You / Light Up My Life

This is...just the coolest.

Dr. Charles Limb, an otolaryngologist from Johns Hopkins, is conducting experiments trying to get at the neurological basis of musical creativity. Specifically: he put jazz musicians and freestyle rappers in an fMRI machine to learn how activity in the brain changes when musicians improvise v. when they perform memorized material.

I know this TED talk is 17 min, but you can hack it: you're on spring break!
No? Okay fine, here are the results highlights: 10'30" and 15'40". (But it really is worth watching the whole thing. And besides: what a charismatic otolaryngologist!)




(via metafilter)

I Don't Care What You Say / Baby, Talk To Me

TED talks. They're great for just-graduated types. Keeps us sharp. Sharp like knives.

In this one, Evan Grant spends five minutes walking us through the basics of cymatics - the process of visualizing sound. Turns out, cymatics has been instrumental in researching dolphin language, and Grant has some interesting ideas about the relationship between sound-shapes and the natural world.
Plus, Grant acknowledges that these pictures make for beautiful art all on their own. (Check out the visualization of Beethoven's Ninth at about 3:00.)