Sound in Space - The B-Sides - Voyager 1, The Symphony

It’s time for another Episode Extra! (which is where you special blog readers get to check out really cool stuff to go along with my YouTube videos, like special features on a DVD, only way more special-er)

In this latest episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart, we got to explore some musical and sonic art projects that were not only inspired by space, but created from space.

Voyager 1, the most distant manmade object ever created, a day anda half of light travel away from our sun, is approaching 18.5 billion kilometers from Earth as it makes its way out of our solar system. That’s a heck of a road trip. Like everyone knows, a good road trip needs good tunes, right?

Well, Domenico Vicinanza has converted actual magnetic field sensor data from Voyager 1 into music! Like yesterday’s goosebump-worthy choral suite written to the words of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, this one is a more creative take on space sonification. 

There’s real data beneath these sounds, with a particular level on the magnetic field sensor set to a particular note, but the instruments and rhythms are modified by human hands. It’s a never-before-heard blend of sound inspired by space, and made from space.

Read more about Vicinenza’s Voyager music at Discover.

Music credit: Sonification run on the GEANT network through EGI

Source: SoundCloud / Music From The Space

Space Sounds - New Episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart!!

There is no sound in space.

In the near-vacuum of space, there is nothing to transmit the physical waves that we need to perceive sound. But that doesn’t mean we can’t MAKE sound from space.

This week, I channeled some inner Sagan, got a bit artsy, and I’m happy to feature several brilliant folks using scientific data to create “space sonification” projects. From the longest palindrome ever created to a chorus made from Earth’s magnetic field, these pieces truly lie at the intersection of art and science. More than just art, they allow us to perceive patterns in complex data in a completely new way. Some of them are actually used as part of space research projects!

Perhaps it answers the question: If the universe had a voice, what song would it sing?

For those of you who follow the blog in addition to the YouTube channel, you’ll get some special treats this week when I feature even more space sonification examples that we couldn’t fit into this episode!

FULL Versions of the pieces featured in this week’s video:

Robert Alexander - Transit of Venus 

Semiconductor Films - “20 Hz”

Van Allen Belt chorus

Daniel Starr-Tambor - “Mandala” (this piece is the longest palndrome ever created, at 62 viginitillion notes!!)

Source: youtube.com

pbsdigitalstudios: Idea Channel + It’s Okay to Be Smart Madness! Our boys team up to teach you about music! Is Music Actually Sad | Idea Channel: http://youtu.be/bWWYE4eLEfk Why Does Music Move Us? | It’s Okay to be Smart: http://youtu.be/nT3O93-nxDc It’s true, it happened, I was there. I saw the whole thing(s). This was tons of fun, even though I’m right and Mike’s wrong :)  Really, though, as is always the case … the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Hopefully everyone enjoyed seeing both sides of such a complex issue. We are products neither strictly of our biology nor strictly of our culture. The mixture is what makes this human thing fun.
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pbsdigitalstudios: Idea Channel + It’s Okay to Be Smart Madness! Our boys team up to teach you about music! Is Music Actually Sad | Idea Channel: http://youtu.be/bWWYE4eLEfk Why Does Music Move Us? | It’s Okay to be Smart: http://youtu.be/nT3O93-nxDc It’s true, it happened, I was there. I saw the whole thing(s). This was tons of fun, even though I’m right and Mike’s wrong :)  Really, though, as is always the case … the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Hopefully everyone enjoyed seeing both sides of such a complex issue. We are products neither strictly of our biology nor strictly of our culture. The mixture is what makes this human thing fun.
Zoom Info

pbsdigitalstudios:

Idea Channel + It’s Okay to Be Smart Madness! Our boys team up to teach you about music!

Is Music Actually Sad | Idea Channel: http://youtu.be/bWWYE4eLEfk

Why Does Music Move Us? | It’s Okay to be Smart: http://youtu.be/nT3O93-nxDc

It’s true, it happened, I was there. I saw the whole thing(s).

This was tons of fun, even though I’m right and Mike’s wrong :) 

Really, though, as is always the case … the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Hopefully everyone enjoyed seeing both sides of such a complex issue. We are products neither strictly of our biology nor strictly of our culture. The mixture is what makes this human thing fun.

