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Physics

Human cells have a resonant frequency – and it’s just barely audible

Like a tuning fork, living human cells have frequencies at which they naturally vibrate – and now we have estimates for what some of them are

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

28 December 2023

Objects will vibrate more strongly at certain frequencies

buuzzaa/Shutterstock

Living human cells have resonant frequencies – rates at which they will naturally oscillate if the conditions are right. This has been suspected for decades, but researchers have now measured what some of those frequencies are.

When an object vibrates, the rate at which it moves back and forth has a big effect. At many frequencies, the object will only vibrate a little or quickly diminish, but at its resonant frequencies the size of the vibration becomes large.

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