If you've ever lived in the country and then moved closer to a city then you know how drastically different the soundscapes can be. In the city your little ears are competing with the busy lives of thousands of others who drive cars, own pets, do the dishes late at night and sometimes, painfully, even their recycling. But perhaps you don't always have to sacrifice silence in order to be near the big smoke. There are some places in cities that are significantly quieter than ot

Recent research in Germany has analysed the level of hearing loss in people across many different cities. They found that those in the loudest cities have hearing that is comparable with being 10 years older then the natural ageing process. As an increasing amount of research is showing, noise doesn't just affect your hearing, it affects many different aspects of your health. Just as air pollution can cause premature ageing, noise should probably also be considered. The mos