Gimme a C, a Yeasty C
A recent article describes research that may allow doctors to literally hear disease.
Preliminary research indicates that living cells, with proper care and feeding, pulsate. That pulsation can be expressed as sound. Initial study of yeast cells reveals that they pulse "about a C-sharp to D above middle C in terms of music". Dead or mutated cells actually sound different than healthy ones. Interestingly, sprinkling alcohol on yeast cells- the preferred method of killing them, apparently- raises the pitch of those cells. I don't know if I sing higher after I've been sprinkled with alcohol, but I definitely sing LOUDER.
Nevertheless, with more research and refinement, this sort of nano-sonic listening could yield an entire new set of diagnostic tools. Like really, really sick headphones for starters.
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GL, I think that might be the
GL, I think that might be the single most disgusting headline we've ever had on this site. Kudos!
Interesting you mention that.
Interesting you mention that. My first instinct was how mind-blowing it would be to hear, say, "Dark Side of the Moon", but with nano-sonic sensor headphones... and then I thought, how amazingly gross it would be to actually hear David Gilmour's skin cells sloughing away as he ripped through a lead.
I also think it would be interesting to juxtapose this cellular "music" (C-C#-D) with the galactic C from a few weeks ago, perhaps the root of a great cosmic chord. But the stuff of musics is really your domain.
Actually, I think it was a B
Actually, I think it was a B-flat. Which means that dying cells are the most harmonically in tune with the universe (the C of healthy cells being a whole step from B-flat, and D-flat to D being a nice sounding third).
Kind of Buddhist.
Ah, yes.... that sounds like
Ah, yes.... that sounds like a Pentacostal scale in a subaltern mode, ultimately resolving to an Utter 9th. Or something...