter the ear, typically springing back to normal in a few hours, or overnight. But over time, loud sounds can cause more permanent damage as hair cells lose their resilience. Frequent and intense exposure to noise will cause these receptors to flatten down, stiffen, and eventually break. The damage can interfere with the ability to determine the location of a sound, cause extreme sensitivity and pain, and make it impossible to discern language with background noise. One in 20 Americans, or 48 million people, report some degree of hearing impairment. RELATED STORY What My Hearing Aid Taught Me About the Future of Wearables "

"Welcome to the final installment of Hearing the UnHeard, Sounding Out!'s series on what we don't hear and how this unheard world affects us. The series started out with my post on hearing, large and small, continued with a piece by China Blue on the sounds of catastrophic impacts, and Milton Garcés' piece on the infrasonic world of volcanoes. To cap it all off, we introduce The Sounds of Science by professor, cellist and interactive media expert, Margaret Schedel."

A personal essay about hearing loss, disability, the amplification of the sound of one's body, the way that hearing and mishearing leads to metaphor, and the losses and gains of disability as well as normative sensing.

"I am hard of hearing as well as an electronic music enthusiast. I have always been an observer and I have always seen that my companions' reactions to the music we listen to together are different from mine. I tried with all my might to feel what they felt - with poor results. Which made me sad and irritated. Would I never be able to fully appreciate the aesthetics of sound? Eventually, I began to look more deeply into my experiences."

""The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind.""

"Eric Smouha, associate professor of otolaryngology and director of otology and neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, answers questions about the inevitable effect of noise over time -- hearing loss."

"This 1940s old as dirt med school classic video describes how humans hear sound and how the human ear works. The video covers the anatomy and physiology of the ear and discusses the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. Other topics include the eardrum (tympanic membrane), hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), stirrup (stapes), organ of corti, and the cochlea. Included in the video is a labeled diagram showing the parts of the human ear. This is excellent information for managers who have workers exposed to high levels of noise that could potentially damage hearing."

"The internet erupted in disagreement on Tuesday over an audio clip in which the name being said depends on the listener. Some hear "Laurel." Others hear "Yanny.""

"What people hear and do not hear can have a direct effect on their balance, according to new research from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE)."

"The unsafe use of personal audio devices and high sound volumes at events are putting over a billion teens and young adults at risk of permanent hearing loss, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday."

""Out of Range" is an audio work based on ultrasound and echolocation used by bats, dolphins and other creatures who operate beyond the range of human hearing - 'seeing' with sound, or perhaps 'hearing' objects."

""I can hear how the bees are behaving - if they're agitated, if there are other bees trying to get in the hive, or if it's too crowded or too hot or too cold," said Aerial Gilbert, an avid beekeeper in Petaluma. What you want to hear, she said, is a calm steady buzz. That indicates that everything in the hive is going smoothly."