February 16, 2023: Secret messages in Bach's music, why Valley fever is spiking in California and a SpaceX rocket launches a private lunar lander into space. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Researchers using tools from information theory, statistics and physics analyzed 337 musical compositions by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. By representing his scores as simple networks of dots, called nodes, connected by lines, called edges, scientists quantified the information each piece of music conveyed.
What they found: Bach's many musical styles differed in how much information they communicated. For example, chorales, a type of hymn meant to be sung, yielded networks that were relatively sparse in information, though still more information-rich than randomly generated networks of the same size. Toccatas and preludes, musical styles that are often written for keyboard instruments such as the organ, harpsichord and piano, had higher information entropy (a mathematical concept indicating how "surprising" information is). The musical networks in his work also contained structures that could make the messages in the music easier for human listeners to understand.
What the experts say: "Understanding the informational complexity of Bach's compositions opens new questions regarding the cognitive processes that underlie how we each appreciate different sorts of music," says physicist Dani Bassett of the University of Pennsylvania. | | | At top, a simple musical piece. Below, the network in which notes are "nodes" and transitions between notes, whether isolated or played simultaneously as part of a chord, are directed "edges." Credit: from Suman Kulkarni, Sophia U. David, Christopher W. Lynn, and Dani S. Bassett. Phys. Rev. Research 6, 013136 – Published 2 February 2024 | | | The California Department of Public Health recorded 9,280 new cases of Valley fever with onset dates in 2023—the highest number the department has ever documented. The disease is caused by the spores of a fungus called Coccidioides. When inhaled, the spores can lead to severe illness in humans and some animal species, including dogs. The fungus thrives in a rain-drought cycle–when conditions swing from extreme dryness to extreme wetness.
What the experts say: Coccidioides spores have cropped up in new regions in recent years, expanding through Southern California and into Northern California, even up into the drier parts of Oregon and Washington. "What kind of disease do you see a 1,000 percent increase in a matter of two decades?" asked Shangxin Yang, a clinical microbiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "This is one of the few."
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| | | Researchers surveying for Coccidioides collect samples from rodent holes in the Carrizo Plain National Monument in Santa Margarita, California. Credit: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images | | | Enjoying Today in Science? Save 30% on a subscription to Scientific American for our President's Day flash sale. | | | • Odysseus, a lunar lander built by the aerospace company Intuitive Machines, launched yesterday atop a SpaceX rocket on a mission to the moon's south pole. | 5 min read | | | • In the largest survey of its kind to date, medical abortion prescribed over a telehealth session was found to be just as safe as in-person abortion. | 3 min read | | | • The TikTok trend of "sleepy-girl mocktails" is a blend of juice and magnesium powder, and its proponents claim it helps bring on sleep. But does it really work? (Take a wild guess.) | 5 min read | | | • The World Health Organization conservatively estimates that in 2019, two million lives and 53 million years of life were lost as a result of premature death, illness or disability from exposures to chemicals such as lead, arsenic and benzene in the environment. We must shift to the production of cleaner, less toxic chemicals that pervade our everyday lives, writes Joel Tickner, a professor of environmental health at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. | 5 min read | | | MOST-READ STORIES OF THE WEEK | | | This Genetically Engineered Petunia Glows in the Dark and Could Be Yours for $29 | 5 min read | Fighting, Fleeing and Living on Iceland's Erupting Volcano | 10 min listen | | | I could not live in a world without music. Whether while cooking dinner, driving in the car, or unwinding facedown from a long week, music is playing. For ages, scientists have been trying to understand music's power. It seems to be a nearly universal way of conveying emotion among individuals and it activates many parts of the brain. Notably, music plays a strong role in bonding in communities. | This weekend I'll be listening to the folk/pop singer Noah Kahan, who I recently discovered (rather late to the party). Who or what are you listening to these days? Let me know: newsletters@sciam.com. Have a lovely weekend! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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