La Ronge NorthernerSign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. But then he and his advisor Jonathan Lees of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, realized, “No one had tried to put microphones on stratospheric balloons for half a century, so we focused on exploring what this new platform could do,” Bowman said. Bowman is eager to understand the sonic landscape of the stratosphere and unlock key features, such as variability across seasons and locations