Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Device physics

No-nuisance noise

Nature volume 437, pages 962–963 (2005)Cite this article

‘Silence is golden’ is a maxim of limited applicability where stochastic resonance holds sway. The effect uses noise to boost signal output in certain systems — and has just been seen in oscillators on a very small scale.

Stochastic resonance1,2 encapsulates the sexy notion that moderate (and, ideally, carefully controlled) levels of noise in a nonlinear dynamical system can actually enhance the information throughput — and so improve the sensing and processing of otherwise undetectable signals. Originally postulated as a mechanism to explain how ice ages occur, the effect has since been demonstrated in a plethora of laboratory experiments, and has also been proposed to be responsible for the way in which biological sensing mechanisms function to take advantage of inherent background noise. Writing on page 995 of this issue3, Robert Badzey and Pritiraj Mohanty demonstrate the effect in a doubly clamped mechanical beam of nanometre size. But this is more than just another stochastic resonance demo: the authors' device (besides belonging to the buzzword class ‘nano’) also bestrides the murky gap between classical and quantum physics.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Hang in there.

R. L. BADZEY & P. MOHANTY

References

  1. Wiesenfeld, K. & Moss, F. Nature 373, 33–36 (1995).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bulsara, A. & Gammaitoni, L. Phys. Today 49(3), 39–45 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Badzey, R. L. & Mohanty, P. Nature 437, 995–998 (2005).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Feynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B. & Sands, M. The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. 1, Ch. 38 (Addison-Wesley, Redwood, CA, 1989).

  5. Gaidarzhy, A. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 030402 (2005).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gaidarzhy, A. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 254103 (2005).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Priplata, A., Niemi, J., Henry, J., Lipsitz, L. & Collins, J. Lancet 362, 1123–1124 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lee, I., Liu, X., Kosko, B. & Zhou, C. Nano Lett. 3, 1683–1686 (2003).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Russell, D., Wilkens, L. & Moss, F. Nature 402, 291–294 (1999).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Collins, J. Nature 402, 241–242 (1999).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, 92152-5001, California, USA

    Adi R. Bulsara

  2. US Office of Naval Research Global, London, UK

    Adi R. Bulsara

Authors
  1. Adi R. Bulsara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bulsara, A. No-nuisance noise. Nature 437, 962–963 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/437962a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/437962a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing