The cricket as a thermometer

Dolbear's Law, published in 1897, established that snowy tree cricket chirp rate is precisely correlated with temperature (count chirps in 15 seconds, add 40, and you have the temperature in Fahrenheit to within 1-2 degrees). This demonstrated that acoustic signals can encode environmental information with remarkable precision.

For organizations, this illustrates how rhythm and cadence in communication carry information beyond the explicit content. The regularity or irregularity of organizational communications signals health, stability, or distress.