David

=Week 3=

= DNA-Based Computers = In Pasadena, California only 3 days ago, the first computer was constructed from 74 DNA molecules coded in a test tube by a group of Caltech students. With this computer, researchers are able to comprehend the principles of information transfer in biological systems. As a result, further developments in the field of biochemistry and engineering fields are possible. One idea brought up by scientists is the idea of injecting a DNA computer into blood samples and utilizing the computer to analyze the molecules within the blood, allowing proper diagnosis and treatment of certain linked diseases.

The issue with past biomolecular DNA circuits is that the molecules used in composition were too complicated and presented new obstacles for scientists with every "completed" circuit. This new circuit, designed by Lulu Qian, uses huge chains of simpler, more consistent molecules, allowing the expansion of chains of DNA. The key to this DNA computer is the logic gates. Like a computer logic gate, which controls on-off output signals triggered by on-off input signals, the DNA computer also uses a form of logic gates. These gates are comprised of short, single-stranded DNA that produce molecule signals that travel from gate to gate, relaying signals back and forth.

There are, however, still issues with this biocomputer. Molecules don't always bind together right, and there is a lot of noise in the system, which means that molecule signals are not always entirely present or not. The logic gates, however, can amplify or surpress this to make sure that the signals are at either 100% or 0%.

=﻿= =Week 2= =﻿ ﻿DeconGel ﻿ = During this past Thursday's class, I went online to research efficient ways of cleaning up radioactive waste. After Japan's recent crisis concerning the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant's stability, efforts have been made to clean up the radioactive waste in Japan and prevent the distribution of said waste to parts outside. I learned, through Popular Science, that a lot of radioactive waste is cleaned up simply using soap and water, though there have been alternative laser treatments as well. The issue with soap and water is that it increases the risk of the spread of the waste through soil and water and also endangers the health of workers. The issue with laser treatments is that the whole concept is based on pouring water into **porous** structures where waste may have crept inside and then by firing a laser, the water turns to steam and carries off the radioactivity. Not only does this have the potential risk of spreading the waste by air, but also this method only works well on porous structures.

However, recently a new product has been found to be much more effective in removing all of those iodine-131 and caesium-137 isotopes. It is called DeconGel. Created from a lab spill in a Hawaiian technology firm, this blue gelationus substance wraps around all particles that are foreign to its makeup and hardens over it, creating a casing that isolates the waste and prevents it from spreading. The casing is then peeled off, effectively cleaning whatever object or structure the gel was poured over. Not only did scientists find this as an effective way to clean floors, but they realized that the gel is so strong, it is capable of wrapping around radioactive particles and removing them as well. The company CBI Polymers LLC sent 100 five-gallon tubs of DeconGel to Japan to assist workers in their efforts to clean up.

== =Week 1= = BIOMUSICOLOGY = Biomusicology, as termed and coined by Nils L. Wallin, is the study of music from a biological standpoint, since music has an impact on the behavior patterns of humans and other living organisms. Biomusicology is notably utilized in tandem with therapy in a form commonly known as music therapy. Biomusicology branches off into three main fields:

//﻿Comparative Musicology (or Ethnomusicology)//

 * This week's focus will be on evolutionary musicology!**

Evolutionary Musicology
Evolutionary musicology is a branch of musicology that studies the perception of music and its relationship with reproduction and evolution, including vocal communication and musical ability/processing. The subfield began with Charles Darwin in his book entitled //The Descent of Man// (1871), where Darwin noted:

"When we treat of sexual selection we shall see that primeval man, or rather some early progenitor of man, probably first used his voice in producing true musical cadences, that is in singing, as do some of the gibbon-apes at the present day; and we may conclude from a widely-spread analogy, that this power would have been especially exerted during the courtship of the sexes,--would have expressed various emotions, such as love, jealousy, triumph,--and would have served as a challenge to rivals. It is, therefore, probable that the imitation of musical cries by articulate sounds may have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions." ﻿﻿ ﻿ ﻿ ﻿(Darwin 67)

