Page 9 - Summer2020

The fifth article by Daniel Russell moves in a different direction and is a wonderful “tutorial” about tuning forks and their history. You may recall that Dan did an article several years ago on the acoustics of baseball and softball bats. The current article is equally interesting and pro- vides wonderful insight into a device we all know, as well as a discussion of how they work.
In the sixth article, Benjamin V. Tucker and Richard Wright provide fascinating insight into how human languages exploit the sound-producing potential of the human vocal tract efficiently to produce a wide variety of speech sounds.
The final article by Edward Walsh and JoAnn McGee explores hearing but from the perspective of evolution. The article delves into hearing specializations in two very interesting species. I particularly want to point out the pho- tograph in Figure 5 of this article (page 70), suggesting that
JoAnn and Ed work with what may be the most dangerous species that any member of the ASA has worked with!
This issue also has a number of very different Sound Perspectives essays. As usual, our first one is “Ask an Acoustician.” This essay features Subha Maruvada, an acoustics engineer with the US Food and Drug Administration. Interestingly, Subha is not only a very accomplished acoustician, but she has a fascinating “other life” that many will find very interesting to learn about.
Two essays talk about other ASA publications. In the first, Charles C. Church, editor of The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Express Letters (JASA-EL), talks about very important changes in that online journal. In the second, Kent L. Gee, Megan S. Ballard, and Helen Wall Murray describe the history of Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA) and a change in leadership of the journal.
Another important ASA publication activity is ASA Books. ASA Books Committee Chair Mark Hamilton, in his essay, talks about the history of the committee. And, most impor- tant, Mark shares information about how to publish a book
(either authored or edited) with the ASA Press.
These essays about the ASA are followed by an insight- ful discussion by Laura Kloepper about her experiences bringing her newborn son to scientific meetings. Laura provides personal insights into the issues she faced as
well as guidance for how other parents might attend meetings with a young child.
Related to this is an essay from the Women in Acoustics group, written by Tracianne Neilsen and Alison Stimpert. Traci and Allison discuss what they call work-parenting
“harmony” and share some important ideas that should be of interest to all members.
The final essay is by my friend Lenny Rudow. Lenny is not an acoustician but a renowned writer about all things related to sport fishing and boating. I met Lenny several years ago when he contacted me to learn how human- generated sound, such as those produced by a fisherman playing loud music on his boat, might affect catch rate. In trying to answer Lenny and help him learn more about fish hearing and fish sounds, I realized that there are probably many members of the ASA who fish or have fished but have never thought about putting together their hobby and their profession as an acoustician. Thus, I invited Lenny to write this essay from the perspective of someone who does not do acoustics but who is con- cerned about sound. I do want to add, however, because there is a slight conflict of interest, that I had (and look forward to having again) a wonderful day fishing with Lenny on the Chesapeake Bay along with my grandson (picture) and other family members.
AT editor’s grandson fishing on the Chesapeake Bay with Lenny Rudow.
Summer 2020 • Acoustics Today 9