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The Science of Sound: How Innovation and Nutrition Can Enhance Your Hearing

<p>To help his hearing-impaired wife, Hans Demant founded Oticon in 1904. Since then, <a href="https://www.oticon.co.nz/hearing-aid-users" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oticon’s</a> legacy of care and cutting-edge technology has been transforming the experience of sound for 120 years.</p> <p>In real life, environments vary – some noisy, some quiet, some with speech, some without. But what you want to hear depends on your intentions, which could change in a moment. <a href="https://www.oticon.co.nz/hearing-aid-users/hearing-aids/products/intent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oticon Intent</a><sup>TM</sup> hearing aids are built to detect your listening intentions^ and provide personalised hearing support in any situation*. So, you can focus on sounds that matter and access the world around you. To do this, Oticon Intent is powered by 4D Sensor technology* and a full-time second-generation Deep Neural Network (DNN) that has learned from experience.</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-51713" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2024/10/Demant_History_Acousticon_Coronation_Device_1910_Model_RD_1908_Intent_120years_wide_1280.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="533" /></p> <p><em>Today’s ground-breaking Oticon Intent alongside an historic “Acousticon” from 1910.</em></p> <p>Some hearing solutions are complex; others are incredibly simple. While it’s important to protect our ears against ear infections and loud noises, did you know diet can play a role in preventing age-related hearing loss?<sup>1</sup></p> <ul> <li>Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin D, like tuna, can benefit the cardiovascular system and reduce inflammation that may damage sensitive ear tissue<sup>2</sup>.</li> <li>Foods containing antioxidants and folic acid, like spinach, may reduce risk of hearing loss by up to 20% by improving inner ear blood flow<sup>3</sup>.</li> <li>Fruit and veg rich in Vitamins C and E can strengthen the immune system, protecting blood vessels and nerves around the ears to help prevent infections.</li> </ul> <p>By working nutrient-rich foods into your diet, you can help safeguard your hearing health for years to come.</p> <p><strong>To help celebrate Oticon’s incredible 120-year milestone, we’re giving away a $400 Prezzee Gift Card! Using the information in this article, simply <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/contests/oticon-intent-120th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">answer the contest questions online</a> for your chance to win.</strong></p> <p><em>For more information visit </em><a href="http://www.oticon.co.nz/oticon-intent" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>www.oticon.co.nz/oticon-intent</em></a><em>, and to find your nearest </em><a href="https://www.oticon.co.nz/hearing-aid-users/find-audiologist" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>hearing centre</em></a><em> visit </em><a href="https://www.oticon.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>oticon.co.nz</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p><em>This is a sponsored article produced in partnership with Oticon.</em></p> <p><em>^4D Sensor Technology only available in Oticon Intent 1 & 2. <sup>#</sup>Bianchi/Eskelund et al. (2024). Oticon Intent<sup>TM</sup> – Clinical evidence. BrainHearing<sup>TM</sup> benefits of the 4D Sensor technology. Oticon whitepaper. Sponsored by Oticon. <sup1Rodrigo, L., Campos-Asensio, C., Rodríguez, M., Crespo, I., & Olmedillas, H. (2021). Role of nutrition in the development and prevention of age-related hearing loss: A scoping review, 2021, Science Direct. <sup>2</sup>Calder, P., Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Inflammatory Processes, <sup>3</sup>2010,National Library of medicine. Curhan, S. et al, Fish and fatty acid consumption and the risk of hearing loss in women, 2014.</em></p>

Hearing

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Woman “bullied” on plane over budget seating trick

<p dir="ltr">A young woman has recalled a flight from hell when she was “bullied” by a couple who were trying to utilise a seating hack that went viral on TikTok. </p> <p dir="ltr">The solo traveller took to Reddit to recount the story and ask social media users if she was in the wrong for her action. </p> <p dir="ltr">The woman began by saying she usually pays more to select her plane seat ahead of time, but a medical emergency on another plane had her waiting on standby and left with no option other than to sit in a middle seat.</p> <p dir="ltr">When she was finally able to board, she was greeted by a couple who had purchased both the window and aisle seats in a bid to have more space, utilising a travel “trick” that has been popular on TikTok.</p> <p dir="ltr">The method, which has been dubbed the 'poor man's business class', usually leaves travellers with an empty middle seat and more space, and few travellers opt to pick a middle seat. </p> <p dir="ltr">“When I got to my row the man and woman were chatting and sharing a snack... it was obvious they were together. I mentioned to the man that I'm in the middle, and he got up to let me in,” the unsuspecting traveller wrote on Reddit.  </p> <p dir="ltr">“I asked them if they would prefer to sit together, I said I was totally okay with that. The woman reacted rudely to this and said ‘you're not supposed to be sitting here anyway’.”</p> <p dir="ltr">After noticing how the plane was full, she offered to show the pair her new ticket with the correct seat number on it.</p> <p dir="ltr">“She flicked her hand at my ticket and made a disgusted sound. I offered again if they wanted to sit together to which she didn't reply, her partner said it's okay and... made some small talk,” she continued. </p> <p dir="ltr">The man’s girlfriend then interrupted their conversation to ask,”'Did you use one of those third party websites to book your flight? It's so frustrating when people cheap out to inconvenience others.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The American woman explained that she had booked her flight directly and she had been placed on standby like everyone else and didn't choose the middle seat - she was assigned it.</p> <p dir="ltr">She then tried to keep the peace by refusing to engage with the furious woman.  </p> <p dir="ltr">“I was so done with her attitude, I put my headphones on and attempted to do my own thing,” she explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">But the “entitled” girlfriend wasn't letting it go, as the woman explained, “This woman kept reaching over me and tapping her partner and trying to talk to him in a way that was super intrusive.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I could tell even her partner was trying to engage her less so that she would hopefully stop, but she didn't.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I think they tried to pull that tactic where they don't sit together on purpose...hoping no one will sit between them. But on full flights it doesn't work. And even so - it's not the other person's fault.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The traveller's post was met with hundreds of comments slamming the girlfriend’s behaviour, as one person wrote, “It's like a toddler having a tantrum.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“She was disappointed and a total a**hole. Gross entitled people,” another added. </p> <p dir="ltr">Another person applauded the traveller’s level-headed behaviour, writing, “Wow! You are my hero for keeping it classy - I’m afraid I would not have been as kind as you.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p>

Travel Trouble

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How do airplanes fly? An aerospace engineer explains the physics of flight