Why does music make us feel so many emotions?

I’ve got a new episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart going live on YouTube in a few minutes, all about some of the science behind why music is capable of making us feel so many feels.

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I’m also excited because Mike from PBS Idea Channel did a video about the same thing and you can watch both and really get your think on. Whatever the reason, the fact is that music is just vibrations of sound in various patterns and arrangements … so what gives?

What makes it different from a jackhammer? Are our brains wired to sense emotion in music? Or do we just associate emotions based on our cultural influences? Is music just a side effect of our evolution? Or is music/emotion deeply rooted in our neural development as a species, even contributing to our species social success?

The video will be up in no time. But first … What do you think?

TED + PBS = TED Talks Education Tune in tomorrow night, May 7, to your local PBS station (full disclosure, they make my YouTube show but I would be posting this anyway) to see their educational collaboration with TED. They are bringing some revolutionary educators to the stage to talk about how we can change the future of learning for the better. Duhhhhhh the answer = Tumblr Great minds coming together to do great things for education! More info here.
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TED + PBS = TED Talks Education

Tune in tomorrow night, May 7, to your local PBS station (full disclosure, they make my YouTube show but I would be posting this anyway) to see their educational collaboration with TED. They are bringing some revolutionary educators to the stage to talk about how we can change the future of learning for the better.

Duhhhhhh the answer = Tumblr

Great minds coming together to do great things for education! More info here.

I know we would usually post a new It’s Okay To Be Smart video tomorrow …

But this week I’ve got something very fun planned and it’s going to be a couple days late. A little meeting of the minds/collaboration with another PBS Digital Studios channel.

Think you guys can handle waiting a day or two? I just don’t want you to be worried/confused/inconsolable when a new video doesn’t go up tomorrow, because I CARE.

In the meantime, I guess you could make sure you’re up to speed on the rest of the videos? Grab some popcorn like my girl Scarlett (whose last name is my full name, isn’t that weird?) and get to watching!

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PBS Meets The Avengers - Here to save you from crappy TV

Bob Ross, Bill Nye, Mr. Rogers, and Carl Sagan are united to pilot the spaceship of the mind away from the mind-numbing reality of today’s reality programming.

“Some people just want to watch the world learn.”

I really can’t tell you how happy I am to get to work for PBS. Like, I’m giddy watching this. These are my dudes. I feel like a Junior Avenger. We … ARE … PBS!!!

How Bees and Butterflies See Butterflies and bees can both sense pigments in the center of flowers that we can’t see. UV photography techniques pioneered by Klaus Schmitt and others capture this better than anything else I’ve seen. See how the center of the flower gets darker as the UV fades in? Bulls-eye. And what’s up with the glowing butterfly?! Living in a UV world would be awesome, except for all the DNA damage to your retinas thanks to the unfiltered radiation. Click here to watch the latest episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart for more on how bees and butterflies have evolved to see flowers in a new light. And subscribe! It’s free.
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How Bees and Butterflies See

Butterflies and bees can both sense pigments in the center of flowers that we can’t see. UV photography techniques pioneered by Klaus Schmitt and others capture this better than anything else I’ve seen. See how the center of the flower gets darker as the UV fades in? Bulls-eye.

And what’s up with the glowing butterfly?! Living in a UV world would be awesome, except for all the DNA damage to your retinas thanks to the unfiltered radiation.

Click here to watch the latest episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart for more on how bees and butterflies have evolved to see flowers in a new light. And subscribe! It’s free.

