This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Helluva Twist — CHARLES DICKENS and his writings are still being “interrogated” (that’s the word in use) by scholars, at least one of whom is almost electrified by what might be there.Jeremy Parrott, an antiquarian bookseller […]
This video seems to invite analysis by anyone intrigued by the potential reaction of whoever who might be exposed to it. The video shows ten hours of repetition of the solo artist Konstrakta performing a musical piece called “In Corpore Sano”, representing Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat Ten hours […]
This year’s Europigeon Song Contest will reach its thrilling conclusion on Saturday, May 22, 2021. The contest organizers, in Rotterdam, say: Five feathered performers [stuffed specimens from the collection of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam] are competing in a truly spectacular song contest. Their shows will be shown online for you to enjoy, Covid-19 and […]
A song for the here and now: “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and his wife, Diane Baker, can’t do their usual volunteering at Camp Fantastic, where children with cancer spend a week together in a camp setting, but with the necessary medical support.” Dr. Carrie Wolinetz wrote the lyrics. The […]
Danial Kheirikhah, a cleanly actor, shows, in this video how to wash one’s hands with the aid of a recording of a symphony orchestra: An Earlier Experiment with Kids A related—but not identical—technique has previously been shown to have some degree of merit for children. For details about that, see the study “The Effects of […]
News reports suggest that coffee can help a person lose weight—something we anticipated in “The Coffee Diet Song,” in 2004. The song was the thrilling conclusion to “The Atkins Diet Opera.” The opera premiered as part of the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, at Harvard University. Here’s video of that 2004 song, and video of […]
Helen Arney, and the magazine Chemistry World, and a whole bunch of friends, have added new bits to Tom Lehrer‘s song “The Elements.” The tune was written long ago by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and…). Here are videos of that version, and an earlier version in Japanese by relatives of Ig Nobel Prize winner Theo […]
Behold, or more to the point, listen to this performance by the (sometimes one-person) singing group A Capella Science, of “The Animalia Chorus”: (Thanks to Stan Malcolm for bringing this to our attention.)
Have you ever considered how “soil themes” have been represented in popular song? If so, a new paper in the journal Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (Volume 63, 2017 – Issue 5) may be of interest. See: ‘Songs for our soils. How soil themes have been represented in popular song‘ The authors cite songs such […]
By somewhat popular demand, here’s a video of “The Dunning-Kruger Song”: The song honors the research study “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments,” by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 77, no. 6, December 1999, pp. 1121-34. […]