Tassie devil ranks in world's worst sounds The sound of a
tasmanian devil has featured in a list of the world's most
horrible sounds. Over 1.1 million votes were analysed by
Professor Trevor Cox of the University of Salford in the UK.
Voting took place via Internet site sound101.org. Coming in at
number 11 out of 34 sounds was the tasmanian devil, which was
considered a more horrible sound than the dentist's drill.
Vomiting topped the list, followed by microphone feedback, with
babies crying and a "horrible scraping sound" tying for third
place. Fingernails down a blackboard, considered an awful sound
by many people, came in at 16th. Professor Cox says he is driven
by a scientific curiosity about why people shudder at certain
sounds and not others. "We are pre-programmed to be repulsed by
horrible things such as vomiting, as it is fundamental to
staying alive to avoid nasty stuff but, interestingly, the
voting patterns from the sound did not match expectation for a
pure 'disgust' reaction," he said. "Similarl