HOW DOES ULTRASOUND WORK?

In a pitch-black cave, bats can’t see much. But even with their eyes shut, they can navigate
rocky topography at incredible speeds. This is because a bat’s flight isn’t just guided by its
eyes, but rather, by its ears. It may seem impossible to see with sound, but bats, naval officers, and
doctors do it all the time, using the unique properties of ultrasound. 

All sound is created when molecules in the air, water, or any other medium vibrate in a
pulsing wave. The distance between each peak determines the wave’s frequency, measured as
cycles per second, or hertz. This means that over the same amount of time, a high frequency wave
will complete more cycles than a low frequency one. This is especially true of ultrasound, which
includes any sound wave exceeding 20,000 cycles per second. 

Humans can't hear or produce sounds with such high frequencies, but our flying friend
can. When it’s too dark to see, he emits an ultrasound wave with tall peaks. Since the wave cycles
are happening so quickly, wave after wave rapidly bounces off nearby surfaces. Each wave’s tall
peak hits every nook and cranny, producing an echo that carries a lot of information. By sensing
the nuances in this chain of echoes, our bat can create an internal map of its environment. 

This is how bats use sound to see, and the process inspired humans to try and do the
same. In World War One, French scientists sent ultrasound beams into the ocean to detect nearby
enemy submarines. This early form of SONAR was a huge success, in large part because sound
waves travel even faster through mediums with more tightly packed molecules, like water. In the
1950s, medical professionals began to experiment with this technique as a non-invasive way to see
inside a patient’s body. Today, ultrasound imaging is used to evaluate organ damage, measure
tissue thickness, and detect gallbladder stones, tumors, and blood clots. But to explore how this
tool works in practice, let’s consider its most well-known use— the fetal ultrasound. 

Non- invasive: (of medical treatment) involving cutting into the body

Tumor – A brain tumor
Fetal: a young human or animal before it is born, especially a human more than eight
weeks after fertilization – (bào thai)
First, the skin is covered with conductive gel. Since sound waves lose speed and clarity
when traveling through air, this gooey substance ensures an airtight seal between the body and the
wand emitting ultrasound waves. Then the machine operator begins sending ultrasound beams into
the body. The waves pass through liquids like urine, blood, and amniotic fluid without creating any
echoes. But when a wave encounters a solid structure, it bounces back. This echo is rendered as a
dot on the imaging screen. Objects like bones reflect the most waves, appearing as tightly packed
dots forming bright white shapes. Less dense objects appear in fainter shades of gray, slowly
creating an image of the fetus’s internal organs. 
Render:  to express or perform something
Airtight: not allowing air to get in or out

To get a complete picture, waves need to reach different depths in the patient’s

body, bypassing some tissues while echoing off others. Since longer, low frequency waves actually
penetrate deeper than short, high frequency ones, multiple frequencies are often used together and
composited into a life-like image. The operator can then zoom in and focus on different areas. And
since ultrasound machines send and receive cascades of waves in real time, the machine can even
visualize movement. 

The waves used for medical ultrasound range from 2 million to 10 million hertz— over a
hundred times higher than human ears can hear. These incredibly high frequencies create detailed
images that allow doctors to diagnose the smallest developmental deviations in the brain, heart,
spine, and more. Even outside of pre-natal care, medical ultrasound has huge advantages over
similar technologies. Unlike radiation-based imaging or invasive surgical procedures, ultrasound
has no known negative side effects when used properly. At very high levels, the heat caused by
ultrasound waves can damage sensitive tissues, but technicians typically use the lowest levels
possible. And since modern ultrasound machines can be small and portable, doctors can use them
in the field— allowing them to see clearly in any medical emergency. 

Procedures: a way of doing something, especially the usual or correct way

 WHAT CAUSES AN ECONOMIC RECESSION?
For millennia, the people of Britain had been using bronze to make tools and jewelry, and
as a currency for trade. But around 800 BCE, that began to change: the value of bronze declined,
causing social upheaval and an economic crisis— what we would call a recession today. 

What causes recessions? This question has long been the subject of heated debate among
economists, and for good reason. A recession can be a mild decline in economic activity in a single
country that lasts months, a long-lasting downturn with global ramifications that last years, or
anything in between. Complicating matters further, there are countless variables that contribute to
an economy’s health, making it difficult to pinpoint specific causes. 

So it helps to start with the big picture: recessions occur when there is a negative
disruption to the balance between supply and demand. There’s a mismatch between how many
goods people want to buy, how many products and services producers can offer, and the price of
the goods and services sold, which prompts an economic decline. 

An economy’s relationship between supply and demand is reflected in its inflation rates and
interest rates. 

Inflation happens when goods and services get more expensive. Put another way, the value
of money decreases. Still, inflation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, a low inflation rate is
thought to encourage economic activity. But high inflation that isn’t accompanied with high
demand can both cause problems for an economy and eventually lead to a recession. 

