Researchers deserve a round of applause for uncovering the science behind the acoustics produced from hand clapping that had not been clearly understood until recently. The daily gesture that people ...

This post is co-authored by Ron Riggio and nonverbal communication expert Alan Crawley. When and why do we clap? We get startled, and we clap. We try to get our dog’s (or our child’s) attention, and ...

Scientists have developed an app to understand why some rhythms are more difficult to perform than others. Scientists at Queen Mary University of London have developed an app to understand why some ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American New Orleans, October 16, 2012 - You walk into ...

Scientists have finally unravelled the complex process that generates sound during handclaps, a discovery that shows how even simple acts can be rich with physics. The key to generating sound from ...

In a scene toward the end of the 2006 film, "X-Men: The Last Stand," a character claps and sends a shock wave that knocks out an opposing army. Sunny Jung, professor of biological and environmental ...

Prof Emi Hasuo studies how the brain perceives and processes sound rhythm. Surprisingly, the physical rhythm and perceived rhythm are sometimes different. Moreover, sounds of the same rhythm are ...

Earlier this month, we witnessed chimpanzees syncing up their movements to dance a conga of sorts, but it wasn’t set to music. Now, researchers in Japan have recorded chimps bopping along to piano ...