DiscoverScience on Player FMThe Sound Barrier #4: Listen to the universe - Unexplainable
The Sound Barrier #4: Listen to the universe - Unexplainable

The Sound Barrier #4: Listen to the universe - Unexplainable

Update: 2025-11-12
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When Wanda Diáz-Merced lost her sight as a college student, she thought her dreams of becoming an astronomer were over — until she learned to listen to space instead.


Wanda is one of several pioneering scientists listening to space. For this episode, we also spoke to Robert Wilson, who used sound to help him discover the first direct evidence of the Big Bang, and Kim Arcand, who plays us what the center of the Milky Way sounds like.


Guests: ⁠Wanda Diáz-Merced⁠, astronomer; ⁠Robert Wilson⁠, Nobel laureate and senior scientist at at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; ⁠Kim Arcand⁠, emerging tech lead at NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory




This is the fourth episode in our of our new four-part series, ⁠The Sound Barrier⁠.




You can find Kim’s sonification of the center of the Milky Way (with visuals) here: ⁠https://chandra.si.edu/sound/gcenter.html⁠ 




For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠⁠⁠


We read every email.


Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


Thank you!

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The Sound Barrier #4: Listen to the universe - Unexplainable

The Sound Barrier #4: Listen to the universe - Unexplainable