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/craig-merrett-1509278">Craig Merrett</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/clarkson-university-4276">Clarkson University</a></em></p> <p>Airplane flight is one of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century. The <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/wright-brothers">invention of the airplane</a> allows people to travel from one side of the planet to the other in less than a day, compared with weeks of travel by boat and train.</p> <p>Understanding precisely why airplanes fly is an ongoing challenge for <a href="https://www.clarkson.edu/people/craig-merrett">aerospace engineers, like me</a>, who study and design airplanes, rockets, satellites, helicopters and space capsules.</p> <p>Our job is to make sure that flying through the air or in space is safe and reliable, by using tools and ideas from science and mathematics, like computer simulations and experiments.</p> <p>Because of that work, flying in an airplane is <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/is-flying-safer-than-driving/">the safest way to travel</a> – safer than cars, buses, trains or boats. But although aerospace engineers design aircraft that are stunningly sophisticated, you might be surprised to learn there are still some details about the physics of flight that we don’t fully understand.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=381&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=381&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=381&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=479&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=479&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577439/original/file-20240222-28-v3tjb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=479&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="A diagram of an airplane that shows the four forces of flight." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">The forces of weight, thrust, drag and lift act on a plane to keep it aloft and moving.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/airplane-cruise-balanced-forces/">NASA</a></span></figcaption></figure> <h2>May the force(s) be with you</h2> <p>There are <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/stem-content/four-forces-of-flight/#:%7E">four forces</a> that aerospace engineers consider when designing an airplane: weight, thrust, drag and lift. Engineers use these forces to help design the shape of the airplane, the size of the wings, and figure out how many passengers the airplane can carry.</p> <p>For example, when an airplane takes off, the thrust must be greater than the drag, and the lift must be greater than the weight. If you watch an airplane take off, you’ll see the wings change shape using flaps from the back of the wings. The flaps help make more lift, but they also make more drag, so a powerful engine is necessary to create more thrust.</p> <p>When the airplane is high enough and is cruising to your destination, lift needs to balance the weight, and the thrust needs to balance the drag. So the pilot pulls the flaps in and can set the engine to produce less power.</p> <p>That said, let’s define what force means. According to <a href="https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/4079abf0-7a4b-4f49-80ad-c69cd06a80f9/newtons-second-law-of-motion/">Newton’s Second Law</a>, a force is a mass multiplied by an acceleration, or F = ma.</p> <p>A force that everyone encounters every day is <a href="https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/what-is-gravity/en/#:%7E">the force of gravity</a>, which keeps us on the ground. When you get weighed at the doctor’s office, they’re actually measuring the amount of force that your body applies to the scale. When your weight is given in pounds, that is a measure of force.</p> <p>While an airplane is flying, gravity is pulling the airplane down. That force is the weight of the airplane.</p> <p>But its engines push the airplane forward because they create <a href="https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/what-is-thrust/">a force called thrust</a>. The engines pull in air, which has mass, and quickly push that air out of the back of the engine – so there’s a mass multiplied by an acceleration.</p> <p>According to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-wh3fJRdjo">Newton’s Third Law</a>, for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. When the air rushes out the back of the engines, there is a reaction force that pushes the airplane forward – that’s called thrust.</p> <p>As the airplane flies through the air, the shape of the airplane pushes air out of the way. Again, by Newton’s Third Law, this air pushes back, <a href="https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/what-is-drag/#:%7E">which leads to drag</a>.</p> <p>You can experience something similar to drag when swimming. Paddle through a pool, and your arms and feet provide thrust. Stop paddling, and you will keep moving forward because you have mass, but you will slow down. The reason that you slow down is that the water is pushing back on you – that’s drag.</p> <h2>Understanding lift</h2> <p><a href="https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/what-is-lift/">Lift</a> is more complicated than the other forces of weight, thrust and drag. It’s created by the wings of an airplane, and the shape of the wing is critical; that shape is <a href="https://howthingsfly.si.edu/media/airfoil#:%7E">known as an airfoil</a>. Basically it means the top and bottom of the wing are curved, although the shapes of the curves can be different from each other.</p> <p>As air flows around the airfoil, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO75jDwGCdQ">it creates pressure</a> – a force spread out over a large area. Lower pressure is created on the top of the airfoil compared to the pressure on the bottom. Or to look at it another way, air travels faster over the top of the airfoil than beneath.</p> <p>Understanding why the pressure and speeds are different on the top and the bottom is <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/lift-and-copjpg">critical to understand lift</a>. By improving our understanding of lift, engineers can design more fuel-efficient airplanes and give passengers more comfortable flights.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=385&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=385&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=385&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=484&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=484&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579698/original/file-20240304-24-6df49v.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=484&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="A diagram that shows how the airfoil of a plane works." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Note the airfoil, which is a specific wing shape that helps keep a plane in the air.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/how-airplanes-fly-royalty-free-illustration/1401215523?phrase=airfoil+diagram&amp;adppopup=true">Dimitrios Karamitros/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure> <h2>The conundrum</h2> <p>The reason why air moves at different speeds around an airfoil remains mysterious, and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/no-one-can-explain-why-planes-stay-in-the-air/">scientists are still investigating</a> this question.</p> <p>Aerospace engineers have measured these pressures on a wing in both wind tunnel experiments and during flight. We can create models of different wings to predict if they will fly well. We can also change lift by changing a wing’s shape to create airplanes that fly for long distances or fly very fast.</p> <p>Even though we still don’t fully know why lift happens, aerospace engineers work with mathematical equations that recreate the different speeds on the top and bottom of the airfoil. Those equations describe a process <a href="https://howthingsfly.si.edu/media/circulation-theory-lift">known as circulation</a>.</p> <p>Circulation provides aerospace engineers with a way to model what happens around a wing even if we do not completely understand why it happens. In other words, through the use of math and science, we are able to build airplanes that are safe and efficient, even if we don’t completely understand the process behind why it works.</p> <p>Ultimately, if aerospace engineers can figure out why the air flows at different speeds depending on which side of the wing it’s on, we can design airplanes that use less fuel and pollute less.</p> <p><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/craig-merrett-1509278"><em>Craig Merrett</em></a><em>, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/clarkson-university-4276">Clarkson University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-airplanes-fly-an-aerospace-engineer-explains-the-physics-of-flight-222847">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

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6 little known facts about The Sound of Music

<p>The Sound of Music, released in 1965, continues to be one of the most beloved family films of all time. In honour of the iconic film, we look behind the scenes to reveal some little known facts about one of our favourite movies.</p> <p><strong>1. Julie Andrews kept falling over during the famous opening mountain scene</strong></p> <p>While Julie Andrews may look graceful twirling atop the mountain in the opening scenes, in reality she kept being knocked over by the draft of the helicopter trying to capture the iconic aerial scene. Andrews said: “the down draft from those jets was so strong that every time… the helicopter circled around me and the down draft just flattened me into the grass. And I mean flattened. It was fine for a couple of takes, but after that you begin to get just a little bit angry… And I really tried. I mean, I braced myself, I thought, ‘It’s not going to get me this time.’ And every single time, I bit the dust.”</p> <p><strong>2. Christopher Plummer hates the movies</strong></p> <p>Fans of Christopher Plummer’s Captain von Trapp will be disappointed to learn that he hated the film so much he called it “The Sound of Mucus”. “Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey,” he said. “You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humour into it.” To ease his pain, Plummer drank, even on set. He admitted on the DVD commentary that he was drunk when filming the Austrian music festival scene.</p> <p><strong>3. Charmian Carr injured herself during “Sixteen going on seventeen”</strong></p> <p>Charmian Carr, who played Liesl Von Trapp, slipped while leaping from a bench in the gazebo scene. She fell through the glass and injured her ankle. In the scene, she is wearing a bandage on her leg, which is covered by make up.</p> <p><strong>4. Friedrich grew 15 centimetres during the six months of filming  </strong> </p> <p>Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich Von Trapp, grew from 1.60 metres to 1.75 metres in the six months of filming. It caused many continuity problems in the movie as Friedrich had to be shorter than Liesl but taller than Louisa. As the beginning of the film, Hammond had lifts in his films but by the end, Carr who played Liesl had to stand on a box.</p> <p><strong>5. Mia Farrow auditioned for the role of Liesl.</strong> </p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://youtu.be/66v7gtwRGdM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch her audition tape here.</a></strong></span></p> <p><strong>6. The film is historically inaccurate</strong></p> <p>The movie is loosely based on the autobiography of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, but the film took many liberties. For instance, there were 10 von Trapp children, not seven. Maria left the convent to tutor one of the children, not to governess all them. Georg was a kind man, not the stern disciplinarian as depicted the film. Maria and him were married 11 years before the Nazis invaded Austria. And the Von Trapp family didn’t escape from the mountains by crossing over the mountains – that would have led straight to Hitler’s Germany.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Movies

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5 sounds you hear on the plane explained

