My teenage son and I were chatting in a hotel room, in a country that had just opened its borders to the outside world. We were facing an open window, 50 feet from another tall building. Between my son and me was a nightstand with an empty drinking glass on a plate. It was bright daylight. Suddenly, the glass shattered with a sharp crackling sound, in front of our eyes, into more than 20 glass fragments, crumbling to lie in a clump on the plate. We looked, but saw, and heard, nothing unusual, especially nothing coming from the other building. It was a strange, somewhat scary moment, which to this day I cannot totally explain.

我和我的十来岁的儿子在酒店房间里聊天，这个国家才对外开放。我们面对着一扇打开的窗户，它距离另一栋高楼大约50英尺。我和我儿子之间隔了一个床头柜，它上面有个陈放着一个空的饮水玻璃杯的盘子。阳光明媚。突然间在我们的眼皮底下，这个玻璃杯伴随着尖锐的嚓嚓声碎为二三十个碎片，跌落在盘子里。我们巡视，我们没有看到、听到什么异常，另外一栋楼也没有什么声响传来。有点奇怪、有点惊悚，时至今日我也不能清楚解释。

The cracking of the glass reminded us instantly of great opera singers hitting the highest note, and shattering wine glasses in the line of the sound waves. At least that’s what happens in movies. Supposedly, at a particular sound frequency, glass can definitely “resonate” and shatter. It’s spooky however when it happens right before your eyes, without a visible or audible high-pitched opera singer!

玻璃的碎裂声立马让我想起了著名的歌剧演员飙高音时声波震裂酒杯的事。至少电影里常常出现这样的情形。假设在某个特别的音频，玻璃肯定会“共振”，然后碎裂。太吓人了，就发生在你眼前，没有可目睹，也没有听闻高音歌唱家。

Recently several members of the US Embassy in Cuba were evacuated because of damage to their inner ears, allegedly from some kind of spying efforts from local government, using sound wave bombardment. I’m not sure that is related to our story, but who knows? And I’m glad my son and I escaped damage to our inner ears! At least that I know of…

近期好几个美国驻古巴大使馆人员因为内耳伤害撤回国来，据说是当地政府使用声波攻击的间谍活动引起的。我不确定和我的故事有无关联，谁知道呢？我很庆幸我儿子和我逃过了内耳伤害！至少我是这样想吧

Indeed, all kinds of sound waves come at us from all kinds of directions, some we hear, and some we do not. Obviously, we do not hear all sounds, and some people are more sensitive than others. We had a child at church who had an amazing ability to hear conversations in the next room, even very soft ones. Which could be unnerving for friends of the family! He became too sensitive to normal sounds, and was even a troubled child apparently because of that. Too many and too loud sounds can make for great discomfort.

实际上，所有的声波从不同方向包围我们，一些声波我们可以听见，一些声波我们听不到。显然我们不能听到所有的声音，而一些人比起别人要更加敏感。我们的教堂有个小孩有令人惊异的能力，他可以听见隔壁房间的谈话，哪怕是很小的声音。这可让这个家庭的朋友有一些不安。他对一般的声音太敏感，这也显然让他非常困扰。太多太闹的声音会使人不舒服。

Indeed, many people are super sensitive to specific sounds such as chalk screeching on the blackboard, or metal on china. It can “drive some people crazy,” or make their ears painful. You might be one of these people, so you understand. There is just such a huge variability in even the “normal” perception of so-called “normal” sounds.

实际上，一些人对某些特别的声音，如粉笔在黑板上或金属在瓷器上擦划的声响超级敏感。这种声音会让他们发狂，或者内耳疼痛。您如果是其中之一，那您就能体会。就是对所谓的“正常”的声音的“正常”的接受范围也是有很大的变异的。

We all know how dogs can listen to sounds beyond our own range of sounds, so that we can use a dog whistle, at a higher frequency beyond our normal reception, and therefore inaudible to us, to summon it. And if we watch deer carefully in the backyard, we can also see that their ears are definitely much more sensitive than ours, and will sharply flip upright, and face left or right, to catch sounds coming at them, which we may not hear.

我们都知道狗可以听到超过我们正常的听觉范围的声音，因此我们可以用狗哨，用我们听不到的，超过我们正常的听觉范围的高频的声音去呼唤狗。如果我们仔细观察后院的鹿，我们也会发现它们的耳朵无疑比我们的敏感许多，它们的耳朵会快速竖起，左右转动，去捕捉传向它们的声音，这些声音我们都听不到。

And obviously we use sound waves beyond our own perception, for health purposes. Nowadays, it is so common to use ultrasound (echo) machines, to visualize organs within the body, or even babies in the womb. Even though I have seen lots of baby echoes as part of my profession, it’s always amazing to see an “echo” baby sucking his thumb in the womb!

显然我们应用超过我们接收范围的声波于健康目的。现在超声波仪普遍应用于检测体内的器官甚至子宫内的胎儿。虽然在我的日常工作中我看了无数的胎儿的超声波，但是在超声图像里看到子宫内的胎儿吸吮他的拇指还是让我无比惊奇。

Our hearing system is so intricate and complex that we can readily hear and understand a huge range of musical sounds and diverse complex languages. Numerous computer-like designs are necessary for this to happen just “naturally.” Just to allow sound to go from outer eardrum, to microscopic ear ossicle bones, to inner eardrum, to microscopic semi-circular canals, to thousands of microscopic sensory hairs arranged like beautiful musical keyboards, which can sense complex sounds that will transmit along fine nerves all the way to complex brain areas of reception. An entire sound-initiated journey that is superbly amazing, and basically unbelievable without a Master-Musician-Linguist-IT- Designer!

我们的听觉系统如此错综复杂，我们可以轻松的听到和理解很多范围的音乐和多种复杂的语言。需要无数的计算机般的设计才能使这样的情况显得自然。让声音从外耳膜传给纤细的听小骨，传给内耳，传给细微的 半规管，传给数以千计的排列如漂亮的音乐键盘的纤细的感觉纤毛，这些纤毛感知复杂的声音，把信号通过细小的神经传递到大脑的听觉接受区域。整个的声音传输过程如此令人惊讶，如果没有一个大师-音乐家-语言学家-电脑专家-设计者的联合体是难以让人置信的。

What indeed would happen if we did not have this wonderful sound system? We would not be able to hear beautiful songs, there would be no need for musicians, schools would be severely limited in how to educate children, there would be no use for sound alarms, there would be no whispers of love, we would not be able to hear the scolding from our Asian parents! The whole world would be entirely changed. What would it be like to live in a world of silence?

如果我们没有这样完美的声音系统会怎么样呢？我们就不能听到优美的歌声，那就不需要音乐家，学校教育学生就会严重受限，警报没有用了，没有了传达爱意的耳語，我们也听不到我们来自亚洲的父母的斥责了。这个世界全变了。生活在无声的世界会怎么样呢？

How does the system ever work? How is it possible that all these absolutely critical steps can be all tied together synchronously, and super-complexly, in order for us to appreciate the beauty of sound? We stand in awe of the intricacies of sound, even though at times it can break glass, or screeching noises can make us go crazy! Humility and awe are great habits for everyone, and especially those like us who study science and use sound waves a lot!

这个系统如何工作？这些如此关键的环节能够同步的、超级复杂的连接在一起，让我们能欣赏美妙的声音，这是如何实现的？尽管这些声音有时候会震破玻璃，尖锐的声音会让我们发狂，但我们对这些复杂的声音充满敬畏。对每个人而言，谦卑和敬畏是一个好习惯，尤其是像我们这些研究科学和经常应用声波的人。