coordinates the science at the rather romantic-sounding “Natural
Sounds and Night Skies” division of the agency. I imagine the staff
running around wearing geeky headphones and glow-in-the-dark tee
shirts depicting their favorite quasars. Fristrup’s research agenda
includes not only documenting the ill effects of anthropogenic noise
on visitors and wildlife, but also documenting the beneficial effects of
its absence: Why should we save the sounds of nature? What do they
do for us? Fristrup is an accidental sound guy; he intended to study
biomedical engineering at Harvard but got waylaid by paleontologist
Stephen Jay Gould and evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson. Biophilia
rubbed off. Now he applies engineering to concepts of evolution,
survival and ecosystem health. “We all interact with our environment
through our senses,” he told me, “so any pollution not only affects the
fabric of our lives but our connections to everything else.”
To learn more about how sound changes our brains and to find out
just how noise-sensitive I am, I ventured to the sound labs of
Pennsylvania State University. I was met by Peter Newman and
Derrick Taff, two young park-rangers-turned-social-scientists in the
Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management who work
with Fristrup’s group. Newman also didn’t start out studying sound,
he explained to me as we navigated a noisy cafeteria on campus. He
was interested in parks and crowds, and was conducting visitor
surveys at Muir Woods National Monument, known for its ancient
redwoods.
“We asked if there was one thing to fix about the park unit, what
would it be?” he explained. “And people said they wished it were
more quiet. I was surprised what a big deal it was, but these were old-
growth trees with a primeval feel, and visitors felt it should be quiet.
Later we went back and analyzed the words they used, and they were
so emotion-laden. Words like ‘soothing,’ ‘peaceful.’ That was
interesting to us. That’s where the research started dipping its toes
into health.” (And the survey carried weight: Muir Woods now has a