<p>Nervous fliers know just how freaky a sudden noise on the plane can be, but we’ve broken down the most common ones you’ll hear and what they mean so you can travel with ease.</p> <ol> <li><strong>The puff of air at the gate</strong> – it’s usually one of the first unsettling sounds you’ll hear on the plane, but it’s one of the most important – it signals that the ventilation on the plane has been switched on. It’s also why lights can tend to flicker, as the plane is moving from an off-board power source to an onboard system.</li> <li><strong>The “bark” during taxi</strong> – before take-off and landing, it’s normal for the plane to make a sort of “barking” noise. This is just the hydraulics kicking in, ensuring steering, braking and air pressure are all at optimum levels for a safe departure or arrival.</li> <li><strong>The wings “whirring”</strong> – upon take-off and even during flight, you may hear a “whir” coming from the wings. This sound indicates the wingspan is expanding and retracting to help assist take-off and speed maintenance.</li> <li><strong>The “bang” from the belly of the plane</strong> – this noise can be pretty scary as you make your descent into your destination, but it’s completely safe. All it means is the landing gear is being released so you can arrive safely.</li> <li><strong>The brakes “screeching”</strong> – don’t be alarmed by this sound, it’s just the plane’s natural response to landing at the speed of 160 to 240 kph while carrying hundreds of tonnes of cargo and passengers.</li> </ol> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p> <p> </p>

Travel Tips

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It’s official – cats despise your music collection

<p>To the long list of things your cat despises about you, you can now add your music collection. <a href="http://www.appliedanimalbehaviour.com/article/S0168-1591(15)00060-X/abstract?con&amp;dom=pscau&amp;src=syndication" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scientists in the United States have discovered</a> there is a feline preference for “species-appropriate” music – purring tempos and sliding wails are the things that soothe the average cat.</p> <p>Two psychologists, Charles Snowdon and Megan Savage, and a composer, David Teie, teamed up for the project at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. They created three purpose-written melodies and tested them out on a group of 47 domestic cats, also compared in “human” music by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Gabriel Fauré.</p> <p>The cats showed trademark disdain for the great composers but when “their” tunes came on they reacted positively rubbing the speakers with their faces.</p> <p>“We looked at the natural vocalisations of cats and matched our music to the same frequency range, which is about an octave or more higher than human voices,” says Snowdon. “We incorporated tempos that we thought cats would find interesting – the tempo of purring in one piece and the tempo of suckling in another – and since cats use lots of sliding frequencies in their calls, the cat music had many more sliding notes than the human music.”</p> <p>The same team of researchers has done this sort of thing before. In 2009, they showed tamarin monkeys ignored human music but were calmed by music tailored for them.</p> <p>They say that the finding could provide a way to soothe the nerves of animals in zoos and other forms of captivity.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/its-official-cats-despise-your-music-collection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Bill Condie.</em></p>

Music

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New discovery: really good violins make hidden, subtle sounds

<p>What makes a good violin sound so good? According to new research, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0014600" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a> in <em>The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America</em>, at least part of the reason is extremely subtle extra notes the best instruments sounds out.</p> <p>When two musical notes are played, listeners can sometimes hear “combination tones”: an additional, subjective note that comes from the way the <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/explainer-cochlear-implants-function/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cochlea</a> processes the two sound waves in the inner ear.</p> <p>Some musical instruments can also make combination tones themselves: called “objective combination tones.” These subtle notes are produced in the instrument, rather than the ear.</p> <p>Not all instruments can make these objective combination tones – but this new research shows the surprising news that violins can.</p> <p>“Up to now, the combination tones generated by the violin were considered too small to be heard, and therefore, of no importance in music,” says study co-author Giovanni Cecchi, of the Università di Firenze, Italy.</p> <p>“Our results change this view by showing that combination tones generated by violins of good quality can be easily heard, affecting the perception of the intervals.”</p> <p>The researchers got a professional violinist to stand in the centre of a musical auditorium and play a series of <em>dyads</em>: two notes played simultaneously.</p> <p>The violinist played dyads on five different violins, all of different ages and qualities, and the researchers recorded the tones.</p> <p>Each violin produced combination tones in all of the dyads. The strongest of these notes was at a slightly lower tone than those of the dyads.</p> <p>Each instrument made the combination tones at different volumes (or amplitude), depending on the instrument’s air resonance.</p> <p>“We found that combination tones were much stronger and clearly audible in good violins,” says Cecchi.</p> <p>“The strongest one was found in an old Italian violin, made in Bologna in 1700 by the famous luthier, Carlo Annibale Tononi.</p> <p>“Combination tones were instead negligibly small in violins of poor quality.”</p> <p>Next, the researchers are investigating more violins to see which part of the instrument causes these objective combination tones.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=221273&amp;title=New+discovery%3A+really+good+violins+make+hidden%2C+subtle+sounds" width="1" height="1" /></em></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/combination-tones-violins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Ellen Phiddian. </em></p> </div>

Music

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Sounds great: Scientists are manipulating dreams to prevent nightmares

<p>It’s  estimated that at any given time, around 4% of adults suffer <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/one-side-of-your-brain-might-be-giving-you-nightmares/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chronic nightmares</a> but researchers in Switzerland have a new approach which will be music to the ears of night-terror-sufferers.</p> <p>Basing their study on the relationship between the types of <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/nightmares-and-night-terrors-in-kids-when-do-they-stop-being-normal/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">emotions experienced in dreams</a> and our emotional well-being, researchers have investigated how to help people by manipulating emotions in their dreams.</p> <p>Traditional methods to help chronic nightmare patients involves ‘imagery rehearsal therapy’, during which they are coached to rehearse the dream scenario during the day and redirect it towards a more positive ending. A <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11818-021-00320-w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2021 study</a> of 28 participants showed 3 in 5 patients benefitted from this approach, however, it doesn’t work for everyone.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p220659-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> </div> </div> <p>In a <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01477-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study from Geneva University</a>, over a two-week period, researchers asked a group of 18 patients to create an association between the positively redirected version of their dream and a sound during an imagination exercise. The patients then wore wireless headbands during night which would play the specific sound during the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep – when <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nightmare-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353515" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nightmares typically occur</a>.</p> <p>When compared to 18 patients who undertook only the image rehearsal therapy, those who received the combined rehearsal and sound therapy had fewer nightmares. This trend continued even after three months post-intervention, with those receiving combination therapy also reporting experiencing more positive emotions such as ‘joy’ in their dreams.</p> <p>“We were positively surprised by how well the participants respected and tolerated the study procedures, for example performing imagery rehearsal therapy every day and wearing the sleep headband during the night,” says Lampros Perogamvros, senior author of the study and a psychiatrist at the Sleep Laboratory of the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva. “We observed a fast decrease of nightmares, together with dreams becoming emotionally more positive. For us, researchers and clinicians, these findings are very promising both for the study of emotional processing during sleep and for the development of new therapies.”</p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=220659&amp;title=Sounds+great%3A+Scientists+are+manipulating+dreams+to+prevent+nightmares" width="1" height="1" /></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/sounds-great-preventing-nightmares/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on Cosmos Magazine and was written by Clare Kenyon. </em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p> </div>

Mind

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Readers Respond: What is your favourite scene from The Sound of Music?

<p dir="ltr"><em>The hills are alive, with the sound of music</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Admit it, you sang that line because <em>The Sound of Music</em> is obviously one of your favourite movies.</p> <p dir="ltr">We asked the OverSixty audience what their favourite scene is from the classic and for those of you who didn’t answer “all of it”, you are wrong. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. (Just kidding!)</p> <p dir="ltr">Read your responses below:</p> <p dir="ltr">Lorraine Briggs Lane - The kiss in the gazebo.</p> <p dir="ltr">Chris Howie - The dance in the garden where Maria and the Captain dance a beautiful Austrian folk dance. So romantic.</p> <p dir="ltr">Merle Davis - I loved everything but the wedding was beautiful.</p> <p dir="ltr">Jill Harker - When they declare their love! One of my favourite movies!</p> <p dir="ltr">Lorraine Peters - When he signs you are 16 going on 17.</p> <p dir="ltr">Sandra Wilkins - The first 174 minutes. </p> <p dir="ltr">Leonie Cortez - Love it from beginning to end.</p> <p dir="ltr">Sonia Freeth - The kids saying goodnight and heading off to bed. </p> <p dir="ltr">Rita Sammut - The greatest movie. Love every scene.</p> <p dir="ltr">Ellen Taylor - The Captain singing Edelweiss.</p> <p dir="ltr">Share your favourite scene/s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/oversixtyNZ/posts/pfbid02MZeid76sHnJ3XVChh2KMWVLCtwSQoeEfNY1QZqTtnmnMNoxsiMvEp28AitzQREoVl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Movies

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“A night of magic and music”: Julie Andrews enjoys touching ‘Sound of Music’ reunion

<p dir="ltr">Dame Julie Andrews has been awarded one of Hollywood's highest honours - bestowed on one person each year - and had a heart-warming reunion all in the same night.</p> <p dir="ltr">When the acclaimed actress received the American Film Institute's lifetime achievement award in Los Angeles on Thursday, she was surprised with a sweet rendition of 'Do Re Mi' from five of the stars who played the Von Trapp children in <em>The Sound of Music</em>.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-4c0365a4-7fff-eb66-55da-638e9fb1020f"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Andrews went on to join Duane Chase (Kurt), Kym Karath (Gretl), Angela Cartwright (Brigitta), Debbie Turner (Marta), and Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) in their performance which marked the first time the cast had performed together in over six decades.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Julie Andrews is surprised by her kids from THE SOUND OF MUSIC and joins them in a sing-a-long of ‘Do-Re-Mi’ to kick off the AFI Life Achievement Award presentation to her — what a beautiful moment! <a href="https://t.co/TZYT7UNPhr">pic.twitter.com/TZYT7UNPhr</a></p> <p>— Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottFeinberg/status/1535106725946093568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Only Charmian Carr, who played eldest sister Liesel and passed away in 2016, and Heather Menzies-Urich, who played Louisa and died in 2017, were missing.</p> <p dir="ltr">Prior to receiving her award, Andrews said she was “gobsmacked” to find her career was being honoured in such a way.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I didn’t know or think that it would ever come,” she said on the red carpet.</p> <p dir="ltr">“But it’s just as well, because you can’t go around expecting awards and things like that.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ca10a206-7fff-1b50-f412-1247ae730fed"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Fans took to social media to share their delight at Andrews’ award and reunion with her castmates, prompting Karath to share an update on what happened after.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Signing our SOM Family Scrapbooks together today, and talking about how magical Julie’s AFI Tribute was last night! <a href="https://twitter.com/thesom7?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thesom7</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DebbieTurnerDTO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DebbieTurnerDTO</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/acstudio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@acstudio</a> <a href="https://t.co/memxYDOR5V">pic.twitter.com/memxYDOR5V</a></p> <p>— Kym Karath (@KymKarath) <a href="https://twitter.com/KymKarath/status/1535362904928575488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“Signing our SOM Family Scrapbooks together today, and talking about how magical Julie’s AFI Tribute was last night!” she commented on a video from the performance, sharing a behind-the-scenes look of the five Von Trapps.</p> <p dir="ltr">All five, along with Andrews, also posed for a formal portrait and shared it on social media.</p> <p dir="ltr">“So much fun last night at the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award honouring Julie Andrews,” Cartwright captioned the photo on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CepYeBdFTtc/?igshid=YTgzYjQ4ZTY%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was great being with my ‘Sound of Music’ siblings once again. A night of magic and music.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e6277b9a-7fff-3527-d2e4-ec84f8e524f8"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @angelacartwrightstudio (Instagram)</em></p>

Music

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Eldest daughter of Georg and Maria Von Trapp dies

<p dir="ltr">Rosmarie Trapp, the last surviving daughter of Georg and Maria Von Trapp, whose family inspired <em>The Sound of Music</em>, has died aged 93.</p> <p dir="ltr">The eldest daughter of Georg and Maria, Rosmarie died on May 20 at a nursing home in Morrisville, Vermont.</p> <p dir="ltr">The family released a statement saying Rosmarie was “in the presence of loved ones all day long”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“She traveled and performed with the Trapp Family Singers for many years, and worked at the Trapp Family Lodge in its infancy when the family first began hosting guests in their home,” the statement read.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Her kindness, generosity, and colorful spirit were legendary, and she had a positive impact on countless lives. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Please respect our family’s privacy as we take time to process this loss, and prepare to celebrate the life of an amazing woman. </p> <p dir="ltr">“We believe the best way to recognize Rosmarie is to demonstrate the same selfless kindness and generosity that she exemplified daily.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Respectfully, Johannes, Lynne, Kristina, and Sam von Trapp.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdiqd_vOch5/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdiqd_vOch5/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Trapp Family Lodge (@trappfamilylodge)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Rosmarie was born on February 8th 1929, just outside Salzburg in Austria. </p> <p dir="ltr">She was the first daughter of Captain Georg von Trapp and Maria von Trapp, with her family inspiring the play and film. </p> <p dir="ltr">The family escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 and performed singing tours throughout Europe and America before eventually settling in Vermont in the early 1940s.</p> <p dir="ltr">The couple’s children have previously indicated that <em>The Sound of Music</em> wasn’t entirely based on fact.</p> <p dir="ltr">However, them fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria was real which saw the family sing and perform around the US. </p> <p dir="ltr">The 1965 American musical drama remains a favourite starring the beloved Julie Andrews and the late Christopher Plummer. </p> <p dir="ltr">Click <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/entertainment/movies/fun-facts-about-the-sound-of-music" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> to read about five fun facts about the movie. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty/Instagram</em></p>

Movies

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Fun facts about The Sound of Music

<p dir="ltr"><em>The Sound of Music</em> is that film you can watch over and over again without getting bored.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 1965 American musical drama stands out thanks to its loving cast, the phenomenal soundtrack and storyline.</p> <p dir="ltr">Starring the beloved Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, here are five fun facts you did not know about the movie. </p> <ol> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Julie Andrews almost wasn’t cast as Maria</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Richard Rodgers said that Julie Andrews would be perfect for the role of Maria but no one else agreed.</p> <p dir="ltr">It was only after the crew saw Mary Poppins that they noticed how everybody loved her. </p> <ol start="2"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Julie Andrews kept falling over on the mountain</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">The opening scene where Maria is dancing on the mountain saw Julie Andrews fall multiple times thanks to the helicopter hovering above. </p> <p dir="ltr">“This was a jet helicopter,” Andrews said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“And the downdraft from those jets was so strong that every time … the helicopter circled around me and the downdraft just flattened me into the grass. And I mean flattened. It was fine for a couple of takes, but after that you begin to get just a little bit angry… And I really tried. I mean, I braced myself, I thought, ‘It’s not going to get me this time.’ And every single time, I bit the dust.”</p> <ol start="3"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Christopher Plummer hated the movie</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Our beloved Captain von Trapp hated the film to the point where he actually called it “The Sound of Mucus”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey,” he said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it.” </p> <p dir="ltr">Because he hated the film so much, Plummer would sit eating and drinking in excess which caused him to gain so much weight. </p> <p dir="ltr">In the DVD commentary, Plummer also confessed that he was in fact drunk during the filming of the music festival. </p> <ol start="4"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Young Gretl was traumatised during the boat scene</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">In the scene where Maria had taken the von Trapp kids out to town and were spotted by the Captain in the boat outside their home traumatised young Gretl.</p> <p dir="ltr">Gretl did not know how to swim and therefore it was agreed that Maria would fall forward when the boat flipped. </p> <p dir="ltr">When the boat flipped, Maria instead fell backwards which saw Gretl struggle and inhale a lot of water. She eventually vomited on the actress that played Louisa. </p> <ol start="5"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Friedrich grew 15cm during filming </p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Nicholas Hammond played Friedrich and grew an incredible 15cm during filming.</p> <p dir="ltr">Because he was supposed to appear shorter than Liesl but taller than Louisa - at the start of the film Hammond had lifts on his shoes and by the end of it they were gone. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Pinterest</em></p>

Movies

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Software engineer EASILY hacks airline website to find lost luggage

