Quantum Melodics

Quantum Melodics  Click above to play audio (in a new window) while you read about the piece By Jacob Baron, a graduate student at Harvard University. “Quantum Melodics is based on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. This principle says that the more accurately you know where a particle is, the less accurately you can know how fast it is moving, and vice-versa. To me, this principle seems ridiculous, since … Continue reading Quantum Melodics

DNA Sciku

7 feet of information. Stored in the nucleus. For this sciku.   Fast forward along DNA until reaching the stop codon.   Synthetic DNA. The blueprint of life. What is natural? A Sciku is a scientific snack, a short piece of science-related poetry served in three lines. It’s inspired by the very short form of Japanese poetry called haiku though not strictly following its traditional … Continue reading DNA Sciku

Noise to Signal: Cosmic Music

This project originated at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics when sociologist of science Gerhard Sonnert met the blind astronomer Wanda Diaz Merced, who studied the sonification of astronomic data as a tool for data analysis and signal detection. Among other data, she used sonified x-rays from EX Hydrae (depicted above), a binary star system that is a cataclysmic variable of the intermediate polar type. With the help of composer Volkmar Studtrucker, … Continue reading Noise to Signal: Cosmic Music