---
title: "Scientist: Please Stop Laughing at My Research About Placing Earthworms on Loudspeakers"
description: "A team of physicists from the Swinburne University of Technology have an important message: Their research on vibrating earthworms is not a joke. The duo’s experiment, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports in May, shows that when sedated and placed on a loudspeaker, the surface of an earthworm will vibrate. For […]"
date: "2020-10-21"
modified: "2020-10-21"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientist-research-earthworms-loudspeakers"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "brain computer interface"
  - "ig nobel"
  - "neuroscience"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientist: Please Stop Laughing at My Research About Placing Earthworms on Loudspeakers

![A scientist who won an Ig Nobel for his work on vibrating earthworms with a speaker say their research may be the key to brain-computer interface.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scientist-defends-research-vibrating-earthworms.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Creazilla/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Wormin' Around

A physicist from the Swinburne University of Technology has an important message: His research on vibrating earthworms is *not* a joke.

Ivan Maksymov's [experiment](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65295-4>) with coauthor Andrey Pototsky, which was published in the journal *Scientific Reports* in May, shows that when sedated and placed on a loudspeaker, the surface of an earthworm will vibrate. For their trouble, they were [awarded an Ig Nobel](<https://cen.acs.org/people/awards/2020-Ig-Nobel-Prizes/98/i36#:~:text=Swinburne%20University%20of%20Technology's%20Ivan,020%2D65295%2D4).>), an award that pokes fun at bizarre scientific studies. But now, Maksymov is speaking out in a [new *The Conversation* essay](<https://theconversation.com/we-vibrated-earthworms-to-learn-about-safely-connecting-human-brains-to-computers-148313>) in which he argues that his work could be the key to seamless [brain-computer interfaces](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-neuralink-human-brain-implant>).

## Bass Boost

The study is based on [the existing hypothesis](<https://www.pnas.org/content/102/28/9790>) that nerve impulses given off by our brain cells travel not only as electrochemical signals but as inaudible sound waves.

The scientists, Maksymov wrote in *the Conversation*, weren't just bass-boosting worms to watch them bounce, but rather were measuring how sound generates Faraday waves on a worm's body — the same kind of wave as the ripples on a drop of water — and how the human nervous system might do the same.

## Linking Up

This is where the vibrating worm study gets a little bit more speculative. *If* neural signals propagate with inaudible soundwaves and *if* a device can generate Faraday waves of that exact frequency in the brain, it could provide a seamless, noninvasive way of hooking our brains [up to computers](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-brain-computer-startup>).

"We believe our results, pending further detailed research, may help create a safer, sound-based link between the human brain and computers — one that works without unsafe needle electrodes," Maksymov wrote.

**READ MORE:** [We vibrated earthworms to learn about safely connecting human brains to computers](<https://theconversation.com/we-vibrated-earthworms-to-learn-about-safely-connecting-human-brains-to-computers-148313>) \[*The Conversation*\]

**More on BCI:** *[Elon Musk: Neuralink Will Do Human Brain Implant in “Less Than a Year”](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-neuralink-human-brain-implant>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)