<p dir="ltr">A software engineer has shared just how easy it was – scarily so – for him to hack an airline’s system.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nandan Kumar was on a domestic flight on Indian airline IndiGo and revealed that he and a passenger had mistakenly taken each other’s bags. </p> <p dir="ltr">He tried calling IndiGo multiple times and was unsuccessful, so decided to put his skills to use and find whoever took his bag.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nandan shared the entire ordeal on Twitter, showing how easy it was to hack IndiGo’s website and find other passengers’ details. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I reached home when my wife pointed out that the bag seems to be different from ours as we don’t use key based locks in our bags,” he wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“So right after reaching home I called your customer care. After multiple calls and navigating through @IndiGo6Eand of course a lot of waiting I was able to connect to one of your customer care agents and they tried to connect me with the co-passenger. But all in vain. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Long story short, I couldn't get any resolution on the issue. And neither your customer care team was not ready to provide me with the contact details of the person citing privacy and data protection.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Nandan said customer service assured him they would call back in the morning but when they didn’t he knew it was time to “take the matter in my own hands”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“After all the failed attempts, my dev instinct kicked in and I pressed the F12 button on my computer keyboard and opened the developer console on the @IndiGo6E  website and started the whole checkin flow with network log record on.</p> <p dir="ltr">“And there in one of the network responses was the phone number and email of my co-passenger. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I made note of the details and decided to call the person and try to get the bags swapped.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Luckily the pair were not far from each other and agreed to meet at a central place to exchange the bags.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nandan, however, went one step further and urged IndiGo to update their website – as it was way too easy to hack! </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Twitter</em></p>

Travel Trouble

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Music as medicine – can music and sound be used to treat anxiety?

<div class="copy"> <p class="has-drop-cap"><strong>Music can profoundly affect our mood</strong>. Now that technology has enabled us to set our own personal soundtracks wherever we go, we commonly match our beats to our activities – heavy on the drums while we smash through a workout session, upbeat pop to see us through the dreariest of the household chores, and something smooth and sultry to set the tone of a candlelit dinner.</p> <p>But what if our response to music runs far deeper than we realise? Publishing their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259312" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">findings</a> in <em>PLOS ONE</em>, researchers from Ryerson University, Canada, say that personally tailored music programs could effectively treat the symptoms of anxiety – an affliction that has been steadily growing in adolescent and young adult populations over recent decades.</p> <p>We’re not just talking about putting on your favourite playlist to help soothe your jangled nerves. In this study, researchers used a machine learning algorithm developed by <a href="https://www.thelucidproject.ca/science" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LUCID</a> to generate a personalised music sequence designed to manipulate an individual’s mental state.</p> <p>The algorithm first matches the current emotional state of the user, then predicts the optimal sequence of tracks – all instrumental compositions or nature sounds – that will most effectively begin to gradually shift the listener’s mental state towards tranquillity.</p> <p>Alongside these <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/musicians-networked-brains/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mellowing melodies</a>, the researchers tested the effectiveness of a technique known as auditory beat stimulation (ABS) that uses sound waves to produce tones and beats at highly specific frequencies that trigger changes in <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/the-buzz-around-brain-stimulation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brain activity</a>.</p> <p>In the current study, the researchers randomly assigned participants who were taking anti-anxiety medications to treatments involving LUCID music therapy, ABS, a combination of both, or pink noise – background noises similar to white noise. For each treatment, participants were asked to close their eyes and listen to 24 minutes of their assigned audio program.</p> <p>For participants with moderate anxiety, a combination of both tailored music and ABS most successfully quelled the physical symptoms of anxiety, as well as helping to tone down the damaging thoughts and feelings associated with this unsettled mental state. For those with more severe anxiety, music alone proved to be the most therapeutic.</p> <p>Given the troubling times we find ourselves in, the researchers believe the demonstrated effectiveness of such a simple and easily distributable method of treating anxiety disorders is welcome news.</p> <p>“With the pandemic and remote work, there has been a remarkable uptick in the use of digital health tools to support mental health,” the authors say. “The results of this clinical trial indicate great promise for the use of digital health tools, such as LUCID’s digital music therapy, in the management of anxiety and other mental health conditions.</p> <p>“The findings from this research are exciting as they indicate that personalised music shows great promise in effectively reducing anxiety in specific segments of the population that suffer from anxiety. Hopefully, with additional research, we can help build a solid evidence base which further supports the use of personalised music as an additional tool in the clinician’s toolbox that can be used to help reduce anxiety in the patient population.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=184619&amp;title=Music+as+medicine+%E2%80%93+can+music+and+sound+be+used+to+treat+anxiety%3F" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /></em></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/music-affect-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Jamie Priest. </em></p> </div>

Mind

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Could sound replace pacemakers and insulin pumps?

<p>Imagine a future in which crippling epileptic seizures, faltering hearts and diabetes could all be treated not with scalpels, stitches and syringes, but with sound. Though it may seem the stuff of science fiction, a <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28205-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new study</a> shows that this has solid real-world potential.</p><p><a href="https://sonogenetics.salk.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sonogenetics</a> – the use of ultrasound to non-invasively manipulate neurons and other cells – is a nascent field of study that remains obscure amongst non-specialists, but if it proves successful it could herald a new era in medicine.</p><p>In the new study published in <em>Nature Communications</em>, researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, US, describe a significant leap forward for the field, documenting their success in engineering mammalian cells to be activated using ultrasound.</p><p>The team say their method, which they used to activate human cells in a dish and brain cells inside living mice, paves the way toward non-invasive versions of deep brain stimulation, pacemakers and insulin pumps.</p><p>“Going wireless is the future for just about everything,” says senior author Dr Sreekanth Chalasani, an associate professor in Salk’s Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory. “We already know that ultrasound is safe, and that it can go through bone, muscle and other tissues, making it the ultimate tool for manipulating cells deep in the body.”</p><p>Chalasani is the mastermind who first established the field of sonogenetics a decade ago.</p><p>He discovered that ultrasound — sound waves beyond the range of human hearing — can be harnessed to control cells. Since sound is a form of mechanical energy, he surmised that if brain cells could be made mechanically sensitive, then they could be modified with ultrasound.</p><p>In 2015 his research group provided the first successful demonstration of the theory, adding a protein to cells of a roundworm, <em>Caenorhabditis elegans</em>, that made them sensitive to low-frequency ultrasound and thus enabled them to be activated at the behest of researchers.</p><p>This was a milestone achievement for the credibility of the field, but Chalasani’s team soon hit a stumbling block. The same protein that was so successful in sensitising roundworm cells produced no discernible effect at all in mammalian cells. While sonically controlling roundworms is undoubtedly cool, without making the leap to mammalian cells, the potential medical revolution would be dead in its tracks.</p><p>Undeterred, Chalasani and his colleagues set out to search for a new protein that would work in mammals.</p><p>Although a few proteins were already known to be ultrasound sensitive, no existing candidates were sensitive at the clinically safe frequency of 7MHz – so this was where the team set their sights.  </p><p>“Our approach was different than previous screens because we set out to look for ultrasound-sensitive channels in a comprehensive way,” says Yusuf Tufail, a former project scientist at Salk and a co-first author of the new paper.</p><p>The screening process took over a year and encompassed nearly 300 candidate proteins which they tested on dishes of a common human research cell line, but at last the team struck gold. TRPA1, a channel protein that lets cells respond to the presence of noxious compounds and activates a wide range of cells in the body, was the winner, responding to the 7MHz ultrasound frequency.</p><p>“We were really surprised,” says co-first author of the paper Marc Duque, a Salk exchange student. “TRPA1 has been well-studied in the literature but hasn’t been described as a classical mechanosensitive protein that you’d expect to respond to ultrasound.”</p><p>To test whether TRPA1 could activate cell types of clinical interest in response to ultrasound, the team used a gene therapy approach to add the genes for human TRPA1 to a specific group of neurons in the brains of living mice. When they then administered ultrasound to the mice, only the neurons with the TRPA1 genes were activated.</p><p>This leap from theory to physical demonstration is a huge step forward for the burgeoning field. Though it is early days, Chalasani believes the next steps are within reach.</p><p>Clinicians treating conditions including Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy currently use deep brain stimulation, which involves surgically implanting electrodes in the brain, to activate certain subsets of neurons. Chalasani says that sonogenetics could one day replace this approach—the next step would be developing a gene therapy delivery method that can cross the blood-brain barrier, something that is already being studied.</p><p>Perhaps sooner, he says, sonogenetics could be used to activate cells in the heart, as a kind of pacemaker that requires no implantation.</p><p>“Gene delivery techniques already exist for getting a new gene – such as TRPA1 – into the human heart. If we can then use an external ultrasound device to activate those cells, that could really revolutionise pacemakers.”</p><p>Though sonogenetics could one day circumvent medications and invasive surgeries, for now the team is sticking with nailing down the fundamentals. Their current focus is on determining exactly how TRPA1 senses ultrasound, which could allow this sensitivity to be tweaked and enhanced.</p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --><p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="height: 1px!important;width: 1px!important;border: 0!important" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=181725&amp;title=Could+sound+replace+pacemakers+and+insulin+pumps%3F" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /></p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --><div id="contributors"><p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/sonogenetics-replace-invasive-medical-treatments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/jamie-priest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jamie Priest</a>. Jamie Priest is a science journalist at Cosmos. She has a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from the University of Adelaide.</em></p><p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p></div>

