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To leave Commie, hyper to
http://commie.oy.com/commie_leaving.html
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NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
No 71, 10 February 2001
FUNK SOUL BROTHER
The connection between teenage pop idol Britney Spears and Professor
Stephen Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, may not be immediately obvious. Both,
however, possess a rather alarming alter ego. Not long ago we mentioned
that the Queen of Teen harbours a great passion for semiconductor physics.
This week, we can reveal that while many consider Professor Hawking to be
the theoretical physicist who revolutionised our theories on black holes,
some will always remember him as a gangsta rappa with some crazy large
lyricz.
http://www.newscientist.com/feedback/feedback.jsp?id=ns227714
LOUD AND CLEAR
With a PhD in physics and an Oscar for his personal contribution to
motion picture sound, Ray Dolby has also successfully blurred the
boundary between science and the arts. For more than 30 years, Dolby
Laboratories has led the field in sound systems. Hiss-free Dolby
equipment is now in our living rooms and in 20 000 cinemas worldwide.
As rumours abound that Dolby is thinking of selling up and calling it
a day, we talk to the man who has become a household name.
http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinion.jsp?id=ns22774
HIGH-PROTEIN VIBES
Perhaps, however, Helen Long has gone further than anyone else in
bringing science and art together. The researcher in Crediton, Devon,
has given every amino acid an identifiable musical note or phrase which
can be stored as a MIDI computer file and played on any PC. Amino acids
are the building blocks of proteins, so each protein now has its own
distinct signature tune and any small differences in molecular stucture
will be immediately recognisable to the ear. Long hopes that her
"protein-derived music" will be of "therapeutic interest as a
replacement for music therapy".
http://www.newscientist.com/news/newsletter.jsp?id=ns227736
NAME THAT TUNE
And, still on music, sometimes there's a song going round in your head
and you know it won't go away until you've remembered what it's called.
Now, thanks to Bjorn Olstad you'll soon be able to get the answer just
by whistling or singing to your PC. The research and development chief
at Fast Search and Transfer (FAST) in Oslo, Norway has developed new
search software which can find a tune and name it with as few as five
notes to go on. We're confident that Olstad's software will cope
admirably with the tunes of Britney Spears. But we're not too sure how
it'll fare with MC Stephen Hawking's "rhymez & beatz" or Helen Long's
musical proteins...
http://www.newscientist.com/news/newsletter.jsp?id=ns227733
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