Interest rates, meanwhile, reflect the cost of taking on debt for individuals and
companies. The rate is typically an annual percentage of a loan that borrowers pay to their creditors
until the loan is repaid. Low interest rates mean that companies can afford to borrow more
money, which they can use to invest in more projects. High interest rates, meanwhile, increase
costs for producers and consumers, slowing economic activity. 

Fluctuations in inflation and interest rates can give us insight into the health of the
economy, but what causes these fluctuations in the first place? 

The most obvious causes are shocks like natural disaster, war, and geopolitical factors. An
earthquake, for example, can destroy the infrastructure needed to produce important commodities
such as oil. That forces the supply side of the economy to charge more for products that use
oil, discouraging demand and potentially prompting a recession. 

But some recessions occur in times of economic prosperity— possibly even because of

economic prosperity. Some economists believe that business activity from a market’s
expansion can occasionally reach an unsustainable level. For example, corporations and consumers
may borrow more money with the assumption that economic growth will help them handle the
added burden. But if the economy doesn’t grow as quickly as expected, they may end up with more
debt than they can manage. To pay it off, they’ll have to redirect funds from other
activities, reducing business activity. 
 Psychology can also contribute to a recession. Fear of a recession can become a self-
fulfilling prophecy if it causes people to pull back investing and spending. In response, producers
might cut operating costs to help weather the expected decline in demand. That can lead to a
vicious cycle as cost cuts eventually lower wages, leading to even lower demand. 

Even policy designed to help prevent recessions can contribute. When times are tough,
governments and central banks may print money, increase spending, and lower central bank
interest rates. Smaller lenders can in turn lower their interest rates, effectively making debt
“cheaper” to boost spending. But these policies are not sustainable and eventually need to be
reversed to prevent excessive inflation. That can cause a recession if people have become too
reliant on cheap debt and government stimulus. 

The Bronze recession in Britain eventually ended when the adoption of iron helped
revolutionize farming and food production. Modern markets are more complex, making today’s
recessions far more difficult to navigate. But each recession provides new data to help anticipate
and respond to future recessions more effectively. 
 WHY YOU SHOULD TALK TO STRANGERS?

There are things we say when we catch the eye of a stranger or a neighbor walking by. We
say, "Hello, how are you? It's a beautiful day. How do you feel?" These sound kind of meaningless,
right? And, in some ways, they are. They have no semantic meaning. It doesn't matter how you are
or what the day is like. They have something else. They have social meaning. What we mean when
we say those things is: I see you there. 

I'm obsessed with talking to strangers. I make eye contact, say hello, I offer help, I listen. I
get all kinds of stories. About seven years ago, I started documenting my experiences to try to
figure out why. What I found was that something really beautiful was going on. This is almost
poetic. These were really profound experiences. They were unexpected pleasures. They were
genuine emotional connections. They were liberating moments. 

So one day, I was standing on a corner waiting for the light to change, which, I'm a New
Yorker, so that means I was actually standing in the street on the storm drain, as if that could get me
across faster. And there's an old man standing next to me. So he's wearing, like, a long overcoat and
sort of an old-man hat, and he looked like somebody from a movie. And he says to me, "Don't
stand there. You might disappear." So this is absurd, right? But I did what he said. I stepped back
onto the sidewalk. And he smiled, and he said, "Good. You never know. I might have turned
around, and zoop, you're gone." 

This was weird, and also really wonderful. He was so warm, and he was so happy that he'd
saved me. We had this little bond. For a minute, I felt like my existence as a person had been
noticed, and I was worth saving. The really sad thing is, in many parts of the world, we're raised to
believe that strangers are dangerous by default, that we can't trust them, that they might hurt us. But
most strangers aren't dangerous. We're uneasy around them because we have no context. We don't
know what their intentions are. So instead of using our perceptions and making choices, we rely on
this category of "stranger." 

I have a four-year-old. When I say hello to people on the street, she asks me why. She says,
"Do we know them?" 

I say, "No, they're our neighbor." 

"Are they our friend?" 

"No, it's just good to be friendly." 

I think twice every time I say that to her, because I mean it, but as a woman, particularly, I
know that not every stranger on the street has the best intentions. It is good to be friendly, and it's
good to learn when not to be, but none of that means we have to be afraid. 

There are two huge benefits to using our senses instead of our fears. The first one is that it
liberates us. When you think about it, using perception instead of categories is much easier said
than done. Categories are something our brains use. When it comes to people, it's sort of a shortcut
for learning about them. We see male, female, young, old, black, brown, white, stranger,
friend, and we use the information in that box. It's quick, it's easy and it's a road to bias. And it
means we're not thinking about people as individuals. I know an American researcher who travels
frequently in Central Asia and Africa, alone. She's entering into towns and cities as a complete
stranger. She has no bonds, no connections. She's a foreigner. Her survival strategy is this: get one
stranger to see you as a real, individual person. If you can do that, it'll help other people see you that
way, too. 

