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Less than zero

What does silence really sound like? Step inside an anechoic chamber to find out.

After spending more than an hour in the Berkeley anechoic chamber, I’m in a daze for the rest of my visit to the laboratory, until I’m able to bound up the concrete stairs and burst through the doors into the sunlight. As hyper-aware as I’d been of my breathing and the muted sensation in my ears inside the chamber, I feel equally aware now of the sounds of people’s voices and cars driving by.

In fact, I’ve never been so thankful for noise, glorious noise.

Having come of age at a time when silence wasn’t golden but a sign that your Walkman was out of batteries, maybe I’m less in tune with unheard melodies. However hard peace and quiet are to come by these days, I’d probably miss the hum and buzz of daily life even more. The beauty of silence is in the ear of the beholder.

Marisa Taylor is a freelance journalist who lives in San Francisco.

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