There is a world of noise out there, some of it beyond the range of the human ear, some of it just too remote for us to hear it. Below you'll find some of the strangest sounds science has to offer – click on the links to have a listen...
Horse DNA
DNA doesn’t really make any sound, of course, but researchers at UCLA have figured out a way of interpreting it as a musical score. This particular melody comes from proteins in a horse’s haemoglobin.
Source: Dr Jeffrey Miller and Rie Takahashi, GENE2MUSIC project, UCLA
Rumbles from the biggest explosion in history could still be heard in the Universe 700,000 years after the Big Bang went bang. This simulation is based on cosmic microwave data collected by NASA satellites.
Source: Professor John Cramer, University of Washington
You might not expect a giant ice cube to make such a racket. But as this recording from deep inside the Taylor glacier in Antarctica proves, a cacophony of squeaks, pops and whirrs can be heard as the ice constantly melts, shifts and re-freezes.
You have to stand a long way back if you want to hear a nuclear explosion without being killed by it. At this safe distance, the blast sounds simply like a loud, cracking bang, followed by a low rumble and plenty of splashing if the device was detonated in water.
Scientists have recorded around 50 ‘singing’ sand dunes around the world. As grains of sand slip down the dunes, they make a sound something like a badly-played wind instrument. This one was recorded at the Atacama desert in Chile.
The ominous rumble on this recording is the sound of the earthquake that caused the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It is the sound of rocks on the seabed scraping past each other along 1200km of fault line.
Source: Maya Tolstoy, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
When NASA’s Cassini probe recorded radio waves from the solar winds on Saturn, this was the result. The waves are normally inaudible, but when converted to sound and slowed down the frequencies by 44 times, you get this eerie wailing…
Source: NASA and Professor Don Gurnett, University of Iowa
