Episode 12: Trevor Cox
Summary
Acoustic engineer Trevor Cox is interviewed by Ruth Amos in a role reversal, touring his university’s reverberation and anechoic chambers to discuss sound physics and hearing aid research. They explore how individual perception varies and the importance of diverse data in engineering. The episode concludes with a sci-fi story by Cox’s brother, Stephen Cox, about a researcher investigating a woman’s inability to hear a specific flute concerto due to emotional trauma.
Topics discussed
Introduction to Trevor Cox and the science of acoustics
Exploring the reverberation chamber and the Lombard effect
The anechoic chamber: silence, isolation, and loudspeaker testing
The listening room, psychoacoustics, and individual sound perception
Acoustic modeling of Stonehenge and surround sound research
Collaborative engineering and crowdsourcing hearing aid improvements
Challenges in hearing aid technology and age-related hearing loss
Fiction: The Magic Flute - A story about music, memory, and hearing
Discussion on the story, musical hallucinations, and brain perception
Science communication, the duck crack myth, and closing thoughts
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