Body

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12 bizarre-sounding anti-ageing treatments that really work

<p><strong>Options you might not know about </strong></p> <p><span>Taking good care of your skin now is one of the best ways to ensure that it’s as healthy as possible in the future, and you might want to consider trying one of these out-of-the-box anti-ageing treatments, too. </span></p> <p><span>Although they sound bizarre, experts say they offer good results.</span></p> <p><strong>Vampire facial</strong></p> <p><span>This technique gained notoriety from a 2013 <em>Keeping Up with the Kardashians</em> episode in which Kim gets an anti-ageing treatment that leaves her face spotted with blood. </span></p> <p><span>T</span><span>he ‘vampire facial,’ or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment, utilises the body’s own growth factors to regenerate tissue and promote collagen production. “During this procedure, blood is taken from the patient’s vein and placed in a specialised centrifuge,” says plastic surgeon, Dr David Shafer.</span></p> <p><span> “As the blood spins at a very fast speed, the components of the blood separate into serum, platelets, and red blood cells, and the PRP layer is isolated and used for various rejuvenating procedures.” </span></p> <p><span>While the PRP does not add volume, Dr Shafer claims it can give local cells a healthy boost. Keep in mind that this may require a topical anaesthetic because it’s done in conjunction with micro-needling, which can be painful. </span></p> <p><span>Kim Kardashian herself said she regretted having the procedure because she did it without numbing cream.</span></p> <p><strong>Face gym</strong></p> <p><span>This anti-ageing treatment might sound like something that would require work on the patient’s part – but it’s not like the gym for your body. </span></p> <p><span>Face Gym is a non-invasive muscle manipulation technique that is used to tone the muscles. </span></p> <p><span>All you do as the patient is lie down and relax as a technician uses combined skin rejuvenating techniques and products on your face. </span></p> <p><span>“While Face Gym is not a substitute for traditional facelift surgery or even dermal fillers to replace lost volume, it is a great maintenance program,” says Dr Shafer.</span></p> <p><strong>Morpheus8</strong></p> <p><span>Micro-needling, the method of pricking the skin with small needles to generate new collagen and skin tissue for firmer, smoother skin, has been gaining popularity over the last several years. </span></p> <p><span>Morpheus8 is a similar technique, although it’s a bit more extreme than basic micro-needling. “Morpheus8 uses radiofrequency energy to carefully and directly apply full thickness through the skin to the underlying fat space to not only tighten the skin but also the three-dimensional structure underneath,” explains plastic surgeon, Dr Spero J. Theodorou. </span></p> <p><span>“The reason it is effective is the unique application of the energy and the reliance on the body itself to produce more collagen and elastin over time.”</span></p> <p><strong>Cryotherapy facial</strong></p> <p>This skin-enhancing, anti-ageing treatment is becoming more popular for its ability to constrict blood vessels, resulting in a reduction in inflammation, shrunken pores, and an overall tighter face.</p> <p>It uses liquid nitrogen, aka freezing cold temps, to reduce facial swelling and stimulate collagen, explains Dr Joshua Zeichner.</p> <p>Although further research is necessary to totally prove its anti-ageing abilities, Dr Zeichner says, the results, although temporary, can be impressive.</p> <p><strong>Fraxel</strong></p> <p><span>Fractionated skin resurfacing, also known as Fraxel, is a non-invasive treatment that involves the use of controlled, microscopic injuries that cause tiny perforations in the treatment area while leaving zones of healthy surrounding tissue intact and untouched. </span></p> <p><span>Research has found it to be effective not only in skin rejuvenation, but also in treating acne as well as certain dermatological diseases. </span></p> <p><span>“The specific zones of injury trigger the patient’s natural neocollagenesis (collagen rebuilding process), which rejuvenates the skin and improves its appearance,” says dermatologist, Dr Dendy Engelman. </span></p> <p><span>“Improvements continue over time (up to six months post-procedure) as new collagen continues to rebuild.”</span></p> <p><strong>Facial acupuncture </strong></p> <p><span>If you’re looking to brighten your skin tone and reduce symptoms of premature ageing, facial acupuncture might be for you. </span></p> <p><span>In fact, one study found that facial acupuncture increased the water and oil content of facial skin, thus giving it a more youthful appearance. </span></p> <p><span>“Acupuncture stimulates the nerves increasing tone and blood flow to the face, which helps clear away toxins and bring essential nutrients to the superficial layers of the skin,” says Dr Shafer. </span></p> <p><span>“Since the skin of the face is a highly metabolic area with constant turnover of skin cells, this elastic production, and removal of toxins from the environment is key.”</span></p> <p><strong>Thread lift</strong></p> <p><span>This type of procedure is a more non-invasive facelift than the traditional facelift. </span></p> <p><span>One study found that it delivered satisfactory results in the majority of patients while proving to have few complications (only 6 per cent of patients reviewed experienced complications). </span></p> <p><span>It involves the application of temporary sutures in the skin to produce a slight, but visible, lift in the skin. “Thread lifts are good for patients looking for a quick, non-invasive boost to their cheeks, improved definition to their jawline or lifting of their neck,” says Dr Shafer. </span></p> <p><span>“Patients have to have guarded expectations, however, as the results are not comparable to a true surgical face or neck lift.”</span></p> <p><strong>Botox</strong><span></span></p> <p><span>“While new technologies emerge for skin tightening and resurfacing, there is no alternative to neuromodulators (aka Botox) when it comes to reducing dynamic wrinkles which occur with movement,” says Dr Shafer about the injectable neurotoxin that smoothes fine lines on the face. </span></p> <p><span>The TGA-approved treatment areas are the glabella (the 11s between the eyebrows), the crow’s feet to the sides of the eyes with squinting and the transverse forehead lines.</span></p> <p><strong>Dermal fillers</strong><span></span></p> <p><span>While lasers and facials improve skin texture, there is no more effective treatment to adding volume than with dermal fillers such as Voluma, Juvederm and Vollure, according to Dr Shafer. </span></p> <p><span>One study found that the treatment of age-related lines and wrinkles using dermal fillers is both safe and effective, supporting Dr Shafer’s opinion. </span></p> <p><span>“These products are made from hyaluronic acid which is naturally found within the skin and are highly biocompatible,” he says. </span></p> <p><span>“Where someone is looking for natural lip enhancement, smoothing of the lines around their mouth or lifting the cheeks, dermal fillers give an instant result at a low risk.”</span></p> <p><strong>Ultherapy</strong></p> <p><span>This anti-ageing treatment uses focused ultrasound technology to stimulate tightening of the deeper layers of the skin; in clinical studies, researchers have found that it can be effective. </span></p> <p><span>“Unlike lasers, which treat the surface of the skin, ultherapy directs the treatment under the skin with ultrasound guidance in three dimensions to help lift and sculpt the face,” says Dr Shafer. </span></p> <p><span>“The treatments do take some time – one to two hours – and the results can take four to six weeks to appreciate, but there is little-to-no downtime as the surface of the skin is not affected.”</span></p> <p><strong>Hyaluronic acid injections</strong></p> <p><span>There is a new treatment in Europe that involves shallow injections of hyaluronic acid all over the face – about 100 injections in total, according to Dr Engelman. </span></p> <p><span>“Hyaluronic acid is a carbohydrate naturally occurring throughout the body, but it makes an effective moisturiser because it can hold 1000 times its weight in water, meaning it does wonders in hydration,” she says. </span></p> <p><span>“By plumping the skin from within, overall texture and elasticity are improved for up to nine months.” Hyaluronic acid is an ingredient in many moisturisers.</span></p> <p><strong>Restylane Lyft</strong></p> <p>This treatment can be used use on hands, which tend to be one of the more obvious areas of ageing.</p> <p>“Having a young face and old hands can give away your age, which is why Restylane Lyft has become a very popular option among patients,” says Dr Zeichner.</p> <p>“Injections can give long-lasting improvement to hide prominent veins and bones.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/healthsmart/beauty/12-bizarre-sounding-anti-ageing-treatments-that-really-work?pages=1">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

