Page 8 - 2016Spring

From the Editor | Arthur N. Popper
This was a really enjoyable is- sue to put together (though I admit I enjoy them all), par- ticularly since we have several articles that take advantage of multimedia and include really
fascinating sound files. One of these articles, by Nicholas Giordano, is on the evolution of pianos from their first in- vention to modern times (also note the cover of this issue). The sound files, available as links from the on-line article and given the print version, show the evolution of the sound from pianos since their inception, using music that is like- ly to be familiar to most readers. While the sounds in Dr. Giordano’s article will be very familiar to most readers, the sounds in the article by Carrick Talmadge and Roger Waxler are, hopefully, far less familiar since they are the infrasound associated with tornados. These sounds, which have been transposed from the normal infrasonic range to the range of human hearing, may be useful in providing a method for more advanced warning to help protect populations.
While the other articles don’t have multimedia, they are of real interest. In one article, William Murphy discusses ap- proaches to preventing occupational hearing loss and pro- poses some new approaches to dealing with this issue. In another article, Robert C. Spindel and Peter F. Worcester talk about the truly amazing and extraordinarily productive career of one of our most senior members, Walter Munk. While I don’t know Dr. Munk personally, it was great fun learning about him since a number of projects over my career have intersected with his contributions. Finally, Henry and Rickye Heffner write about the evolution of sound source localization in mammals. Again, this is a topic of particular interest to me since my doctoral research started as a study of sound source localization by fishes, and I retain a strong interest in vertebrate localization, in general, and its evolution from the most primitive vertebrates through the mammals.
For those of you who might wonder about oversight of
Acoustics Today, I want to mention that our publication committee, which was ad hoc, has “evolved” into a standing committee of ASA, the AT Editorial Board. You can see a list of members on Masthead page of this issue. I want to express my thanks to the whole committee, under the great leader- ship of Brenda Lonsbury-Martin, for their very substantial contributions to the magazine. They provide great feedback, ideas, and provocative discussions about Acoustics Today. Many of the good ideas that come up at meetings have had an impact in its evolution.
The AT intern program has been quite a success. Our first intern was very helpful in getting AT, and ASA, involved with social media, and our second intern, Andrew (Pi) Pyzdek has been do- ing a well-received column on the AT web site about interesting acoustic issues aimed at a lay audience (http://acousticstoday. org/the-world-through-sound-an drew-pi-pyzdek/). We are now looking for a new intern to bring his/her expertise to the magazine and ASA. This remains a great opportunity for individuals to explore new avenues for their interests and also to contribute to our discipline in interesting ways. For more information, see http://acousticstoday.org/announcements/ and send me an email if you have questions and/or ideas.
I continue to look for good ideas for articles and invite sug- gestions from ASA members. Keep in mind that articles cov- er relatively broad topics and are aimed at the overall mem- bership of ASA and not individuals in one Technical Area. I also would like to emphasize that articles are not about original research (which is for our sister research journals) or about the work of one lab or lab group.
Finally, we are about to make one small change for AT. There has been the observation that our issues, which are dated by season, come out at the end of the season. To make each is- sue a bit more “timely,” we will start the 2016 calendar year, this issue, as spring and the next issues in the year will be the subsequent seasons. Each issue will be scheduled to come out just before, or early in, each season.
6 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2016