Podcasts about professor trevor cox

Which products are best for bedtime listening?According to a YouGov poll nearly half of us listen to music or podcasts to help us get to sleep and there are a range of products designed to do just that.Listener Nick has seen wearable sleep headbands with speakers woven in to the fabric which he hopes will stop him waking up in the middle of the night with headphones or earbuds digging into his ears.And listener David says his social media is promoting sleep bars that go under the pillow and claim to transmit sound via bone conduction.To find out more, Greg is joined by acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox and Lecturer at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Ullrich Bartsch. They discuss the sound quality of these devices and whether it's a good idea to listen to music or podcasts at bedtime at all. Is there any evidence that it results in a good night's sleep?All our episodes start with YOUR suggestions. If you?ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807PRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND GREG FOOTRESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM

Which products are best for bedtime listening?According to a YouGov poll nearly half of us listen to music or podcasts to help us get to sleep and there are a range of products designed to do just that.Listener Nick has seen wearable sleep headbands with speakers woven in to the fabric which he hopes will stop him waking up in the middle of the night with headphones or earbuds digging into his ears.And listener David says his social media is promoting sleep bars that go under the pillow and claim to transmit sound via bone conduction.To find out more, Greg is joined by acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox and Lecturer at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Ullrich Bartsch. They discuss the sound quality of these devices and whether it's a good idea to listen to music or podcasts at bedtime at all. Is there any evidence that it results in a good night's sleep?All our episodes start with YOUR suggestions. If you?ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807PRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND GREG FOOTRESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM

Hannah French and Zak Ozmo explore the life and work of the extraordinary 16th-century Italian lutenist, music theorist and composer Vincenzo Galilei, who was born around 500 years ago. Galilei was a hugely important figure in the musical life of the late Renaissance - a polymath, who studied the science of music as well as performing it, and was clearly an enormous inspiration for his son - the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. Some scholars credit him with directing the activity of his son away from pure, abstract mathematics and towards experimentation using mathematical quantitative description of the results. And Zak Ozmo says there is a case for regarding him as the father of Baroque music, pre-empting the work of Monteverdi and possibly influencing JS Bach to compose the Well-Tempered Clavier over a century later. We also hear from Acoustic Engineer, Professor Trevor Cox, who looks at the practical experiments Galilei carried out to see if Pythagoras's theories about string lengths in musical instruments were correct.

For decades, Stonehenge, the mysterious prehistoric circle of stones built on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, has left scientists scratching their heads. Who exactly built it and what was it used for?In the latest attempt to get to the bottom of this mystery, a team of engineers based at the University of Salford have 3D-printed a scale model of the ancient monument in order to investigate the effect its unique structure would’ve had on conversations, rituals, and even music.We spoke to Professor Trevor Cox, the acoustic engineer heading up the study, to find out more.Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.Subscribe to the Science Focus Podcast on these services: Acast, iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, OvercastRead the full transcription [this will open in a new window]This podcast was supported by brilliant.org, helping people build quantitative skills in maths, science, and computer science with fun and challenging interactive explorations.Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:Trevor Cox: To become Prime Minister, change your voiceNatalie Starkey: What asteroids can tell us about our Solar SystemMike Garrett: Is there anybody out there?Colin Stuart: The most mysterious objects in the UniverseDr Lucy Rogers: What makes a robot a robot?Pete Etchells: Are video games good for us? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Whether it's cutting out the background chatter to hear the radio, or drowning out the snoring coming from the room next door, the promise of noise cancelling headphones is enticing. But do they live up to the marketing hype? Are they The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, or BS? Greg Foot is joined by BBC 6 Music DJ & Host Mary Anne Hobbs, who lends her professional ear to a pair of noise cancelling headphones. While acoustic engineer Professor Trevor Cox unpicks the science fact from the science fiction. Presenter: Greg Foot Producer: Beth Eastwood

Whether it's cutting out the background chatter to hear the radio, or drowning out the snoring coming from the room next door, the promise of noise cancelling headphones is enticing. But do they live up to the marketing hype? Are they The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, or BS? Greg Foot is joined by BBC 6 Music DJ & Host Mary Anne Hobbs, who lends her professional ear to a pair of noise cancelling headphones. While acoustic engineer Professor Trevor Cox unpicks the science fact from the science fiction. Presenter: Greg Foot Producer: Beth Eastwood

For the past 220 years, Ordnance Survey have been mapping Great Britain with extraordinary accuracy. But as Gareth discovers when he visits their HQ in Southampton, GB's master map is not a static printed document. It's a 2 petabyte database which is updated up to 20,000 times a day. This adds up to 360 million updates a year. Since the development of the theodolite and the first detailed map in 1801 of the county of Kent, Ordnance Survey have used cutting edge technology, not only to map our lands, but to manipulate, understand and ask questions of the geography of our natural landscapes and built environment. Voices on the train, public address announcements at the station, automated telephone banking, Alexa and Siri. We are surrounded by electronic voices. But very little research has been done of how we respond to synthetic speech. To investigate the impact of artificially generated voices in our lives, BBC R&D together with our favourite acoustic engineer, Professor Trevor Cox of the University of Salford, has just launched a study. The Synthetic Voices and Personality Test, is an online test we want you to take part in. Please go to https://voicestudy.api.bbc.co.uk and have a listen Presenter Gareth Mitchell Producer - Fiona Roberts

Academics from the University of Salford’s Acoustical Engineering Department have constructed a 1:12 scale model of Stonehenge, to determine how sound would have carried across all of the original 157 carefully placed stones in 2200 BC.

