How do my ears sense direction?
How do we know where a sound is coming from?
Another chance to hear this ear-opening episode, exploring a question from CrowdScience listener Chiletso. One day, he heard his son bounce a ball and instantly knew the direction it was travelling. How?
Anand Jagatia sets out to discover what makes left, right, up and down sound so different.
First, he gets blindfolded, so Alan Archer-Boyd, former auditory scientist and lead engineer at BBC R&D, can put his sound localisation skills to the test. It turns out that having two ears and pinnae, those flappy bits of cartilage on the side of your head, help a lot.
Professor Eric Knudsen shares how the barn owl’s asymmetrical ears allow it to hunt mice, even in complete darkness.
And Anand uncovers how far he can push his own spatial hearing. Blind activist and researcher Thomas Tajo teaches him how to echolocate like a bat, and Dr Lore Thaler explains what is going on in the brain of experienced echolocators.
This programme was originally broadcast in March 2023.
Presented by Anand Jagatia Produced by Florian Bohr for the BBC World Service
Image: Boy with hands at his ears Credit: Silke Woweries/Getty Images
- Datum:
- Duur:
Gerelateerde podcastafleveringen
/http%3A//ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/3000x3000/p0kxn93y.jpg)
Meer afleveringen van CrowdScience
-
How do we adapt to the cold?
When some people are wandering around in shorts and a t-shirt, others are wrapped up in warm coats and jumpers. How come our responses to cold weather are so different? People have been living in cold environments for thousands of... -
Can you play the guitar underwater?
Smashing up guitars is a classic rock star activity, but how about drowning them? Seven-year-old listener Cornelius asked CrowdScience to find out what happens if you play a guitar underwater. Could this be the next avant-garde music... -
Can we turn deserts green?
Can we turn the world’s deserts green? CrowdScience listener Youcef is captivated by the idea of bringing water back to Earth’s driest landscapes. With sea levels rising and huge stretches of land drying out each year, he wonders...