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Science Podcasts

Sun, 10th Jan 2010

Listen Here! The Science of Sound and Hearing

We open our ears to the science of sound and hearing this week with a look at the genetic causes of deafness and how a deaf person's brain decodes sign language. We also hear how auditory illusions can fool you into hearing things that aren't there and meet a sound simulation system that can improve the clarity of railway station announcements and recreate the "cocktail party effect" to help build better hearing aids. Plus, we find out why light makes migraines more painful, how cleaner fish keep each other in check and, in Kitchen Science, Dave swaps Ben's ears around...

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In this edition of Naked Scientists

01:57 - Why Light Makes Migraines Worse...
04:38 - Keeping Cleaner Fish in Check

06:38 - Repairing Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 2 - ALDH2
09:30 - Nothing like a good pair of nitric oxide socks

11:33 - The Genetics of Hearing

Karen steel discusses the genetic mutations and changes that can impair our hearing...
20:54 - Analysing Acoustics and the "Cocktail Party Effect"

"The train standing at platform mgph is the phuy-hfgjy to mmughpyhmm..." We meet a sound simulation system that can improve the clarity of railway station announcements and recreate the "cocktail party effect" to help build better hearing aids...

31:02 - Language in the Deaf Brain

A deaf person's brain uses many of the same systems and pathways to understand sign language as a hearing person does to understand speech. Mairead McSweeney joins us to explain more...
37:57 - Auditory Illusions

Bob Carlyon explores the illusory side of our hearing...

45:17 - Swapping Sounds

Completely confuse your sense of direction using a couple of hose pipes and some funnels...
51:30 - In what language do deaf people think?

Hi, I've got a question about deaf people. How do they think? I mean, how to they make ideas on their minds? For example, my native language is Spanish, so most of my thoughts are made in that language. But how does this work for deaf people? Does every person have his own code?

53:06 - What is the advantage of a cochlear implant?

What are the advantage of having, say, a cochlear implant versus a hearing aid?
54:18 - Why is tinnitus related to age?

Why is tinnitus often related to age related conditions and how could a low level of background noise actually trigger it?

55:23 - Why does the sound of nails on a chalkboard bother us so much?

Hi, I'm a 16 year old student in Canada and I'd like to know why it irritates us when nails go down a chalkboard, or squeaky sounds in general.
55:50 - How do you measure carbon dioxide emissions?

How do countries measure their carbon dioxide emissions?