Woodbury, New York, June 10, 1998
Less than two weeks from now, Seattle will host what will be the biggest meeting ever devoted exclusively to the science of acoustics: the Joint 16th International Congress on Acoustics (ICA) and the 135th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), to take place between June 20-26 at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers and the Westin Seattle Hotel in Seattle, Washington.
With over 1500 expected attendees from 49 countries, this meeting promises to deliver exciting new research results, such as how sound waves are replacing hypodermic needles to inject insulin painlessly through the skin, how sonar is being adapted to monitor the world's increasingly depleted fish populations, and how the guitar-distortion effects of Seattle native Jimi Hendrix exhibit scientifically interesting properties.
The Acoustical Society of America will operate a newsroom at the Seattle meeting and offer a series of news conferences during the week of the meeting. The news conferences will take place at the Whidbey Room of the Westin. The newsroom itself will be the Blakely Room of the Westin, where the phone numbers will be 206-727-7617 and 206-727-7618. Newsroom hours will be Monday-Wednesday, June 22-24, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and Thursday, June 25 from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. A list of news conferences can be found below.
Even those who can't make it to Seattle can learn about specific research results by visiting the ASA Press Room ( www.acoustics.org). This web site already contains over 25 lay-language versions of meeting papers, and several more will be added by the time of the meeting. Written by the actual researchers specifically for science writers, these papers comprise a trove of new research results and background information on hot topics in acoustics. The topics of these lay-language papers are listed at the end of this release.
JUNE 22, MONDAY MORNING
How Sound Can Measure Global Warming of the Oceans, by Robert C. Spindel, University of Washington, et al. **P**
Highway Noise Barriers with Jagged Edges: Why Are They Better at Blocking Noise? by Penelope Menounou et al., University of Texas **P**
Conversations between Machines and Humans: Future Directions in Speech Recognition and Synthesis, by Sadaoki Furui, Tokyo Institute of Technology
JUNE 22, MONDAY AFTERNOON
Eric Dolphy's Playing Style in the Vienna Art Orchestra, Alexandra Hettergott, University of Wien, Vienna, Austria **S** **P**
Characteristics of Fault Processes in Central Arctic Ice by Catherine Stamoulis and Ira Dyer, MIT
JUNE 23, TUESDAY MORNING
Sound Quality in an Italian Opera House by Alessandro Cocchi, Massimo Garai, and Carla Tavernelli, University of Bologna, Italy **P**
Dissolving Blood Clots, Stopping Internal Bleeding, and Treating Kidney Stones with Medical Ultrasound, by Lawrence Crum, University of Washington et al.
JUNE 23, TUESDAY AFTERNOON
The Oldest Existing Opera House in Europe by Luigi Maffei, University of Naples **P**
Ultrasound Surgery for Liver, Prostate, and Kidney Tumors by Gail ter Haar, Royal Marsden Hospital, England
Evidence that Babies\042 Inner Ears are Adult-Like by Term Birth, by Caroline Abdala, House Ear Institute, Los Angeles
When the Future Disrupts the Past: Auditory Perception in Children with Language Disorders by Beverly A. Wright, Northwestern University
JUNE 24, WEDNESDAY MORNING
Shielding Noise from the New Home of the Seattle Symphony, Andrew Clapham, Project Manager, Seattle Symphony et al. **P**
Using Shock Waves to Enhance Gene Therapy and Tumor Treatment by Michael Delius, University of Munich **P**
The Remarkable Vibrational Properties of Rock by James A. TenCate et al., Los Alamos **P**
JUNE 24, WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
A Sonic Gas Analyzer for Averting Methane Explosions by Matthew V. Golden et al., Penn State University **P**
Imaging the Bottom of the Sea with an Acoustic Camera by James T. Christoff, Naval Surface Warfare Center
JUNE 25, THURSDAY MORNING
Japan's New "Theater City" by Takahiko Yanagisawa, TAK Associated Architects, Inc.
JUNE 25, THURSDAY AFTERNOON
Using Sound to Map Fish Populations, by Joseph J. Luczkovich, Mark W. Sprague and Stephen Johnson, East Carolina University (2 papers) **S** **P**
New Substances for Improving the Contrast of Ultrasound Images by Gregory M. Lanza, Washington University **P**
Fuzzy Structure Theory by Christian Soize, ONERA Laboratory, France
Are the Congenitally Blind Really Better at Hearing? by Kim M. Goddard et al., University of Calgary
A Worldwide Monitoring System for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Plans and Progress by Martin W. Lawrence and Marta Galindo Arranz, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Vienna, Austria **P**
JUNE 26, FRIDAY MORNING
Applying Kidney-Stone-Demolishing Shock Waves to Gene Therapy of Tumors by Douglas L. Miller, Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, et al.
Features of the Japanese Soundscape Recognized by Foreigners: A Questionnaire Survey on Sounds for the Foreigners Living in the City of Fukuoka by Shin-ichiro Iwamiya, Kyushu Institute of Design **S** **P**
Can a Machine Outperform a Radiologist in Interpreting Ultrasound Images? - Hope for a Cheap and Reliable Automatic Diagnostic System for Breast Cancer by Georgia Georgiou and Fernand S. Cohen, Drexel University **P**
COMING SOON:
Fish Love Songs, by Andrew Bass, Cornell University et al. **P**
--Ultrasound-Assisted Drug Delivery and New Uses of Sound in Medicine, by Pierre Mourad, University of Washington --and others
For more information, please contact Ben Stein of the American Institute of Physics at 301-209-3091 through June 19, and 206-728-1000 from June 22-25.