Noise! So annoying. So prevalent. So important. Not always heard.

The shrill noise we hear in our neck of the woods these days comes from the vibrating tymbal organs of male cicadas chorusing females – an invitation to mate. Tymbal organs are stretched across the space between the thorax and abdomen, which is hollow and acts as a resonance chamber, so the noise can be deafening, especially when it’s dry and warm. Female cicadas don’t have these organs and are silent; their abdomens produce eggs, not noise. Tymbal vibrations can also make distress calls. I guess the poor female has no way to protest or attract attention or ask for help. Life is unfair.

The Washington Post described an incredible case of a dog eating a cicada, who screeched when swallowed and kept screeching for help inside the dog’s stomach for more than 20 seconds. Yikes! That’s distress! What a way to go!

More animal sounds – serenades – at my suburban home: birds in noisy conversations, dogs barking, crickets rubbing their wings together to create a soothing sound – once again, only the males do this – and frogs croaking at night, louder than expected from these small creatures.

Except for waves rolling in on the shore or crashing on rocks, the ocean seems silent on the surface, but that’s not the case beneath. Whales and dolphins communicate with complex clicking sounds, and the fish in the coral reefs have their own environmental cacophony. Sadly, boats, fishing, drilling, and other noise blasts contaminate the seas and endanger marine organisms. How thoughtless, how tragic!

We don’t even realize how assaulted we are with noise from air-conditioners, heating systems, refrigerators, various electronic devices, car motors, telephones, background chatter and annoying conversations on cell phones, TV left on, flying planes. We ignore these and other noises since there’s little other option.

Unwanted music irritates us – on hold on the telephone or in the street when trying to sleep, even in a five-star hotel. My father equated piped music in a restaurant with having celery stuffed in your mouth without your permission. No respect for the sense of hearing as there is for taste and vision and touch and temperature. Noise eludes privacy. Rude! Outrageous!

Of course, there’s also the good sounds of trickling water in a creek, favorite arias in an opera, the reassuring voice of a loved one.

Sounds. Pressure waves caused by vibrating objects. Connections with the world.

And then there’s the private, incessant, high-pitched ringing of tinnitus in my head alone, a price paid for evolution of remarkable ears. There’s a cost and tradeoff for every gain.

There’s also the random, silent leaking of gene expression – DNA making low amounts of RNA, helter-skelter – random blips of activity, lively baselines, as it were, called noise by scientists. This noise, unheard, signals “Ready,” like the rapid footwork of a tennis player waiting for the ball to come or a boxer preparing for the next punch. Noise as potential.

Noise! It only exists with life.