Ever wondered what helium or iron sound like? Well, now you can find out thanks to Walker Smith from Indiana University and colleagues, who have used a technique called data sonification to convert the visible light given off by the elements into audio.
They did this by building a computer code that converted each element’s light spectrum into mixtures of notes. The discrete colour wavelengths became individual sine waves with a frequency corresponding to that of the light and an amplitude matching its brightness. The result is a unique, complex sound for each element. “Simpler elements, such as hydrogen and helium, sound vaguely like musical chords, but the rest have a more complex collection of sounds,” claims Smith.
Calcium, for example, sounds like bells chiming together while zinc, according to Smith, resembles “an angelic choir singing a major chord with vibrato”. Smith presented the results this week at the American Chemical Society spring meeting. You can listen to the sound of the elements in the above video.
Bin the boffin
The Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World, launched a new campaign this week catchily titled “Bin the Boffin”. The IOP is calling on the media to ditch damaging stereotypes that could put people off studying science. In particular, it wants to end the use of the term “boffin” as a synonym for scientist as it’s usually associated with old, white men.
The IOP could not have timed its campaign better. On the day of launch, the Daily Star ran a front-page story about space holding the key to beating Earth-based diseases that was headlined: “It’s life-saving boffinry Jim, but not as we know it”.
The campaign clearly hit a nerve with the Star, which the following day ran a front-page headline “Boffins: stop calling us boffins”, with the paper claiming that the “eggheads” were out to ban what it said was the Star’s favourite word. They even kicked off a readers’ campaign to “save the boffin”.
Rachel Youngman, deputy chief executive of the IOP, hit back in a blog post, reiterating that the IOP “will continue to argue our case for media reporting of science that is fun, lively and engaging but that doesn’t resort to out-dated caricatures and stereotypes which should be despatched to the twilight home for hackneyed tabloid jargon”.
The good news is that the campaign, which was part of a wider effort to draw attention to the IOP’s new guidelines on science reporting, has already had some success. Alison Phillips, editor of the Daily Mirror, told UK Press Gazette that the Mirror will not be using the term anymore. Sun and Star – your move.
Baaa-ck to Earth
A Shaun the Sheep mascot finally made its way baaa-ck home this week following a daring trip to the Moon last year. The 16 cm-tall stop motion figure was strapped to NASA’s Artemis 1 mission that blasted off in November 2022.
The Orion craft, with Shaun onboard, spent 25 days in space travelling to the Moon, performing a flyby, before splashing back to Earth on 11 December.
Shaun was a mascot on the mission from the European Space Agency, with David Parker, its director of human and robotic exploration, visiting Aardman studios in Bristol – where all of Shaun’s TV programmes and films are produced – to formally congratulate the sheep.
The moment was also marked with the unveiling of Shaun’s astronaut portrait, complete with a commemorative plaque that will be on permanent display at the studio. Shaun will now be going on a tour of space centres across Europe.
And finally…
In case you missed this week’s big celeb news, Hollywood actor Gwyneth Paltrow was found by a jury of not being liable for a ski accident that she was involved in. Retired optometrist Terry Sanderson had alleged that Paltrow crashed into him when skiing in 2016 and sued her for over $300 000, while Paltrow countersued for $1 plus legal fees alleging that he collided with her.
It seems that physics may have helped Paltrow’s case as biomechanical engineer Irving Scher, who charges $500 an hour for his services, was brought in as an expert witness. “Ms Paltrow’s version of events is consistent with the laws of physics, and how people move and rotate,” he told the court. The jury took three hours of deliberation to unanimously find Sanderson entirely at fault for the incident.