Controlling audibility with noise for online experiments using sound.

Online auditory experiments use the sound delivery equipment of each participant, with no practical way to calibrate sound level or frequency response. Here, a method is proposed to control sensation level across frequencies: embedding stimuli in threshold-equalizing noise. In a cohort of 100 online participants, noise could equate detection thresholds from 125 to 4000 Hz.

The mechanism of sugar export from long conifer needles.

The green leaves of plants are optimised for carbon fixation and the production of sugars, which are used as central units of carbon and energy throughout the plant. However, there are physical limits to this optimisation that remain insufficiently understood. Here, quantitative anatomical analysis combined with mathematical modelling and sugar transport rate measurements were used to determine how effectively sugars are exported from the needle-shaped leaves of conifers in relation to leaf length.