Like A Bee Sees By now you’ve probably all watched the latest It’s Okay To Be Smart video  about the amaaaaazing ways that bees are able to sense flowers. (actually I know a few of you haven’t so go do that, mmkay? Thanks!) Beyond the electric field sensing part (which is cool in its own right), it’s the fact that bees see into the “invisible” that just blows my mind. Bees (and butterflies too, actually) have photoreceptors that respond to wavelengths down in the UV range (see chart above). They use that vision to zoom right in on the important part of the flower: the sweet, sugary nectar pot. Spoiler alert: As much as we love flowers, they don’t really give a crap about us. But they do love bees. In return for giving the bees the sugary yum-yums, flowers get pollinated. And in the name of the evolutionary game, that’s the most important thing. To help get the gene-passing-on done, flowers have evolved certain pigments near the center of the flower that absorb UV light. That paints a big, fat bulls-eye for the bee to land on, right where the flower needs them (next to all the flower-sex bits). To us, the whole flower may look yellow or orange. To a bee. BIG “land here” spot in the middle.  THAT IS AMAZING!!! Nature, you are just too cool. Thanks to camera technology, we can take UV filtered photos of flowers and see those patterns pop out. It’s a pretty advanced technique, but some of my favorites are above. Check out those photographers’ galleries at the links below: UV floral photography by Klaus Schmitt and Bjørn Rørslett.  Click to subscribe to IOTBS on YouTube.
Zoom Info
Like A Bee Sees By now you’ve probably all watched the latest It’s Okay To Be Smart video  about the amaaaaazing ways that bees are able to sense flowers. (actually I know a few of you haven’t so go do that, mmkay? Thanks!) Beyond the electric field sensing part (which is cool in its own right), it’s the fact that bees see into the “invisible” that just blows my mind. Bees (and butterflies too, actually) have photoreceptors that respond to wavelengths down in the UV range (see chart above). They use that vision to zoom right in on the important part of the flower: the sweet, sugary nectar pot. Spoiler alert: As much as we love flowers, they don’t really give a crap about us. But they do love bees. In return for giving the bees the sugary yum-yums, flowers get pollinated. And in the name of the evolutionary game, that’s the most important thing. To help get the gene-passing-on done, flowers have evolved certain pigments near the center of the flower that absorb UV light. That paints a big, fat bulls-eye for the bee to land on, right where the flower needs them (next to all the flower-sex bits). To us, the whole flower may look yellow or orange. To a bee. BIG “land here” spot in the middle.  THAT IS AMAZING!!! Nature, you are just too cool. Thanks to camera technology, we can take UV filtered photos of flowers and see those patterns pop out. It’s a pretty advanced technique, but some of my favorites are above. Check out those photographers’ galleries at the links below: UV floral photography by Klaus Schmitt and Bjørn Rørslett.  Click to subscribe to IOTBS on YouTube.
Zoom Info
Like A Bee Sees By now you’ve probably all watched the latest It’s Okay To Be Smart video  about the amaaaaazing ways that bees are able to sense flowers. (actually I know a few of you haven’t so go do that, mmkay? Thanks!) Beyond the electric field sensing part (which is cool in its own right), it’s the fact that bees see into the “invisible” that just blows my mind. Bees (and butterflies too, actually) have photoreceptors that respond to wavelengths down in the UV range (see chart above). They use that vision to zoom right in on the important part of the flower: the sweet, sugary nectar pot. Spoiler alert: As much as we love flowers, they don’t really give a crap about us. But they do love bees. In return for giving the bees the sugary yum-yums, flowers get pollinated. And in the name of the evolutionary game, that’s the most important thing. To help get the gene-passing-on done, flowers have evolved certain pigments near the center of the flower that absorb UV light. That paints a big, fat bulls-eye for the bee to land on, right where the flower needs them (next to all the flower-sex bits). To us, the whole flower may look yellow or orange. To a bee. BIG “land here” spot in the middle.  THAT IS AMAZING!!! Nature, you are just too cool. Thanks to camera technology, we can take UV filtered photos of flowers and see those patterns pop out. It’s a pretty advanced technique, but some of my favorites are above. Check out those photographers’ galleries at the links below: UV floral photography by Klaus Schmitt and Bjørn Rørslett.  Click to subscribe to IOTBS on YouTube.
Zoom Info
Like A Bee Sees By now you’ve probably all watched the latest It’s Okay To Be Smart video  about the amaaaaazing ways that bees are able to sense flowers. (actually I know a few of you haven’t so go do that, mmkay? Thanks!) Beyond the electric field sensing part (which is cool in its own right), it’s the fact that bees see into the “invisible” that just blows my mind. Bees (and butterflies too, actually) have photoreceptors that respond to wavelengths down in the UV range (see chart above). They use that vision to zoom right in on the important part of the flower: the sweet, sugary nectar pot. Spoiler alert: As much as we love flowers, they don’t really give a crap about us. But they do love bees. In return for giving the bees the sugary yum-yums, flowers get pollinated. And in the name of the evolutionary game, that’s the most important thing. To help get the gene-passing-on done, flowers have evolved certain pigments near the center of the flower that absorb UV light. That paints a big, fat bulls-eye for the bee to land on, right where the flower needs them (next to all the flower-sex bits). To us, the whole flower may look yellow or orange. To a bee. BIG “land here” spot in the middle.  THAT IS AMAZING!!! Nature, you are just too cool. Thanks to camera technology, we can take UV filtered photos of flowers and see those patterns pop out. It’s a pretty advanced technique, but some of my favorites are above. Check out those photographers’ galleries at the links below: UV floral photography by Klaus Schmitt and Bjørn Rørslett.  Click to subscribe to IOTBS on YouTube.
Zoom Info
Like A Bee Sees By now you’ve probably all watched the latest It’s Okay To Be Smart video  about the amaaaaazing ways that bees are able to sense flowers. (actually I know a few of you haven’t so go do that, mmkay? Thanks!) Beyond the electric field sensing part (which is cool in its own right), it’s the fact that bees see into the “invisible” that just blows my mind. Bees (and butterflies too, actually) have photoreceptors that respond to wavelengths down in the UV range (see chart above). They use that vision to zoom right in on the important part of the flower: the sweet, sugary nectar pot. Spoiler alert: As much as we love flowers, they don’t really give a crap about us. But they do love bees. In return for giving the bees the sugary yum-yums, flowers get pollinated. And in the name of the evolutionary game, that’s the most important thing. To help get the gene-passing-on done, flowers have evolved certain pigments near the center of the flower that absorb UV light. That paints a big, fat bulls-eye for the bee to land on, right where the flower needs them (next to all the flower-sex bits). To us, the whole flower may look yellow or orange. To a bee. BIG “land here” spot in the middle.  THAT IS AMAZING!!! Nature, you are just too cool. Thanks to camera technology, we can take UV filtered photos of flowers and see those patterns pop out. It’s a pretty advanced technique, but some of my favorites are above. Check out those photographers’ galleries at the links below: UV floral photography by Klaus Schmitt and Bjørn Rørslett.  Click to subscribe to IOTBS on YouTube.
Zoom Info

