Here's today's feel-good story:
Most animals, humans, and even plants have evolved to recognize and perceive sound as a critical way to navigate an environment. It can be used to find food, a mate, and avoid danger.
Studies have shown that soundscapes, like a stream of water, can promote healing because they don't require directed attention and can allow for "switching off" of auditory focus.
“In parks, noise degrades visitor enjoyment and health directly as an environmental stressor and indirectly by altering the number of sound-producing animals and thus decreasing the diversity of natural sounds,” says Rachel Buxton, a conservation scientist at Carleton University in Ottawa.