Crickets jumpstart hearing research

Scientists have re-created one of nature's most sensitive sound detectors, the tiny hairs found on body parts of crickets, which allow them to hear predators and make an escape before they get close enough to catch them.

Published today in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, an Institute of Physics journal, this research will help scientists understand the complex physics that crickets use to perceive their surroundings and could lead to a new generation of cochlea implants, for people with severe hearing problems, in the far future.

Crickets spend most of their lives on the ground, making them vulnerable to predators. Species such as the wood cricket Nemobius sylvestris have developed a pair of hairy appendages at the abdominal end of their body called cerci, which detect fluctuations in air currents, the kind that might be caused by the beating of a wasp’s wings or the jump of an attacking spider.