Mixture - Quarterly MusiSci edition - May 2020

Yes, this is the newsletter you subscribed to and were expecting. I just had to make a little change. To avoid cluttering up the top of the email, I moved the whole explanation about merging newsletters to the end of the email.

So scroll down for more, or just read the rest of the email first and you'll get there eventually!

Why Virtual Orchestras And Zoom Choirs Can't Compete With In-Person Rehearsals - Forbes.com
Now that bands, orchestras and choirs are forced to meet online, they're missing out on some of the known social and psychological benefits of musicians playing together.

Making New Proteins From Music - Forbes.com
MIT researchers have turned the biochemical properties of proteins into music, including the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Now, they’ve used those musical compositions to train a neural network to create entirely new proteins.

Music by MusiSci: David Ibbett

David Ibbett is the composer-in-residence at Fermilab, but due to the lockdown he has been working from home recently. Nevertheless, he has been working remotely with physicist Don Lincoln and recently released the first piece of music based on neutrino oscillations. Graph of electron neutrino oscillation simulation by Balázs Meszéna. Sonified for violin, viola and cello by David Ibbett, featuring Soprano Beth Sterling

Book recommendation

Us Conductors
Sean Michaels

A fictional story based on the life of the engineer Leon Theremin, who invented the theremin. Since his musical invention turned 100 last year, it's about time to revisit this 2014 novel.

Interesting things

• Collaboration between art and science turns sounds of space into music

• Interview with Musician and Neuroscientist Izzy Frances

• Lockdown singing: the science of why music helps us connect in isolation

• Musical physicist seeks new knowledge

• Maria Teriaeva's synth pop was inspired by space science and features Mikhail Yuryevich Sotsky, an engineer at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

About the newsletter merger

This email acts as both the May 2020 issue of the “MusiSci Quarterly” and the May 2020 issue of the “monthly picks”. I've merged these two very similar newsletters to avoid having to duplicate efforts every three months when the musicians & scientists newsletter goes out. Instead, the monthly subscribers will get a music-themed newsletter in those months ,which is also the quarterly newsletter for people who only want music/science content.

So nothing has changed in what you’re subscribed two, but I had to come up with a new name.
(If you’re currently only getting the quarterly newsletter, you can update your settings here to include the monthly one, and you’ll get the months in between, which are still about science, but not always about music.)

The merged newsletter includes all the combined content from what would normally have been the monthly and quarterly editions, so it’s recent articles I wrote, a book recommendation, music by MusiSci, and a list of suggested links. The non-music months will be as they were before (i.e. without a music segment).

I hope that made sense!