BBC News – Music from tiny particles’ movements set to debut

The random dance of tiny particles bouncing around in liquid has been turned into a unique sound display.

The jostling molecules of liquid bump the particles to and fro in an effect called Brownian motion.

Now a chemical engineer and an artist have joined forces to turn this random molecular dance into music.

The project, called Scale Structure Synthesis, was developed for the University of Sheffield‘s Festival of the Mind, which begins on Thursday.

The festival will see a number of pairings of science specialists with non-specialists in the name of public engagement, alongside talks, exhibitions and demonstrations.

Music of the spheres

For Scale Structure Synthesis, Jonathan Howse of the University of Sheffield built a simple microscope to observe the “musicians” of the installation: tiny particles of polystyrene, spheres just a millionth of a metre across, floating around in liquid.

A microscope with a camera attached is fixed on the particles as Brownian motion pushes them back and forth, and computer software tracks the motions of up to eight of the particles.

Artist Mark Fell then turns this stream of data into molecular music.

via BBC News – Music from tiny particles’ movements set to debut.

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BBC News – Whitney Houston: Sony ‘sorry’ for album price hike

Record label Sony has apologised for increasing the price of two Whitney Houston albums in the UK, hours after her death on Saturday.

The wholesale cost of the two LPs – Houston’s Ultimate Collection and Greatest Hits – went up by about £3 each, causing an automatic price increase on iTunes.

In a statement, Sony said the albums had been “mistakenly mispriced”.

It added the error was “immediately corrected” once it had been discovered.

Houston fans had taken to Twitter describing the price hike as “greedy” and “shameful”.

Since Houston’s death aged 48, her record sales have seen a major boost in the US and the UK.

Several of her songs are on course to re-enter the UK singles top 40 on Sunday with a greatest hits compilation heading for the top 10.

Houston’s cover of the Dolly Parton single, I Will Always Love You, is likely to reach the top 10 on Sunday.

The single, which featured in The Bodyguard, previously spent 10 weeks at number one and was the biggest selling single of 1992.

via BBC News – Whitney Houston: Sony ‘sorry’ for album price hike.

Strange Random Music Business Quote:

“Don’t try to explain it, just sell it.” Colonel Tom Parker

 

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BBC News – Falkland Islands: A shortage of eggs

It was one of those moments when you realise that, as an outsider, you have failed to pick up on a matter of local custom and have momentarily caused embarrassment to your hosts.

“Two eggs, sir?” the lady said. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. We are down to one egg apiece now.”

The 2,500 people who live here are among the most isolated in the world and are getting more so.

The editor of the local newspaper, whimsically called Penguin News, wrote in her editorial this week about being asked again and again by visiting journalists to express the islanders’ excitement about the presence here of Prince William, on a six-week tour of duty as a helicopter pilot.

She described instead a call she had received from a friend who was bubbling over with joy not because of Prince William – and all that his stay here symbolised about the all-important bond between these islands and Britain – but because she managed to grow a pepper and a cucumber.

Like eggs, fresh vegetables are increasingly hard to come by. The islands – acre for acre – aren’t much smaller than Wales, but the land is rocky and unyielding.

You can drive for mile after mile across peaty moorlands of black and pale yellow. There are no trees, for wind comes in at you with such a force from the cold Atlantic that nothing stands a chance. I visited a sheep farm – 19,000 acres to sustain 2,500 sheep.

In other words, each individual sheep needs seven acres of land to get through the year. That’s how ungiving this land is. And yet the Falkland Islanders make it work.

But you can’t get eggs and you can’t get vegetables. South America once traded happily with the islanders, supplying all their needs. But Buenos Aires has been working hard to cut the islands off.

via BBC News – Falkland Islands: A shortage of eggs.

Strange Random Egg Quote:

“What is my loftiest ambition? I’ve always wanted to throw an egg at an electric fan.” – Oliver Herford (American Writer, 1863-1935)

 

 

 

 

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BBC News – ‘Witch’s cottage’ unearthed near Pendle Hill, Lancashire

Engineers have said they were “stunned” to unearth a 17th Century cottage, complete with a mummified cat, during a construction project in Lancashire.

The cottage was discovered near Lower Black Moss reservoir in the village of Barley, in the shadow of Pendle Hill.

Archaeologists brought in by United Utilities to survey the area found the building under a grass mound.

Historians are now speculating that the well-preserved cottage could have belonged to one of the Pendle witches.The building contained a sealed room, with a mummified cat bricked into the wall.

It is believed the cat was buried alive to protect the cottage’s inhabitants from evil spirits.

Lancaster witch trials

Held at Lancaster Castle in August 1612

Eleven Pendle people charged with murder by witchcraft

Additional alleged Pendle witch tried at York Castle

Ten found guilty and hanged, one died while awaiting trial, one found not guilty

Trials made famous by publication of The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by clerk of the court Thomas Potts

via BBC News – ‘Witch’s cottage’ unearthed near Pendle Hill, Lancashire.

Strange Random Witch Quote:

“Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft were written by men.” ― Neil Gaiman

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BBC News – Liking a lie-in in people’s genes, researchers say

People who like a lie-in may now have an excuse – it is at least partly down to their genes, according to experts.

Experts, who studied more than 10,000 people across Europe, found those with the gene ABCC9 need around 30 minutes more sleep per night than those without the gene.

The gene is carried by one in five Europeans, they say in their study, published in Molecular Psychiatry.

The researchers said the finding could help explain “sleep behaviour”.

Over 10,000 people took part, each reporting how long they slept and providing a blood sample for DNA analysis.

People’s sleep needs can differ significantly.

At the extreme, Margaret Thatcher managed on four hours of sleep a night while Albert Einstein needed 11.

via BBC News – Liking a lie-in in people’s genes, researchers say.

Strange Random Sleep Quote:

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. – Irish Proverb

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