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Material that sends sound from water to air could help eavesdroppers

Sound can't normally travel from beneath water's surface to the air above due to a mismatch in densities, but a new material changes that

By Alex Wilkins

4 May 2023

Sound normally can’t travel between air and water

ICP/incamerastock/Alamy

A material that can transport underwater sounds into the air, allowing them to be heard clearly above the water’s surface, could be used for monitoring aquatic environments or eavesdropping on underwater communications.

Sound normally can’t travel between water and air because of a mismatch in densities between the two mediums. It instead reflects at the boundary.

Now, Bin Liang at Nanjing University in China and his colleagues have developed a material that allows almost all of the sound to pass from water to air.

“The interface between the water…

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