To help sound travel between air and water, Hesam Bakhtiary Yekta simulated a metamaterial that will sit at the air-water interface and improve sound transmission. His metamaterial is made from three parallel plates with “ribs” separating them, and sitting at the boundary between the two materials, it works by passing the vibrations through its structure, helping to transfer the energy between the two. Bakhtiary Yekta hopes that his metamaterial will help facilitate communication between underwater and airborne vehicles, such as an underwater robot and a drone.

Sound and noise have a major impact on our ability to focus and communicate, which is why acoustic requirements often feature in green building standards. Acoustic consultant George Edgar evaluated multiple materials, including timber, steel, and concrete, for their sound insulating properties along with their global warming potential. He found that concrete could have a far higher GWP than timber, and walls that incorporated timber outperformed standard steel studs, even when they needed more wall linings to achieve the same acoustic performance.

The KATRIN experiment has searched with unprecedented precision for signs of a fourth type of neutrino, that could reveal new physics beyond the Standard Model. No signal was found, tightening the constraints on one of the most debated puzzles in neutrino research.

To see if a fish is fresh, people recommend looking at its eyes and gills or giving it a sniff. But a more accurate check for food quality and safety is to look for compounds that form when decomposition starts. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sensors have developed a simple, effective electronic device that quickly measures one of these compounds. The prototype sensor can determine how fresh a fish is in less than two minutes.