Did You Know You Can Hear Corn Grow?

Did you know you can hear corn grow? Forgive me for my corny joke, but now that you're all ears, let me explain.

Before moving to Evansville and Southern Indiana, I grew up in Southeastern Illinois. As a typical Gen-X latch-key kid, I spent a lot of time at home alone. Living in a rural area where I was literally surrounded by cornfields meant I spent a lot of time wandering between the rows of corn.

Growing Up Surrounded by Cornfields

I have seen and heard a lot of weird things walking up and down the corn rows. I've found arrowheads and weird bugs, and I have heard the wind whip through the cornstalks, too.

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The Science Behind Corn’s Surprising Sound

What I did not realize was how quickly corn grows or how loudly. As it turns out, you can hear corn grow! According to Phys.org. research was performed by Douglas Cook of New York University and Roger Elmore and Justin McMechan, from the University of Nebraska, showing that corn breaks and grows.

Anthony Wright/Results Radio

Cook says that these tiny breakages are believed to cause the plant to try to quickly "repair" itself, leading to growth. In fact, they captured video of this process, where in the time-lapsed video below, you can hear the corn break and watch it grow.

Watch and Hear Corn Grow in Real Time

The time-lapse video shows what can only be described as exelerated growth as the corn stalk shoots up approximately 1.25 inches in only 8 hours. That is crazy fast growth and not only can you see it, but you can hear it too!

KEEP READING: 40 Real Indiana Towns with Quirky, Weird, and Funny Names

Outside the major cities, the Hoosier state is full of tiny little towns you've probably passed through on your way to one of those cities. Most of them are likely 100 to 150 years old, or older, and have been around far longer than the large metropolitan areas such as Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Evansville. Typically, they were started by early settlers who found their way to the state and decided to make it home. Eventually, others would join them, and a community was formed. Over time, as the surrounding areas grew, most of them were folded into those areas and governed by the nearest city or county's governing body officially making them "unincorporated," meaning they did not have their own formally organized municipal government.

A scroll through Wikipedia's long list of unincorporated communities in Indiana shows several of them have names that by today's standards would be considered weird, quirky, or just downright right funny. These are my 40 favorities.

Gallery Credit: Ryan O'Bryan

Source: Did You Know You Can Actually Hear Corn Grow?