WASHINGTON — We often frown on rain. It messes with plans, slows traffic, and in extremes brings hazards. But light, steady rain? That might be one of nature’s underrated mental health tools. Soothing ...

The next time you find yourself lulled by the patter of rain outside your window, think how that same sprinkle might sound if you were a tiny seed planted directly below a free-falling droplet. Would ...

The ability of natural environmental sound to stimulate seeds and seedlings sufficiently to foster growth, by mechanisms related to gravitropism 1,2,3,4,5,6 for example, has not been previously ...

I really don’t like the sound of rain on my roof.