Sadly, however, Darwin's mention of the subject went rather unnoticed for some time. Evolutionary musicology's main hypothesis is the adaptive function and phylogenetic history of music's role as an organismal psyche, predominantly concerning humans. A term most commonly associated with the hypothesis is ﻿ ﻿**musilanguage**. ﻿Musilanguage is the hypothesis of ancestral human traits that evolve into language and musical abilities. Steven Brown, the developer of musilanguage, states that musilanguage:

 "represents the view that the structural features shared by music and language are not the results of mere chance parallelism, nor are they a function of one system emerging from the other - indeed, this model [musilanguage] asserts that 'music and language are seen as reciprocal specializations of a dual-natured referential emotive communicative precursor, whereby music emphasizes sound as emotive meaning and language emphasizes sound as referential meaning.' "

Musilanguage breaks down into several main ideas known as lexical tone, combinatorial formation, and expressive phrasing.

Lexical tone is the pitch of speed as a vehicle for semantic meaning. Rooted in linguistics, lexical tone is applicable to music and musicology within not just the phrasing of melodies and rhythms in certain pieces, but also with its ties to humans' language processing. Jennifer Alexander, of Northwestern University's linguistics department, concluded through experiments that musicians do not perform better than non-musicians due to possessing an aptitude for music, but because their pitch-recognition and processing abilities are higher. This is possibly due to their interpretations of individual musical lines in context to every other line in a piece of work.

Combinatorial formation is the ability to form phrases from various tonal elements. By applying rhythms, tone, and speed to the phrasing of words, ideas can be conveyed more easily. A common example of this idea correlating between music and language is the idea that letters combine to form words and words combine to form sentences in modern languages while pitches become notes that are grouped together in musical scales and scales are used to compose a musical phrase, and then multiple phrases combine together to form a movement, and finally multiple movements combine together to form a completed classical music composition.

Expressive phrasing is emphasis on certain parts of a phrase can be added to pre-existing phrases to express emotions. The difference between this idea and combinatorial formation is that while the latter focuses on the development of these phrases themselves, expressive phrasing applies emotions and meaning to it. For example, in music, by adding various kinds of accents to notes in a line (such as a staccato, tenuto or marcato), certain ideas in the line are expressed and emotions can be derived. In language, by placing emphasis on certain words in parts of a sentence, people can interpret various emotions from others. Another example is very fast-paced talking mimics a //presto// passage in music while conversely, speaking very slowly with a deeper tone imitates //largo// musical passages.

A common display of musilanguage is the interpretation of certain sentences as sarcastic or not.

AVID (Audio-Video Intimidating Display) Model provide further exploration into musilanguage and evolution musicology. Many believe that the AVID Model is symbolic of evolution. The idea behind the AVID Model is that through music and musical application, organisms have been able to thrive over time and evolve. Examples include Native American tribes engaging in dances and battle cries in times of war to express danger and rally forces, and how some animals make noises to express their everyday activities such as eating or sleeping (i.e chicken clucking and human snoring respectively). These "noises" are made in order to prove or reject the existance of a threat and to spread the former idea to all members in a group, community, or even ecosystem. Joseph Jordania suggests that even the absence of sound is used to convey these ideas. When humans move in a group in a forest and feel threatened when hearing an unfamiliar noise, the humans suddenly stop all movement and remain silent, demonstrating that silence can be used to forewarn of danger. As a result, Jordania believes that gentle music can be used to qualm these feelings of being threatened (such as singing a lullaby to a distressed baby or child).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Perhaps maybe music does sooth the savage soul? Maybe there is a difference in pitch-processing abilities between various kinds of musicians, such as a percussionist versus a vocalist or a pianist. Maybe this understanding of musilanguage can be used to assist in further research on social disorders such as autism? What's your opinion? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">media type="youtube" key="Kq65ufWquRE" height="349" width="425" <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">For those who might have trouble getting started...listen to this excerpt from Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's //Cappricio Espagnol op. 34// and describe any personal thoughts about the piece. If you really want to...describe a certain point in the video where you feel Rimsky-Korsakov was trying to send an important idea or theme through a certain instrument or melody.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">