“Effect of Voice Change on Singing Pitch Accuracy in Young Male Singers,” Elizabeth C. Willis and Dianna T. Kenny, Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies, vol. 2, nos. 1 and 2, Spring/Fall 2008, pp. 111-119. (Thanks to Martin Gardiner for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the Australian Centre for Applied Research in Music […]
Tag: noise
Booing/Music/Noise [research study]
“ ‘We Are Interrupted by Your Noise’: Heckling and the Symbolic Economy of Popular Music Stardom,” Mark Duffett, Popular Music and Society, vol. 32, no. 1, February 2009, pp. 37-57. The author explains: “Heckling has rarely been examined in popular music studies. The argument of this piece is that audience members heckle in an attempt […]
Results of the Removement of the Three Minutes Irritating Music [research study]
“Removement of the Three Minutes Irritating Music Produced No Incremental Relaxation,” Wei-Ta Hsiao, Chung-Hung Hong, Hui-Min Wang, Sheng-Chieh Huang, Kai-Yu Shao, Shi-Han Luo, Wei-Chun Chiu, et al., Second International Conference on Innovations in Bio-inspired Computing and Applications (IBICA), 2011, pp. 57-60. IEEE, 2011. The authors, at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, report: “This paper studies […]
Do Test-Takers Pay Attention to Rock Lyrics? [research study]
“Effects of Aggressive and Nonaggressive Rock Songs on Projective and Structured Tests,” C.E. Wanamaker and M. Reznikoff, Journal of Psychology, vol. 123, no. 6, November 1989, pp. 561-570. The authors, at Fordham University, Bronx, NY, conclude that: “The findings are congruent with other investigators’ reports that subjects do not pay attention to rock lyrics. ” […]
Vocalised Sounds During Sex [research study]
“Vocalised Sounds and Human Sex,” Roy J. Levin, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, vol. 21, 2006, pp. 99-107. The author, at the University of Sheffield, UK, reports: “[An] early study of the coital behaviour of a single Caucasian married couple (Fox & Fox, 1969)… highlights the complexity of the vocal behaviour of but one female, which […]
Grunting for advantage (in karate) – new study
There is a growing body of research into the effects of ‘grunting’ in sports. Previous studies have mostly investigated tennis grunts *, but now a new investigation has examined grunting in karate. A team from the psychology departments at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, US, and the University of British Columbia, Canada, measured the […]
The ‘Singing Cymbal’ controversy
The photo above is a still from a CERN teaching resources video (2014). “Use a cymbal or metallic plate that can vibrate freely. Use a flash, for example from a camera, hold it close to the plate and flash. You will hear a low tone. Physics: The moment of the photons are transferred in an […]
The Choo Lab’s Humming Generator
Many research groups across the world are in the process of developing so-called ‘Energy Harvesting’ (EH) techniques to extract electrical energy from human actions. (see for example, Implementing a knee-energy harvester). The Choo Lab at Caltech specializes in such things, and researchers there have recently developed a system which is designed to power portable electronic […]
The case of the whistling caterpillars
“In this study, we introduce a novel form of sound production in caterpillars – whistling. While most insects and caterpillars that generate sound do so by rubbing body parts together or against a substrate, few generate sound through using air expulsion. The walnut sphinx Amorpha juglandis caterpillar is a cryptic species found throughout much of […]
The purpose of the prominent human external nose (a theory)
Many might have wondered, at one time or another, about the purpose of the prominent human external nose. Of those people, Howard D. Stupak, M.D., who is Assistant Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery and Chair, Department of Otolaryngology at Jacobi Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, has a […]