Music

Meet some of the people featured in the March 2017 issue of The Scientist.

“Nature’s melodies” may be a human construct that says more about us than about the musicality of other animals.

Music, the future of American science, and more

Studies of remote Amazonian villages reveal how culture influences our musical preferences.

Researchers investigate the unusual association of musical sounds with tastes or colors through the lens of another perceptual quirk.

The evidence is equivocal on whether animals dig human songs, so scientists set out to make music that mimics their soundscapes.

Music sounds very different to cochlear implant users. Researchers are trying to improve the experience.

What can be done to lower development costs and drug prices?

Scientists combine CRISPR gene editing with single-cell sequencing for genotype-phenotype screens.

Zebra finches dial down dopamine signaling when they hear errors in a song performance.

An experiment in which people pass each other initially nonrhythmic drumming sequences reveals the human affinity for musical patterns.

 Zebra finches reared by another species learn to sing their foster parents’ song with rhythms characteristic of their genetic background.

His first love was dance, but Erich Jarvis has long courted another love—understanding how the brain learns vocalization.

At the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, the researcher studies the neurobiology of music perception.

Advice on how to deploy the latest techniques in your own lab

Several initiatives aim to improve research integrity in the country, but recent high-profile cases of misconduct highlight a lingering problem.

One author's journey through the science of his congenital amusia

Newton’s rainbow forms the familiar ROYGBIV because he thought the range of visible colors should be analogous to the seven-note musical scale.