Like A Bee Sees

By now you’ve probably all watched the latest It’s Okay To Be Smart video  about the amaaaaazing ways that bees are able to sense flowers. (actually I know a few of you haven’t so go do that, mmkay? Thanks!)

Beyond the electric field sensing part (which is cool in its own right), it’s the fact that bees see into the “invisible” that just blows my mind. Bees (and butterflies too, actually) have photoreceptors that respond to wavelengths down in the UV range (see chart above). They use that vision to zoom right in on the important part of the flower: the sweet, sugary nectar pot.

Spoiler alert: As much as we love flowers, they don’t really give a crap about us. But they do love bees. In return for giving the bees the sugary yum-yums, flowers get pollinated. And in the name of the evolutionary game, that’s the most important thing. To help get the gene-passing-on done, flowers have evolved certain pigments near the center of the flower that absorb UV light. That paints a big, fat bulls-eye for the bee to land on, right where the flower needs them (next to all the flower-sex bits). To us, the whole flower may look yellow or orange. To a bee. BIG “land here” spot in the middle. 

THAT IS AMAZING!!! Nature, you are just too cool.

Thanks to camera technology, we can take UV filtered photos of flowers and see those patterns pop out. It’s a pretty advanced technique, but some of my favorites are above. Check out those photographers’ galleries at the links below:

UV floral photography by Klaus Schmitt and Bjørn Rørslett.  Click to subscribe to IOTBS on YouTube.

New episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart is up and poppin’ over at the channel! 

It’s about beeeeeeeeees.

Specifically about the amazing relationship that they have evolved with flowers and how they are able to sense a world that is completely invisible to us via ultraviolet light and electric fields. Makes you realize how much you don’t see.

Check it out and share some springtime science with your friends.