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A little music training in childhood goes a long way in improving how the brain function

researchers for the first time have directly examined what happens after children stop playing a musical instrument after only a few years

Compared to peers with no musical training, adults with one to five years of musical training as children had enhanced brain responses to complex sounds, making them more effective at pulling out the

Musical instrumental training, when compared to other activities, may reduce the effects of memory decline and cognitive aging

second study

which confirms and refines findings from an original study

quantitative analysis of nearly half a million songs

songs from nearly 45,000 artists

Of the million songs therein, 464,411 came out between 1955 and 2010

Older adults who took music lessons as children but haven't actively played an instrument in decades have a faster brain response to a speech sound than individuals who never played an instrument,

As people grow older, they often experience changes in the brain that compromise hearing

the brains of older adults show a slower response to fast-changing sounds, which is important for interpreting speec

a dental surgeon in the Indonesian city of Purworejo has

connected an MP3 player to a dental drill that plays music loud enough to drown out the distinctive whine of the instrument

he discovered that many patients, especially children were not afraid of the dentist; instead, they were afraid of the drill

conclusion of a computer analysis of nearly half-a-million songs recorded between 1955 and 2010

global loudness level of music recordings has consistently increased over the years

the diversity of chords and melodies has "consistently diminished in the last 50 years

members of the team that work with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) have translated gamma-ray measurements into musical notes

musical notes we assigned the photons to be “played” by different instruments (harp, cello, or piano) based on the probabilities that they came from the burst

Kepler's Law

In 1618, Johannes Kepler discovered his harmonics law published in his five-volume work Harmonices Mundi (Harmony of the Worlds, 1619). He attempted to explain proportions and geometry in planetary motions by relating them to musical scales and intervals (an extension of what Pythagoras had described as the “harmony of the spheres”.) Kepler said each planet produces musical tones during its revolution about the sun, and the pitch of the tones varies with the angular velocities of those planets as measured from the sun. The Earth sings Mi, Fa, Mi. At very rare intervals all planets would sing in perfect concord. Kepler proposed that this may have happened only once in history, perhaps at the time of creation.«

A new, noninvasive, and low-cost method for the early detection and monitoring of osteoarthritis (arthritis caused by wear and tear) may be on its way

By studying patterns of friction between cartilage pads, the researchers discovered a different type of friction that is more likely to cause wear and damage

work suggests ways to detect this friction, and points to new research directions for getting to the root cause of arthritis

Most people believe they can multitask effectively, but a

study indicates that people who multitask the most – including talking on a cell phone while driving – are least capable of doing so.

data suggest the people talking on cell phones while driving are people who probably shouldn't. We showed that people who multitask the most are those who appear to be the least capable of multitasking effectively

Measuring skin moisture, heart rhythm and muscle movement

Sound on film

In 1923, the Phonofilm, the first motion picture with a sound-on-film track was demonstrated at a press conference. It was developed (1920) by Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the radio tube (1907). Dancers and musicians were shown on the film with music, but without voice dialogue. The sound was imaged in a narrow margin alongside the picture frames on the film. (De Forest's process came several years before the 1928 film, the "Jazz Singer," but that film used the Warner Vitaphone system. The Vitaphone system attempted to synchronize its sound from a record player turntable connected to the film projector.) The de Forest process read a series of light and dark areas on the film itself, using a photocell to convert to audio.

Researchers

have for the first time used electrical pulses delivered from a cochlear implant to deliver gene therapy, thereby successfully regrowing auditory nerves

The research also heralds a possible new way of treating a range of neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease, and psychiatric conditions such as depression through this novel way of delivering gene therapy.