Sounding out science

Over seven years ago I was listening to an episode of the fabulous science podcast RadioLab that stopped me in my tracks. For RadioLab fans, this might not seem so surprising given the show’s knack for sharing science by combining storytelling with opulent sound design… but this time it was different.

Creator and former host of the show Jad Abumrad was introducing listeners to the gene editing technology, Crispr, inviting science writer Carl Zimmer to explain why it was such a big deal for science. As Zimmer began to explain the origins of the discovery, I found that the accompanying sound effects illustrated his words so clearly that they began to conjure a comprehensive visual image in my mind’s eye. It struck me that while this sort of sonic explanation of concepts has such potential to share complex information and to elicit understanding, it is drastically underused.