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Laughing, talking & singing while breathing in
A recent study reported that babies laugh both while inhaling and exhaling, in contrast to most adults who just do it while exhaling. The work was done by Disa Sauter, from the University of Amsterdam, “Adult humans sometimes laugh on the inhale but the proportion is markedly different from that of infants’ and chimps’ laughs.” I…
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Why Sharapova's grunts remind me of a whip-bird
Why Sharapova’s grunts are like a whip-bird
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Tone deafness
At my saxophone lesson this weekend, my teacher asked me to sing what I was meant to be playing. It was pretty excrutiating and it took me a few attempts to hit the notes correctly. Fortunately, I’m not completely tone deaf, just a little out of practice. It’s estimated that tone deafness (congenital amusia) affects…
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Laughing Rats
Heard a great radio programme which included the sound of laughing rats. Some scientists are claiming that if you tickle a rat it giggles. Before you rush to tickle a pet rat, it’s worth knowing that the sounds aren’t audible to humans. (Unless you have a bat detector or some other piece of specialist measurement…