Adam Rutherford and his guests at the Hay Festival, neurologist Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan, acoustic engineer Professor Trevor Cox and science writer Dr Philip Ball discuss what scientists learn when things go wrong. Suzanne O'Sullivan, author of Brainstorm, talks about how she helps her patients with strange and unusual forms of epilepsy; Trevor Cox, whose new book is called Now You're Talking, describes cases where our voices change, such as stammering and foreign language syndrome; and Philip Ball, who is part of Created out of Mind, a Wellcome funded project about dementia and the arts, explores what happens when our brains age.

Everybody knows about white noise — that sound that comes out of your TV when it’s not working quite right. But there are many other colors of noise, too: pink, brown, blue, and purple. Marnie Chesterton brings us this story on the colorful science of sound. Play with your own noisy rainbow — and learn more about each color — by clicking here: Inside the Episode: We meet Shelley, who uses pink noise to drown out the constant ringing in her head (tinnitus); Professor Trevor Cox at the Acoustic Engineering group at Salford explains why engineers need to classify different frequencies this way; and Cyrus Shahrad, electronic music producer, whose love of brown noise filters through into his work. Producer/reporter Marnie Chesterton We asked Marnie how she got interested in making a story about the science of sound. She tells us that she came across this story idea after having heard about pink noise. She began an investigation sparked by her own curiosity about the spectrum of sound: “I started unpicking the stories of different colours of sound, mainly by talking about this topic to everyone I could think of,” she recounts. “After a few chats with various academics, I came to Professor Trevor Cox, an acoustic engineer at Salford University, who is obsessed with qualities of sound – reverb, echo.” Prof. Trevor Cox Through Trevor Cox, Chesterson got a first-hand look at an anechoic chamber, a whole room constructed to deaden any type of sound whatsoever. She describes the room as the most bizarre one she’s been in for a while: “The walls and ceiling are covered with these meter-long, dark grey foam spikes, and the floor, if you can call it that, is a mesh a bit like that of a trampoline. Through the holes in the floor, I could see down into darkness, maybe more foam spikes.” Imagine a room that is so silent that the sounds seem to come from your own head. Chesterson explains, “The brain’s response to that kind of silence is to fill it with something, anything. And that’s what tinnitus is.” If you’re interested in exploring the different bands of sound described in Chesterson’s story, you can play with the companion interactive rainbow of noise. Listen to which bands are used to treat tinnitus, to describe regime shifts in climate, to help sirens cut through background noise, and more. A Rainbow of Noise was produced by Marnie Chesterton and mixed by Henry Hocking. It was hosted for this episode of Transistor by Genevieve Sponsler and mixed by Erika Lantz.

It's official, the world's longest echo can be heard at an oil storage complex at Inchindown, near Invergordon in Scotland.  Hear it by hitting the play button above. The 1970 Guinness Book of Records holds the last claim for the longest echo. When the solid-bronze doors of the Hamilton Mausoleum in Scotland slammed shut, it took 15 seconds for the sound to die away to silence. The Inchindown echo is a full minute longer. Professor Trevor Cox of Salford University discovered the Inchdown echo while working with Allan Kilpatrick, an archaeological investigator for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Allan fired a pistol loaded with blanks about a third of the way into the storage tank, and Trevor recorded the response picked up by the microphones about a third of the way from the far end - a standard technique used in concert hall acoustics.  At 125 Hertz, a frequency typically made by a tuba, the reverberation time was 112 seconds. Even at the mid-frequencies important for speech, the reverberation time was 30 seconds. The broadband reverberation time which considers all frequencies simultaneously was 75 seconds. They had discovered the world’s most reverberant space   All of this was just part of Trevor's research on his new book, Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound, published by Vintage Digital, part of the Random House Group.  It is an exciting journey for anyone who delights in audio treats, and a passionate plea for a deeper appreciation of, and respect for, our shared sonic landscapes.       Some of the other sounds can be heard here: Sonic Wonderland – The Great Stalacpipe Organ Sonic Wonderland – Bearded Seals Sonic Wonderland – Burping Sand Dune Sonic Wonderland – Kielder Forest, most tranquil place in England Sonic Wonderland – High-Tide Organ Sonic Wonderland – Musical Road And as a footnote on that echo - here are some typical reverberation times at mid-frequency: ·         Living room: 0.4 seconds ·         Opera house: 1.2 seconds ·         Concert hall for classical music: 2 seconds ·         St. Paul’s Cathedral: 9.2 seconds  

Robin Ince and Brian Cox head north for the second time this series, and take residence for one episode in the BBC Philharmonic's headquarters to talk about the science of sound. They are joined by the University of Salford's acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox, neuroscientist Professor Chris Plack and comedian and former acoustics student Tom Wrigglesworth to talk about all things noise related. With some musical accompaniment, they'll be discussing why some sounds sound nice and some sound horrible. Why certain sounds are noise and others are literally music to our ears, and whether specific sounds can trigger specific emotions. But perhaps the biggest question of all is, are there any clues in the chord sequences to D:Ream's hit "Things can only get better" that made it the perfect soundscape for to a political leadership campaign?..maybe that's something that even science can't answer! Producer: Alexandra Feachem Presenters: Robin Ince and Brian Cox.

Material Scientist Dr Mark Miodownik, acoustican Professor Trevor Cox and artists Zoe Laughlin and Martin Conreen will be performing demonstrations and discussing the art and science of the sound of materials. They will consider why buildings sound the wa