Most of us take for granted that what we can hear represents the full acoustic world around us. It doesn't. Beneath the threshold of human perception lies an invisible ocean of sound — and scientists are just beginning to learn how to navigate and exploit it.

Called "infrasound," these ultra-low-frequency vibrations fall below 20 hertz, the lower boundary of normal human hearing. They travel through the atmosphere, oceans and solid ground, carrying remarkable information about natural events and human activity across vast distances. The Earth, it turns out, is far from quiet.

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There is a word for what the federal government has done to American science during the past year and a half: sabotage. Not reform. Not streamlining. Not the "realignment of priorities" the White House prefers to call it. Sabotage — the deliberate, systematic destruction of one of the most productive enterprises in the history of human civilization, inflicted at a time when the nation can least afford it, for reasons that range from the ideological to the incoherent.

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Most of us think of sound as something we can hear: music, speech, barking dogs, thunder, or the roar of traffic. But an enormous acoustic world exists beneath the threshold of human hearing. Known as "infrasound," these ultra-low-frequency vibrations — generally below 20 hertz — travel invisibly through the atmosphere, oceans, and even the ground. Although largely imperceptible to us, they carry extraordinary information about the natural world and human activity. And, in turn, they can affect how we feel and act.

Scientists are increasingly using infrasound to monitor volcanoes, detect meteors, track storms and nuclear explosions, and possibly improve warning systems for dangerous weather events.

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Those who pay attention to our environmental issues and are old enough will probably remember the Love Canal disaster of the 1970s: A Niagara Falls, New York, neighborhood had been built on top of 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste, and leaking chemicals caused high rates of cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects. It led to forced federal evacuations and prompted the creation of EPA's Superfund program to remediate toxic wastes.

Sadly, the online environment populated by today's youth, sometimes as young as grade schoolers, has grown as polluted – by intellectual, not chemical, waste. By allowing this to occur, we are betraying entire generations, failing our duty of care.

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The pictures in the article didn't cut-and-paste well, so please go here to view the article in its pristine form! (No paywall.)

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Henry

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