music

‘Simple Relativities (Your Imagination)’: Why I made this Albert Einstein homage music video

by

So, why in the name of the cosmos am I LARP-ing Albert Einstein as a 1950s-stye doo-wop group?!  Well, I wanted to make you smile in these very tense times.  The spark:  It began as a COVID-19 fever hallucination. I had the bug for seven weeks, back in the pre-vaccine days. Lying medicated on the … Read more

Chocolate, music and research fuel Martian life at HI-SEAS – Commander’s report: sol 6

by

Dr. Michaela Musilova is the director of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program, which conducts analog missions to the moon and Mars for scientific research at a habitat on the volcano Mauna Loa. Currently, she is in command of the two-week Valoria 3 Martian mission and contributed this report to Space.com’s Expert … Read more

Researchers Analyzed Folk Music like It Was DNA: They Found Parallels between Life and Art

by

Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin. You’re probably familiar with the concept of evolution. Living things evolve by accumulating genetic changes, which are then weeded out or preserved through a process of natural selection. Turns out the same thing happens in music. And by using the same software that’s used to … Read more

Neuroscientists Find Part of The Brain That Responds Specifically to Singing

by

The capacity to engage with and comprehend music spans nearly every human society. While other creatures also display musical behaviors (think bird song, humpback whale calls, or bonobo vocalizations), our musical cognition appears to be evolutionary distinct within the animal kingdom.    A new study has given us more insight into the brain’s relationship with music, finding that … Read more

Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping celebrates Lantern Festival with traditional music from space (video)

by

China’s Tiangong space station is still under construction but the astronauts aboard are already bringing aspects of Chinese traditions and culture into space. Shenzhou 13 mission astronaut Wang Yaping, China’s second woman in space and the first aboard the space station, played a song with a guzheng, a traditional Chinese string instrument, aboard the Tianhe … Read more

Folk songs: Japanese and English language melodies evolved in the same way

by

Japanese folk songs evolved in the same way as those sung in English even though there are significant cultural differences in musical tone and scales Humans 3 February 2022 By Jason Arunn Murugesu A woman playing a koto, a traditional Japanese musical instrument Shutterstock/PixHound Japanese folk songs evolved in the same way as English language … Read more

Science and music collide with the James Webb Space Telescope

by

Lee Feinberg, the Optical Telescope Element manager for Webb, who is also a musician. (Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn) What’s the secret ingredient that has supported scientists at NASA in creating the most powerful space telescope in history? Music. The James Webb Space Telescope, a collaborative effort between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian … Read more