Recording the Sounds of Life ome months ago, in the predawn hours of a chilly winter moming, S my fife changed

forever. At rough- ly 3 A.M., I was awakened from a deep sleep when a pair of strong hands seized me and started shaking my torso violent- ly. 1 awoke in horror, expecting to con- front a crazed kifier who nght be wield- ing a club or an ax. Instead 1 saw my wife standing over me, her face a hid- eous blend of terror and joy. I stared up at her, wondering for a moment wheth- er she had gone suddenly insane. "Hon- ey,' she blurted, frantically waving a short plastic wand in front of my con- fused eyes, "I'm pregnant! " It was, of course, the best news of olir lives. And, with both of os being scien- tists, t wasnt long after sharing a cele- bratory cup of hot chocolate that we started thinking about the opportunities for discovery that Michelle's pregnancy afforded. I wanted to find out how much entropy out growing baby NWI add to the universe by the time t is born. I even devised a simple experiment; t called for soaking Xfichelie in an insulated vat of tepid water repeatedly throughout her pregnancy, each time measwing how long t took the heat from her body to warm t. Alas, Michelle has made t quite clear to me that this fundamental number will have to rernain a mystery (and a great amateur science project for another expectant couple to take on). But my wife was happy to try other experiments with less demanding pro- tocols. just a few weeks ago I pieced to- gether an electronic stethoscope that can detect all kinds of sounds produced in- side the human body. "tially, I hoped to record the babys heartbeats and movements. But the apparatus worked better than I had anticipated. Michelle and I have now also recorded a myriad of sounds produced by our own hearts, lungs and gastrointestinal tracts-and a few truly odd gurgles that dont seem to be emanating from any particular or- gan. You, too, may want to listen in on your own body or to record the inter- nal sounds of your favorite cat or dog. Amateur scientists with an interest in marine creatures may want to adapt the apparatus for use underwater as a hy- drophone. In each case, an ordinary tape recorder will serve to archive the sounds. T'he device combmes 19th-century and modern technologies. For more than 150 years, doctors have relied on a trick of geometry, not electronic circyitry, to amplify sounds within the bo>dy. Nearly aR the sound energy that enters a stetho- scope's relatively large chest piece is channeled into a hollow tube, then di- rected through a headset and finally de- posited onto the doctor,s cardrums. Fo- cusing sound in this way increases the intensity of the sound by roughly the same ratio as the atea of the chest piece to the inside opening of the tube. You can use the same technique to make a serviceable stethoscopc quite easily using any smau funnel. just place the mouth of the fi=el against a friends chest. When you press your car over the neck of the fimel (somedung you should do very gently to avoid injuring your eardrum), you wifl hear your friends heart and lungs quite clearly. A smali length of Tygon tubing, with one end pushed over the neck of the funnel and the other end delicately rucked just inside yotir ear canal, v ll let you listen to the noises created withm your own body. Once amplffled by a funnel, these sotinds can be captured with a small rnicrophone and processed electronical- ly. T(>day quality rnicrophone transduc- ers cost next to nothing, and sophisti- cated systems can be built from scratch for less than $20. (You'fl need an elec- tret-type condensar element, a low-noise op-ainp, some shielded speaker wire and a few garden-variery resistors and ca- pacitors. Die-hard do-it-yourselfers can consult the Society for Amateur Scien- tists's Web page for details.) But it's much easier simply to purchase a small lavalier, microphone (also called a 'tic cfip" rm'crophone). T'be Optimus omni- directional microphone (Radio Shack catalogue number 33-3013), for exam- pie, costs less than $25, and t outper- fortned aU but my most extravagant cre- ations. The unit comes ready to be plugged into any convencional tape te- corder that is compatible with an 'ls- inch plug. lf your tape player has a dif- ferent size jack, you'll also need to hoy an adapter. You can w=e the ncrophone inside the fi=el usffig a scrap of foam rubber or similar material. Begin by threading the @crophone thr~ the neck of the @el, as depicted in the illustration on the opposite page. 1 used a short, thin strip of antistatic foam (Radio Shack catalogue number 276-2400) to hold t in place. Wrap the strip around the ni- crophone a few tinies. T'hen secure this package into the neck of the funnel so that the microphone tests just at the apex of the cone. To test the system, press the open end of the fannel firmly against yotir chest and switch on your recorder. lf you're using a stereo tape deck, make sure to toro ttie voturne on your stereo ampli- fier alt the way down. lf you try to re- cord heart sounds and to listen to them @ugh speakers at the sanie time, your entire neighborhood could be treated to so carsplitting sample of audio feed- back. 1 first attempted to avoid this pr@ lern by listening througb headphones. Big mistake. The mierophone was so sensitiva t picked up the faint sounds leaking from the headphones and fed them hack into the amplifier. The result was an extremely painful high-frequen- cy blast e@tted directly into my caxs, which abrupdy ended the experiment. Many tape recorres have a volume indicado that shows the arnplitude of the signal being recorded. lf yours does not have this feature, you'll have to set the overau amplificarion by adjusting the volwne control, recording fori few seconds and then listening to how the newly recorded track sounds. Repeat the procedure until the signal is as loud as poui'ole withouz being distorted. Unfortunately,

your microphone will not just register the sought-after body sounds; t wiU also pick up whatever extrancous rk<3@ rnay be poltuting your local acoustic environment. To forestall problems, use a simple RC circuit as a t@w-p-ass filler to block any signal with a frequency greater than about 800 cy- des per second [see dWam belowl. T'he filler does nor affect most body sounds, but t wifl help screen out chirping birds, honking horns and young neighbors' stereos. Although a single resistor-ca- pacitor pair works, chaining two such pairs together, as shown, eliminases rnore noise, especially near the cutoff ftequtncy. Make sure you use a shicid- ed cable and that the electronics are boused in an all-inetal and wefl-ground- ed project box. My choice of 800 cycles per second for the cutoff frequency is coinpletely arbitrary. Depending en your applica-. tloti, you may get be"r results by u%mg' a different hnut. The cutoff freque@ (m cycies per secorid) for any simple RC filtet will just be the reciprc>cal of the product of the resistance (in o@), the capacitance (in farads) and 27r (6.28). Nfichelle and 1 haye bcen regidarly te- cording out babys heartheats since car- )y july. We haye noticed the sound get- ting steadily louder over the past few inonths and expect soon to observe the slowing of heart rate that happeas as a baby develops. (In the fourth month of pregnancy, a babys heart wifl beat typi- cally at about 160 beats per minute; by the ninth month t normally drops be- low 140 beats per @ute.) Taking tirne out to @ten in on out haby's interna[ doings has given os a special closeness Mth out unborn child. The emotion is not unlike that experi- enced by many scientists, professional and amateur alike, who develop a pro- found sense of intimacy with whatever they are exarnining. Often t is this per- sonal connection that pushes such se- entists onward in the pursuir of under- standing. The motivation to undertake a prograrn of careful observation is, of course, particularly strong when the sub- ject is your own baby gira. (Body sounds don't reveal gend@ but a routine ultra- sound did.) Baby Katherine joanne is due November 4. 0 For information about'this project or other activities for amateur scientists, "te the Society for Amatmr Scientists, 4735 Clairemont Square, Suite 179, San Diego, CA 92117. You can ako visit tbe society's World Wide Web site at uww. thespbero.@SASI, call (619) 239-8807 or nave a message at (800) 873-876Z