NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with actor and musician Fred Armisen about the reason and production behind his new sound effect album, 100 Sound Effects.

A round of applause, please: Scientists have finally figured out what’s behind the sound of clapping. The research pinpoints a mechanism called a Helmholtz resonator — the same acoustic concept that ...

In a pivotal scene from the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand, a mutant claps his hands and blasts a shockwave across a battlefield. In a theater somewhere, Sunny Jung watched—and wondered. “It made me ...

What’s a political debate without a clapping, cheering audience? A debate with a silent audience “is like a movie without a soundtrack. …So many people are empowered by Twitter, Facebook. You have ...