Beauty & Style

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Experience the spectacular sounds of a Murrumbidgee wetland erupting with life as water returns

<p>In the southwestern corner of New South Wales, along the Murrumbidgee river, frogs are calling in a wetland called Nap Nap. This is <a href="https://www.narinari.org/our-journey">Nari Nari</a> country – nap nap means “very swampy” in traditional language.</p> <p>Nap Nap is one of many inland wetlands across Australia to receive so-called “environmental water”: water allocated and managed to improve the health of rivers, wetlands and floodplains.</p> <p><a href="https://flow-mer.org.au/">Long-term monitoring</a> shows how these environmental flows sustain big old trees and cycle nutrients through the ecosystem. They drive breeding for frogs, waterbirds, reptiles and fish, and protect endangered species. This is a good news story for our inland waterways – but it’s mostly told through scientific reports.</p> <p>We wanted to use ecological data to convey not just facts but feelings, and create a vivid digital portrait of life in Nap Nap. So we recently produced <a href="https://flow-mer.org.au/napnap/">The Sound of Water</a>, using audio, images and water data to reveal the patterns and rhythms of the swamp.</p> <p>In part, this is about finding an engaging way to tell an important story. But there’s a bigger agenda here too: how might we use environmental data to amplify humanity’s attachment to the living world?</p> <p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439776/original/file-20220107-13-1wm9dil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439776/original/file-20220107-13-1wm9dil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="A view of a forest wetland, with water surrounded by tall gum trees" /></a> <span class="caption">Nap Nap wetland, the name of which means ‘very swampy’ in traditional language.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gayleen Bourke</span></span></p> <h2>Addressing an imbalance</h2> <p>Healthy wetlands rely on varying river flows. When a river is flooding or at high flow, water is delivered to wetlands, enabling seeds to sprout and animals to move and breed. When the river is at low flow, wetlands enter a natural drying phase.</p> <p>But across Australia, thousands of wetlands have lost their natural connection to rivers. Lower river flows – the result of water regulation and diversions required to meet human needs – means many wetlands no longer experience these natural cycles.</p> <p>Environmental flows seek to address this imbalance. Managed by water authorities, the flows involve strategically delivering water to replenish rivers, wetlands and floodplains.</p> <p>Our project – a design-science collaboration – was funded by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office’s <a href="https://flow-mer.org.au">Flow-MER program</a>, which undertakes long-term monitoring of the ecological impact of environmental water allocations.</p> <h2>The Sound of Water</h2> <p>Across nine days in spring of 2020, an environmental flow of about 16,000 million litres rolled into Nap Nap swamp in the Lowbidgee floodplain after a brief dry spell. The Lowbidgee floodplain is near the confluence of the Kalari (Lachlan) and Murrumbidgee rivers in New South Wales.</p> <p>The frogs began calling as the water returned. But don’t take our word for it - <a href="https://theconversation.com/experience-the-spectacular-sounds-of-a-murrumbidgee-wetland-erupting-with-life-as-water-returns-174423">listen for yourself.</a></p> <p>In this clip, you can hear the squelchy, “cree-cree” call of tiny, hardy Murray Valley froglets. You can also hear inland banjo frogs, whose “dok” call sounds a bit like a plucked string; spotted marsh frogs with a machine-gun like “duk-duk-duk”; and the shrill, rattling call of Peron’s tree frog.</p> <p>This recording comes from an audio logger used in Flow-MER’s environmental monitoring. These automatic devices record for five minutes every hour, day and night – that’s two hours of sound captured every day.</p> <p><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440161/original/file-20220111-17-5maxbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="A small light grey frog on a tree branch calling, with its throat puffed out" /> <span class="caption">The Peron’s tree frog has a shrill, rattling call.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Damian Michael</span></span></p> <h2>Seeing wetland sounds</h2> <p>To reveal the content of all this audio, we used a visual representation of sound known as a spectrogram. We adapted a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2014.05.063">technique</a> developed by researchers at the Queensland University of Technology which enables ecologists to visualise and analyse thousands of hours of recordings.</p> <p>We visualised almost a year’s worth of audio from Nap Nap – more than 700 hours.</p> <p>The below image contains spectrograms of audio from June 2020, which was a dry period in the swamp. The colourful central band corresponds to the noisy daylight hours, when woodland birds dominate.</p> <p>The vivid blue areas are wind and rain noise. The pink and orange are mostly bird calls, and continuous sounds like cricket calls show up as strong horizontal bands (top right).</p> <p>The mostly dark outer bands correspond to the nights, which in dry periods are fairly quiet.</p> <p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439614/original/file-20220106-19-77zfci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439614/original/file-20220106-19-77zfci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="Spectrograms of audio showing the patterns and variation of activity across 10 days" /></a> <span class="caption">Spectrograms of Nap Nap audio from June 2020. Each row shows a single day, made up of 24 hourly segments.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors provided</span></span></p> <p>But as the environmental water flow reached Nap Nap, the night lit up with frog calls. Our story focuses on this moment. We found a way to link the visuals to the source audio, creating interactive timelines in which we can see, hear and explore the wetland soundscape.</p> <p>The stars of our story are Nap Nap’s frogs, and our most important find was a southern bell frog. Once widespread across southeastern Australia, these frogs are now found in only a few isolated populations.</p> <p>Their distinctive call indicates the ecological health of Nap Nap, and the value of these environmental flows. Here you can listen to its deep, growling call, which appears as a sequence of pink and purple blobs along the bottom of the spectrogram.</p> <p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/663205855" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <span class="caption">Spectrogram of a southern bell frog calling at Nap Nap (3 September 2020, 8pm). Image: Gayleen Bourke.</span></p> <h2>A data portrait of a living place</h2> <p>Our design uses a scroll-based interaction technique sometimes termed “<a href="https://medium.com/nightingale/from-storytelling-to-scrollytelling-a-short-introduction-and-beyond-fbda32066964">scrollytelling</a>”. It works because it’s familiar (everyone can scroll) and translates well to all kinds of devices. It lets us lead the audience step by step into the place, the data and the spectrograms, while still encouraging exploration.</p> <p><a href="https://flow-mer.org.au/napnap/">The Sound of Water</a> builds on established techniques to create something new. It shows how design and science can unite to tell environmental stories in a richer way – with both facts and feelings. This matters because Nap Nap, and thousands of places like it, need people to care about their protection.</p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mitchell-whitelaw-1167325">Mitchell Whitelaw</a>, Professor of Design, School of Art and Design, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/skye-wassens-451800">Skye Wassens</a>, Associate Professor in Ecology, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/charles-sturt-university-849">Charles Sturt University</a></em></span></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/experience-the-spectacular-sounds-of-a-murrumbidgee-wetland-erupting-with-life-as-water-returns-174423">original article</a>.</p>

Domestic Travel

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How does a jet engine work?

