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Category Archives: music
Love and Chili Peppers, In Any Language
On this week’s show we spoke with David Harrison, associate professor and chair of the linguistics department at Swarthmore College and a National Geographic Fellow. Dr. Harrison has traveled the world, seeking the last speakers of endangered languages. He’s recording … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, music, Radio Segments, Uncategorized
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Björk’s New York ‘Residency’
In case you didn’t get tickets to see the Icelandic singer, swan dress wearer, and now science teacher Björk at the New York Hall of Science, she’s added another show to the Roseland Ballroom leg of her ‘residency.’ Björk is … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Events, music, Reviews, Uncategorized, Visual Art
Tagged Biophilia, Bjork, music, New York Hall of Science
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Notes From A Former ‘Guitar Zero’
Gary Marcus, a professor of psychology at NYU set out to learn the guitar at age 38. He joins us this week to talk about his experience and whether it is possible to teach a barely middle-aged dog new tricks. … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, music, Radio Segments, Uncategorized
Tagged Gary Marcus, guitar, learning, music
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Dreams Of A ‘Global Jukebox’
Over his 70-year career, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax amassed thousands of sound recordings, piles of photographs, miles of film, and hours of videotape documenting traditional music and musicians from around the world. From his New York Times obituary (he died in … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, music, Uncategorized, Visual Art
Tagged Alan Lomax, cultural anthropology, ethomusicology, music
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Push Play, Feel Better
This week one of our favorite guests, neurologist Oliver Sacks, makes a return visit to Science Friday. He and our other guests will be talking about music therapy, and how it’s being used to to treat a variety of conditions … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, books, Interview, music, Radio Segments, Uncategorized
Tagged music, music therapy, Oliver Sacks
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X-rayed Singing
This clip shows what happens inside the body when we sing. The clip, from Swiss director Pierre-Yves Borgeaud’s 2002 film Inland, was created with the radiology department at the hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. Inland is an abstract film about the … Continue reading
Bjork’s Latest Project: Biophilia
Icelandic musician Bjork has often been called “otherworldly.” Her latest creative project builds a whole new world of weird combining science, music, and technology. The songs on the album, Biophilia, draw inspiration from things like parasitic infections, Earth’s core, and … Continue reading
Infrared Theremin Turns Beams of Light Into Music
Fans of classic sci-fi movies (we’re safe in assuming there are at least a couple of you out there, right?) will know the theremin well. Among the earliest ventures into electronic music, the notoriously difficult to master instrument converts electrical … Continue reading
Happy Tau Day!
It may be INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY elsewhere on the Internet. Here, though, we’re celebrating Tau Day – because every number that helps us determine the circumference of things is due its fifteen minutes of fame. Mathematically speaking, tau (τ) … Continue reading
Building A Better Pop Star
It’s been said that stars are just like the rest of us. But Japan’s newest pop sensation, Aimi Eguchi, really isn’t like the rest of us. Check out this video of Eguchi. Notice anything strange? While the rest of us … Continue reading