The second benefit of using our senses has to do with intimacy. I know it sounds a little
counterintuitive, intimacy and strangers, but these quick interactions can lead to a feeling that
sociologists call "fleeting intimacy." So, it's a brief experience that has emotional resonance and
meaning. It's the good feeling I got from being saved from the death trap of the storm drain by the
old man, or how I feel like part of a community when I talk to somebody on my train on the way to
work. 

Sometimes it goes further. Researchers have found that people often feel more
comfortable being honest and open about their inner selves with strangers than they do with their
friends and their families -- that they often feel more understood by strangers. This gets reported in
the media with great lament. "Strangers communicate better than spouses!" It's a good headline,
right? I think it entirely misses the point. The important thing about these studies is just how
significant these interactions can be; how this special form of closeness gives us something we
need as much as we need our friends and our families. 

So how is it possible that we communicate so well with strangers? There are two

reasons. The first one is that it's a quick interaction. It has no consequences. It's easy to be honest
with someone you're never going to see again, right? That makes sense. The second reason is
where it gets more interesting. We have a bias when it comes to people we're close to. We expect
them to understand us. We assume they do, and we expect them to read our minds. So imagine
you're at a party, and you can't believe that your friend or your spouse isn't picking up on it that you
want to leave early. And you're thinking, "I gave you the look." 

With a stranger, we have to start from scratch. We tell the whole story, we explain who the
people are, how we feel about them; we spell out all the inside jokes. And guess what? Sometimes
they do understand us a little better. 

OK. So now that we know that talking to strangers matters, how does it work? There are
unwritten rules we tend to follow. The rules are very different depending on what country you're
in, what culture you're in. In most parts of the US, the baseline expectation in public is that we
maintain a balance between civility and privacy. This is known as civil inattention. So, imagine two
people are walking towards each other on the street. They'll glance at each other from a
distance. That's the civility, the acknowledgment. And then as they get closer, they'll look away, to
give each other some space. 

In other cultures, people go to extraordinary lengths not to interact at all. People from

Denmark tell me that many Danes are so averse to talking to strangers, that they would rather miss
their stop on the bus than say "excuse me" to someone that they need to get around. Instead, there's
this elaborate shuffling of bags and using your body to say that you need to get past, instead of
using two words. 
 In Egypt, I'm told, it's rude to ignore a stranger, and there's a remarkable culture of
hospitality. Strangers might ask each other for a sip of water. Or, if you ask someone for
directions, they're very likely to invite you home for coffee. We see these unwritten rules most
clearly when they're broken, or when you're in a new place and you're trying to figure out what the
right thing to do is. 

Sometimes breaking the rules a little bit is where the action is. In case it's not clear, I really
want you to do this. OK? So here's how it's going to go. Find somebody who is making eye
contact. That's a good signal. The first thing is a simple smile. If you're passing somebody on the
street or in the hallway here, smile. See what happens. 

Another is triangulation. There's you, there's a stranger, there's some third thing that you
both might see and comment on, like a piece of public art or somebody preaching in the street or
somebody wearing funny clothes. Give it a try. Make a comment about that third thing, and see if
starts a conversation. 

Another is what I call noticing. This is usually giving a compliment. I'm a big fan of

noticing people's shoes. I'm actually not wearing fabulous shoes right now, but shoes are fabulous
in general. And they're pretty neutral as far as giving compliments goes. People always want to tell
you things about their awesome shoes. 

You may have already experienced the dogs and babies principle. It can be awkward to talk
to someone on the street; you don't know how they're going to respond. But you can always talk to
their dog or their baby. The dog or the baby is a social conduit to the person, and you can tell by
how they respond whether they're open to talking more. 

The last one I want to challenge you to is disclosure. This is a very vulnerable thing to
do, and it can be very rewarding. So next time you're talking to a stranger and you feel
comfortable, tell them something true about yourself, something really personal. You might have
that experience I talked about of feeling understood. 

Sometimes in conversation, it comes up, people ask me, "What does your dad do?" or,
"Where does he live?" And sometimes I tell them the whole truth, which is that he died when I was
a kid. Always in those moments, they share their own experiences of loss. We tend to meet
disclosure with disclosure, even with strangers. 

So, here it is. When you talk to strangers, you're making beautiful interruptions into the
expected narrative of your daily life and theirs. You're making unexpected connections. If you don't
talk to strangers, you're missing out on all of that. We spend a lot of time teaching our children
about strangers. What would happen if we spent more time teaching ourselves? We could reject all
the ideas that make us so suspicious of each other. We could make a space for change. 

Thank you.