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The article says one can hear "forced" rhubarb grow. "Forcing" is a technique to stimulate growth of sweeter rhubarb stalks by depriving the plant of sunlight.

The article says one can hear "forced" rhubarb grow. "Forcing" is a technique to stimulate growth of sweeter rhubarb stalks by depriving the plant of sunlight. I found this recording of the sound on YouTube[1]. Apparently, you can also hear bamboo grow[2]. 1. https://youtu.be/l5HrnZXya5M https://youtu.be/l5HrnZXya5M 2. https://youtu.be/9HkhBxBZELk https://youtu.be/9HkhBxBZELk

MrZongle2 8y ago
Thanks for posting this! I was disappointed that the article didn't feature an audio clip at least, so YouTube was going to be my next stop. Growing up, rhubarb was neither sweet nor interesting. I'm now quite intrigued.
goda90 8y ago
There are so many little noises in nature that are often drowned out by man-made noise, or even just the louder animals looking to mate. I enjoy listening to earthworms crawl around in the leaves at night in my back yard.
- Gravityloss 8y ago
  In the spring, some plants like Araceae can push through dry leaves quite forcefully. The dry leaf acts as a sort of sound board against which the growing stalks scratch. Eerie sound. (Or was it earthworms? It was just my hypothesis)
- Zenst 8y ago
  Oh it is amazing as so many sounds we miss out upon as they get drowned out so easily. Be that other sounds or human materiels effecting how existing sounds travel (nice simple example would be over-ear headphones, you can hear people speak, most sounds over them and yet they completely drown out a cat purring loudly). I've been playing with contact microphones the past year and recently made a balanced one myself that eliminates a lot of the noise such types of high impedance microphones pick up. The sounds you can hear in nature are amazing, just that you usually have to get away from it all just to be able to hear nature at play. But with contact microphones, you can open up a whole new level of sounds, think of them as microscopes for audio. But a simple piezo contact microphone is easy to make and if you have the equipment to take a balanced input signal, then for the extra cost of the extra piezo disc and 3 wire cable, that can be done just as cheaply. You will also need a pre-amp and though most things you can plug a microphone into will have some preamp that will get you started. Myself, I use a Zoom H4N pro portable audio recorder. Can get cheaper options, even projects that people have made their own form of portable recorder. But if you just want to listen, a simple preamp (can make one or buy one cheap enough) and some over-ear headphones, will get you into another world of sounds in everyday life that we miss out upon. Like I said earlier - it is like an audio microscope and opens up so much we miss out upon. One thing you will learn, most nature programs you see upon TV, mess about/fake and play with the real sounds actually made in nature with a bias towards faking it and a penchant of layering so many effects that it makes autotune look like an angel in the music world for any purist. Bit like finding out about the actual status of Santa after years of childhood idolisation :). But so many sounds we miss out upon. Equally we are very limited in our senses, Ultraviolet photography in nature shows us this. Sounds are just the same with our limited hearing, but that doesn't stop us. Bat listening devices exist and open up a another way of exploring the World around us. If your into geeking out, you could use an array of contact microphones, sound identification and with placement, work out the timing and with triangulation - track all the earthworms. That would be a fun project, but probably low-down on many a project list.
  - xvector 8y ago
    That is a really neat way of thinking of things. Thanks for sharing. I listen to music a lot, but sometimes it's worth it to take my headphones off and listen - really listen to the world around me. It's strangely calming.

MrZongle2 8y ago

Thanks for posting this! I was disappointed that the article didn't feature an audio clip at least, so YouTube was going to be my next stop. Growing up, rhubarb was neither sweet nor interesting. I'm now quite intrigued.

goda90 8y ago

There are so many little noises in nature that are often drowned out by man-made noise, or even just the louder animals looking to mate. I enjoy listening to earthworms crawl around in the leaves at night in my back yard.

Gravityloss 8y ago
In the spring, some plants like Araceae can push through dry leaves quite forcefully. The dry leaf acts as a sort of sound board against which the growing stalks scratch. Eerie sound. (Or was it earthworms? It was just my hypothesis)
Zenst 8y ago
Oh it is amazing as so many sounds we miss out upon as they get drowned out so easily. Be that other sounds or human materiels effecting how existing sounds travel (nice simple example would be over-ear headphones, you can hear people speak, most sounds over them and yet they completely drown out a cat purring loudly). I've been playing with contact microphones the past year and recently made a balanced one myself that eliminates a lot of the noise such types of high impedance microphones pick up. The sounds you can hear in nature are amazing, just that you usually have to get away from it all just to be able to hear nature at play. But with contact microphones, you can open up a whole new level of sounds, think of them as microscopes for audio. But a simple piezo contact microphone is easy to make and if you have the equipment to take a balanced input signal, then for the extra cost of the extra piezo disc and 3 wire cable, that can be done just as cheaply. You will also need a pre-amp and though most things you can plug a microphone into will have some preamp that will get you started. Myself, I use a Zoom H4N pro portable audio recorder. Can get cheaper options, even projects that people have made their own form of portable recorder. But if you just want to listen, a simple preamp (can make one or buy one cheap enough) and some over-ear headphones, will get you into another world of sounds in everyday life that we miss out upon. Like I said earlier - it is like an audio microscope and opens up so much we miss out upon. One thing you will learn, most nature programs you see upon TV, mess about/fake and play with the real sounds actually made in nature with a bias towards faking it and a penchant of layering so many effects that it makes autotune look like an angel in the music world for any purist. Bit like finding out about the actual status of Santa after years of childhood idolisation :). But so many sounds we miss out upon. Equally we are very limited in our senses, Ultraviolet photography in nature shows us this. Sounds are just the same with our limited hearing, but that doesn't stop us. Bat listening devices exist and open up a another way of exploring the World around us. If your into geeking out, you could use an array of contact microphones, sound identification and with placement, work out the timing and with triangulation - track all the earthworms. That would be a fun project, but probably low-down on many a project list.
- xvector 8y ago
  That is a really neat way of thinking of things. Thanks for sharing. I listen to music a lot, but sometimes it's worth it to take my headphones off and listen - really listen to the world around me. It's strangely calming.