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SPONSORED BY  | | | | July 26, 2024: How ancient architecture influenced Western music, stargazing during the day, and "cocaine sharks" are discovered off the coast of Brazil. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Solomon's Temple in ancient times. North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy Stock Photo | | | Solomon's Temple, a Hebrew temple built around 950 B.C.E. in Jerusalem, may be one of the earliest influences on Western classical music. Isaac Newton described the physical proportions of the nave of the temple as a length of six, a width of two, and a height of three. Scholars believe those dimensions optimized the flow of voices and sound inside the space. Temples and religious buildings that followed used similar dimensions, as well as architectural features like towers and columns to control sound waves.
Why this matters: The acoustic features of these structures shaped early music composition. Musicologist Denis Stevens observed that even simple doubling of sung intervals on the scale of notes in fourths, fifths and octaves in a large building such as an abbey or cathedral is "magnificently sonorous." The buildings spurred the creation of harmonies and polyphony (the layering of simultaneous voices), which evolved into Western classical music. And the dimensions of ancient temples, churches and cathedrals inspired the concert halls of today.
What the experts say: "Early music composers chose pitches, silence (rests), rhythms and simple harmonies that sounded well throughout the physical building," writes Lynn Whidden, ethnomusicologist and professor emerita at Brandon University in Manitoba. "When ornamentation was added inside, limiting reverberation, the basic dynamics of classical music were set, even as it spread among different societies and religions." | | | Astronomers at Macquarie University in Australia successfully captured images of stars during the day, using a test rig they call the Huntsman Telescope Pathfinder. The team trained the lens on 35 different stars of varying brightness and color when the sun was up to 30 degrees above the horizon. Using quick exposures they could measure the star brightness with an accuracy of 1 to 10 percent, and they detected stars of only 4.6 magnitude (the brightest stars measure 1 in magnitude, and the faintest measure 6). The scope also deciphered structural details of the International Space Station as it passed overhead. Why this matters: Daytime viewing could help astronomers better track satellites in orbit. It also could help with cosmological observations since the position of the sun often interferes with distant star viewing. For example, in 2019 and 2020 the red supergiant star Betelgeuse was mysteriously blasting out dust, but astronomers couldn't study it for months because it was being obscured by the sun's glare.
Daytime viewing: Some cosmic bodies can be seen during the day–the most obvious is our moon. The planet Venus can be spotted near the horizon at dawn or twilight, but sometimes it stands out during the day against a stark blue sky, writes astronomer and columnist Phil Plait. Comets can even sometimes be bright enough to spot during waking hours. | | | • Sharks swimming off the coast of Brazil tested positive for heavy metals, forever chemicals (PFAS) and a surprise substance: Cocaine. | 3 min read | | | • Do you say "please" and "thank you" to Alexa, Siri or ChatGPT? Politeness may improve the quality of information we get from AI, according to a new study (plus, maybe the robots will be less likely to kill us when they take over the world. Just kidding.) | 5 min read | | | • Mathematicians have finally found the "fifth busiest beaver" in the unpredictable busy beaver function. (Brain teaser warning.) | 8 min read | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY CCHCS | Come Join a Community of Colleagues | | | • In its recent decision to end the Chevron deference, the Supreme Court dismantled a 40-year precedent of deferring to science and expertise in interpreting laws intended to protect human health, keep consumers safe and preserve the planet, writes Meredith Moore, director of Ocean Conservancy's Fish Conservation Program. Fisheries management will be particularly hard-hit by the decision, she writes. Already declining or struggling U.S. fisheries depend on solid fishery management science, which is now at greater risk of litigation at all levels. "My heart goes out to the people who have spent their entire careers in public service, working to bring the latest science and their technical expertise to make the world cleaner, safer and fairer," she says. "The Supreme Court has just told them that their work no longer matters." | 5 min read | | | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | | • 'Dark Oxygen' Discovered Coming from Mineral Deposits on Deep Seafloor | 6 min read | • What to Know about Project 2025's Dangers to Science | 9 min read | • It's Going to Hit 90 Degrees in Alaska This Week | 3 min read | | | • Reducing food waste is one of the top five ways that we might curb carbon emissions, improve the environment and feed the planet. These researchers have outlined concrete steps to get us to that goal. | 8 min read | | | • A paleontologist and an illustrator teamed up to sketch out what mythical creatures--flying horses, dragons, hippogriffs, oh my!--would actually look like according to biomechanical rules. | 7 min read | | | Sharp readers of Today in Science spotted some great science words that were missing from yesterday's version of our new word search game Spellements. Lisa from Georgia sent in "debrided" (to remove damaged tissue, as from a wound), and Jon, also from Georgia (a hot spot for word searchers I guess!) sent in "ionic" (related to or containing ions). Check out today's puzzle and see how many words you can find. | Thank you for being part of our circle of science-curious readers and word-search powerhouses! Email me anytime: newsletters@sciam.com. And have a lovely weekend. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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