A flexible patch could help people with voice disorders talk

The human voice, with all its energy to mesmerise audiences, woo family members and irritate neighbours, is a fragile factor. Every individual’s distinctive sound is produced when air from the lungs causes the vocal cords, folds of muscle tissue within the larynx, to vibrate. These vocal cords can simply get broken by stress, infections, or overuse. It’s not simply overzealous performers who’re susceptible to straining their voiceboxes—in response to a 2005 examine, 30% of the inhabitants will expertise a voice dysfunction in some unspecified time in the future of their life.