MIT researchers have created an app that translates proteins into music, reports Eva Amsen of Forbes. This method could potentially be used to “make it easier to process very subtle changes that would be less obvious if you looked at the data visually,” Amsen explains.
Prof. Markus Buehler speaks with Ira Flatow of Science Friday about his research, which attempts to better understand and create new proteins by translating them into music. Buehler explains that they were able to listen to proteins after discovering that “amino acids have a unique frequency spectrum which we could then make audible using a concept of transposition.”
Diana Cai writes for STAT about Prof. Markus Buehler’s new research to turn amino acids into music. “Buehler thinks the technology could help in understanding genetic diseases caused by misfolded proteins,” writes Cai, noting that, “AI may conceivably ‘hear’ patterns of misfolding that could distinguish dangerous mutations from harmless ones.”
In a new study, Prof. Markus Buehler converted 20 types of amino acids into a 20-tone scale to create musical compositions. “Those altered compositions were converted back into a conceptual amino acid chain, which enabled the team to generate variations of proteins that have never been seen in nature,” writes Becky Ferreira for Motherboard.
The MIT Chorallaries, a co-ed a cappella group at MIT, compete in WGBH’s Sing That Thing! competition. “I have always been really interested in music, but also really enjoyed doing math and science in school,” explains third-year student Madeline Wong. “I feel like they are both integral parts of my life and I couldn’t have one without the other.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Leigh Kamping-Carder highlights how MIT researchers are developing a number of new technologies aimed at easing the transition to space for future amateur astronauts. A robotic tail developed by Media Lab researchers could help space travelers “grab objects, anchor to surfaces and balance while floating in environments with reduced gravity.”
Prof. Evan Ziporyn and his colleagues have created a multimedia, interactive performance that allows viewers to tour a spider’s web, reports Erin Blakemore for The Washington Post. “The group took laser-scanned images of the spider’s web, then associated different parts of the web with different sounds,” Blakemore explains. “They were inspired by the intricate, yet tough protein fibers that make up spider webs.”
Reporting for WBUR, Amelia Mason spotlights a collaboration between graduate student Ben Bloomberg and Jacob Collier, a singer and former MIT artist-in-residence. Bloomberg explains that he and Collier aim to use technology as a means to augment human capabilities, explaining that, “technology should do things that technology is good at, and the people should do things that people are good at.”
Prof. Tod Machover speaks with WBUR’s Andrea Shea about his new opera, which uses technology and music to tell the story of composer Arnold Schoenberg. Machover notes that opera, “was always a kind of funky experimental form where it was the place to combine narrative and visuals and engineering stage sets and music that worked — as a listening experience.”
Motherboard reporter Kaleigh Rogers writes that MIT researchers have developed an AI system that can generate scary-sounding music. Rogers explains that the researchers used a “huge number of midi files and a handful of horror movies soundtracks as ‘primer melodies’ to give the AI a starting point to make up the rest of the soundtrack.”
The Echo Nest, an audio-tech company founded by MIT alumni, has identified the most danceable number one hit songs, writes Dan Kopf for Quartz. Echo Nest’s algorithm determines the “danceability” of a song based on the tempo and beat regularity, Kopf explains, “so a bridge that even briefly changes the mood is highly penalized.”
Developed by MIT researchers, ConcertCue, an app that provides real-time program notes during live classical music performances, has received a $50,000 grant from the Knight Foundation’s Prototype Fund, reports Melissa Locker for Fast Company. The foundation awarded 12 grants to “innovative tech organizations and cultural institutions” that use technology to make the arts more accessible in the digital age.
MIT Media Lab researchers have created a musical instrument designed to be played in zero-gravity, writes Becky Ferreira for Motherboard. The instrument, dubbed the Telemetron, produces “musical tones that are appropriately spacey, with a similar timbre to how music sounds underwater,” explains Ferreira.
Boston Globe reporter David Weininger highlights a recording of three new works by Prof. Peter Child. Weininger writes that the new pieces, “demonstrate the MIT composer’s remarkable stylistic diversity.”