<div> <div class="copy"> <p>Modern aviation owes its success to the jet engine. The technology was originally developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s for military use in <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" target="_blank">World War Two</a>, but it has since powered the passenger aircraft revolution.</p> <p>There are many different variations on the jet engine, but the one most commonly used in passenger planes is called a turbofan (because it contains a turbine and a fan). The description below is about turbofans in particular, but much of it applies more generally.</p> <h2>So how does a jet engine work?</h2> <p>At the simplest level the way a jet engine works can be reduced to just four words: suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Let’s break down what that means.</p> <h3>Suck</h3> <p>When you look at a jet engine, the first thing you will generally notice is that the front is a giant many-bladed fan, inside what is known as the intake. The blades act in exactly the same way the blades on a propeller or desk fan work, sucking air in and shoving it out the other side at high speed. The fan in a jet engine does have a lot more blades than a desk fan, though: often more than 20. Think of the fan as a propeller on steroids.</p> <p>In most modern jet engines, the fan alone can generate up to 90% of the thrust, or ‘pushing power’ of the engine. To find out where the other 10% comes from, we must continue to follow the air on its journey.</p> <h3>Squeeze</h3> <p>We are now leaving pre-jet engine technology behind. Once the fan sucks in the air, some of it is not just forced around the engine, but is funnelled to what is known as the compressor. Inside, air is pushed along by many spinning disks loaded with small blades along a tube that gets smaller and smaller. This quickly squeezes the air, making it much denser, hotter and more explosive when fuel is added.</p> <h3>Bang</h3> <p>For the pyromaniacs out there, there is where the fun begins. Fuel is added to the compressed air, creating a highly volatile mix requiring a simple spark to burn. This is what happens in the combustion chamber, where the fuel/air mix is sprayed and ignited, rapidly expanding the air and generating the rest of the thrust of the engine.</p> <h3>Blow</h3> <p>The rapid expansion of the air during combustion generates a massive amount of pressure that needs to find a way out.  The way out of a jet engine is at the end of another tube full of spinning disks bristling with blades that are spun by the force of the expanding gas. This part is known as the turbine. Once at the end of the turbine, the gases leave the engine at high speed, exerting a force on the engine in the opposite direction. (In accord with Newton’s third law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.)</p> <p>The ingenious part of the modern jet engine is that the intake fan, compressor, combustion chamber and turbine are linked by a single shaft running along the inside of the engine. So when the expanding gases spin the turbine at the back, it helps spin the fan at the front, which keeps the process going and generates more thrust.</p> <em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/how-does-a-jet-engine-work/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Jake Port. </em></p> </div> </div>

Technology

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Music without a sound

<div> <div class="copy"> <p>There’s more to our appreciation of music than its sound, according to an Australian study <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241196" target="_blank">published</a> in the journal <em>PLOS ONE</em>. It found that people can have emotional reactions to music based solely on its genre.</p> <p>“This is one of the first studies which tells us that how we emotionally respond to music might not be related to musical features, as has long been suggested, but to pre-conceived ideas we have about the culture related to the music,” says lead author Marco Susino from Flinders University.</p> <p>Susino, who is also a visiting fellow at New York’s Juilliard School, has worked and played with musicians in a vast range of cultural contexts across four continents. “I have always been fascinated by the power of music, in terms of how it makes us feel and how it can trigger emotions in us,” he says. “Music can make us cry and weep, but also elate with joy.</p> <p>“Throughout my career, I found that people’s reactions to music were at times wildly different, and I always wondered why. If we listen to the same music, how is it that it can trigger such different emotional reactions?”</p> <p>As Susino ventured into research, he discovered that theories about music and emotions tend to focus on its sound. “Yet to me this seemed limiting,” he says. “What if it has nothing to do with the music at all?”</p> <p>To disentangle this, Susino and Emery Schubert, from the University of New South Wales, recruited 276 adult volunteers from Australia and Cuba.</p> <p>Participants were given a short set of lyrics from real songs, with information on which genre of music they came from, and asked what sentiments came to mind when they read them. The eight genres included Japanese gagaku, Brazilian samba, heavy metal, pop, hip hop and western art opera.</p> <p>There was a twist. Some participants were told the lyrics were taken from a genre that in reality wasn’t true. Others weren’t given any genre at all. Essentially, the lyrics were the same, but the genre label changed.</p> <p>After controlling for familiarity and fandom, results showed that people’s emotional responses changed for some genres.</p> <p>When a set of lyrics was presented as Japanese gagaku, for instance, emotional responses were nearly always gentle while samba was associated with happiness, excitement and dancing. Heavy metal and hip hop, on the other hand, evoked anger.</p> <p>Results suggest that on some occasions prejudice and stereotypes influence our emotional response to music, Susino says – even though the music and lyrics might be expressing something completely different.</p> <p>People might hold a stereotype of Japanese culture as calm and spiritual, for instance, which could extend to perceptions of its music, even if the composer is conveying another emotion. Heavy metal and hip hop, on the other hand, tend to be stereotyped as rebellious and aggressive.</p> <p>The researchers also found differences between Cuban and Australian participants which could reflect different biases and stereotypes between cultures. Cubans associated hip hop with violence and sadness, for instance, while Australians more frequently linked it to sadness, betrayal and longing.</p> <p>The study has several interesting implications.</p> <p>“Music has been used for music therapy and treatment, music cognition and music psychology research,” says Susino. “But, to find out that how someone feels in relation to music might have nothing to do with the music itself is remarkable.”</p> <p>“The cross-cultural differences also bring into question the reliability of the well-known saying ‘music is a universal language’. When it comes to emotions, it does not look that way.”</p> <em>Image credit: Shutterstock            <!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --> <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=126972&amp;title=Music+without+a+sound" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> <!-- End of tracking content syndication -->          </em></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/music-without-a-sound/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Natalie Parletta.</em></p> </div> </div>

Music

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Let's look at the lighter side of lockdown

<p>Some parts of Australia and many countries around the world are in some stage of lockdown because of COVID-19 right now so it could be time to look at the humorous side of lockdown. </p> <p>For a start, pets certainly do well during lockdown. Their owners are home much more and they get to go for lots of regular walks.</p> <p>Canadian comedian, Chantal Desjardins, was getting a bit bored when she was in isolation with her fiancé during the first lockdown in 2020.</p> <p>She was at home with her pets in Montreal so she decided to use an app on her phone and have some fun with Cooper, her 7-week-old mini-bernedoodle.</p> <p>After drinking a few wines, Desjardins said: “Before I knew it, I had an entire corona song written from a dog’s perspective.”</p> <p>She posted a video of Cooper singing Gloria Gaynor’s anthem <em>I Will Survive</em> in a high-pitched voice but with the lyrics updated to reflect the current situation. It’s all about Cooper having a good time in lockdown because his owners are home a lot more – a situation reflected around many parts the globe right now.</p> <p>The video has now been viewed by half a million people and shared many times.</p> <p>As Cooper sings: “We played fetch for seven hours in the backyard in the sun. I don’t know what a pandemic is, but it sure is good for me!”</p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i97VF8XeBQ4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><strong>Here’s another classic to take a look at. This is Julie Andrews and the <em>Sound of Music Covid 19</em> song.</strong></p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MMBh-eo3tvE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><strong>And to voice what many of us are feeling with Coronavirus returning this year after we thought it would have gone away by now, here's <em>My Corona</em> Part 2 (One Year Later) – A Chris Mann Vaccine Parody.</strong></p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0ZvkZ14_HA0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><em>Photo: YouTube</em></p>

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