Welcome to my blog where I write about Vaguely Phyisics Related Matter, I hope you enjoy it :)

Wednesday 23 November 2011

The Music of Radioactivity

Okay so I just found something totally amazing! I'm still a little bit in awe of it to be honest because it is completely awesome!! There has been a Swedish project in which they have converted the radiation patterns of some isotopes into music. Radiation is a form of energy that is emitted from radioactive substances when they decay to counterbalance energy losses when electrons jump energy shells.

Part of this projects aim is to counterbalance some of the negative press radioactivity has been getting in the press. Of course nuclear disasters are awful, disturbing events that cause extreme suffering but radioactivity is still a fascinating science. Part of the fear of radioactivity is a fear of the unknown. We cannot smell, see or touch it but now we can hear it. Another purpose is to look at the science from a different angle, a position from which I couldn't even have imagined and I think that's brilliant!

An album has been released called the Radioactive Orchestra (feat Axel Boman) and its definitely on my Christmas list! Although it doesn't seem to be available as a physical copy... There are 6 songs on the EP and I think my favourite is three excited Nuclei of Lutetium - 167. There is also this wonderful website which is really really really impressive! It allows you to play around with different radioactive elements and make music of your own and shows you the information of electrons jumping shells and all sorts! You can hear an example in the background of this video:



It seems really relevant to have found this today because in my General Studies lesson earlier we were debating whether arts or science was more deserving of funding and this is a perfect example of where the two intersect!

I found out about it all mostly from this website.

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