Research Rack: Did You Know?

• The Kangaroo rat can magnify low-frequency sounds by as much as 100 times. Its hearing is so sensitive that it can hear the sound of air flowing over an owl's wing.

• Some bats have such keen hearing that they can hear an insect walking on sand more than 6 feet away.

• Elephants use low-frequency sounds to communicate their location. When the lead elephant in the herd calls out a direction, the elephants behind can mirror the direction and path taken by the lead elephant although they cannot see him.

• Elephant's ears, measuring 1.08 meters (3 feet) wide, are the largest in the world.

• The barn owl has a unique set of ears! The left ear is higher and points downward to catch the sounds from below, while the right ear is lower and cocked upward to concentrate on sounds from above.

• Some crickets burrow mega-phone shaped tunnels to help transport the sounds of their chirps as far as 2,000 feet away.

• Because space is a vacuum, astronauts can communicate by touching helmets. Sound vibrations can travel from one helmet to another.