The Life Cymatic ๐งต
As organic matter formed deep in Earth's oceans, it's likely that as sound interacted with these compounds, cymatic forces provided the sonic scaffolding and organized life into microscopic and macroscopic structures.
Prep your scuba gear for a deep dive ๐คฟ
Our underwater journey takes us 7,758 meters (25,453 feet) deep into the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
A series of hydrothermal vents runs along this mid-ocean ridge, where hydrocarbons - life's building blocks - are spontaneously formed due to the pressure and temperature.
In the paper "The Sound Generated by Mid Ocean Ridge Black Smoker Hydrothermal Vents" researchers recorded a wide dynamic range of sound emitting from two vents, Puffer and Sully.
It was determined the sound in the vents came from mass flux variations at the vent opening caused by pulsating flow, like a baffled piston.
The inconsistent flow within the internal walls of the vent's chimney cause the structure to vibrate and emit dipole acoustic radiation.
Another unstudied, but likely sonic source may come from volume changes driven by the mixing of hydrothermal fluid with seawater.
Each vent also has it's own acoustic signature created by it's morphological structure.
All of these factors affect amplitude and frequency.
The frequencies recorded fluctuated from Extremely Low Frequencies (3 - 30Hz) to the Lower-Mid range (400 - 500Hz) throughout the week-long study:
Elements created in the hydrothermal vents mixed with organic compounds (likely seeded from crashed comets), were possibly organized by the dynamic vibrations imprinted on the microscopic bubbles created by low frequencies emitting from the vents.
Put simply - Sound shaped life.
The wide dynamic range of frequencies and cymatic patterns may also explain the massive array of biodiversity surrounding these vents (250,000 species per cubic meter).
The recorded ambient levels recorded in the study carried up to 15 meters (50 feet).
A virus with icosahedron morphology and a lineage dating back 3.5 billion found in a Yellowstone National Park thermal pool not only bolsters the theory that sound shaped life, but also opens the possibility that the earliest life could have been viruses and not bacteria.
However, much remains to be studied.
In the Miller-Urey experiment in 1952, a glass orb was filled and sealed with methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water and irradiated with sparks for a week to simulate the conditions that may have been present on Earth 3.5 billion years ago.
The result of their experiment was a chemical soup which contained over 20 amino acids.
It'd be interesting to see the Miller-Urey experiment replicated, but with the concoction also subjected to the same frequencies that were recorded coming from the vents.
Cymatic forces continue to shape the living world today.
"Complex molecular reactions in chemistry and biochemistry are processes involving trillions of inelastic atomic collisions, which are defined as sound."
The mechanisms of phyllotaxis create Faraday Wave patterns:
Using the CymaScope, we can begin to create a dictionary by imaging animal sounds in great detail.
This may allow us to communicate with animals in their own language in the future.
Elephant call (Left) Dolphin sound (Right)
One final remarkable example has allowed us to visualize what a dolphin mentally "sees" while using echolocation.
(Picture from the experiment of a dolphin echolocating a man across him him:)
When the recording was reproduced in the CymaScope, they were able to see an outline of the man within image that was produced across pure water.
A full explanation can be viewed here:
To prove this was no fluke, they tested it with a several ordinary objects - in this instance a flower pot.
They were able to flawlessly recreate the results:
Sound shapes and interacts with life on so many levels still yet unconsidered and unexplored.
It's exciting to live in a time where new doors have been opened that will allow us to come to a greater understanding of where we came from and how we fit into Earth.
(D.N.A.)
As a detour, if you are interested in learning how life likely forms on other planets, read this great thread from @GeoExile (and follow him).
Earth is a special place because it's allowed us to evolve beyond the life cycle that other planets follow.
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