SCULPTED SOUND

摘要

Public sculpture is all very impressive to look at, but what use is it? It just sits there providing a perch for pigeons and a backdrop for tourists' photos. But a few years ago, Francisco Meseguer of the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid found an unexpected answer. He discovered that a minimalist sculpture on display in Madrid can block out sound. Erect such barriers throughout a noisy city or along the sides of a motorway and the tumultuous modern world might not only become a quieter place, but a more attractive one too. The structure he stumbled across is called a sonic crystal because it scatters sound waves from a periodic array of "atoms"―anything from glass spheres to metal rods. Unlike conventional, solid sound barriers, sonic crystals are mostly empty space. And they're a lot easier on the eye, too.