Sound Science
Sound Science aims to explain the scientific principles of sound to an eleven year-old. The basic physics of sound waves and the basic biophysics of hearing are covered.
SOUND SCIENCE
To understand a sound
and how it behaves,
you must have a working knowledge
of the theory of waves.
Listen to these sound waves
and soon you’ll have found,
sound science in the science of sound.
CHORUS:
A sound is a pressure wave moving in air.
Catching the wave is the job of the ear.
Each note wiggles a tiny hair,
and that’s how people hear.
A second definition of a sound would be
the way that it’s interpreted in biology.
Sound waves, transduction, electricity,
score a hundo P and sing along with me.
(CHORUS)
Track a wave and you will see
sound waves move at a certain speed.
Their velocity equals 343 (meters/second),
but 5 times faster for a whale in the sea.
A sound is a wave of a special kind
where wiggling and wave motion are aligned.
Other waves wiggle to the side instead
but sound waves wiggle
pointing straight ahead.
Ooh ooh sound wave (x3) that’s how people…
Hearing is complex, so here we go.
Hair cell channels do something
that you should know.
Stretching while they wiggle is what hair cells do.
Channels open up and let some ions through.
Ions are electric so the sound waves change
into electric signals as they enter the brain.
And that is how we hear sounds like this song.
Just think about those signals as you sing along.
(CHORUS x2)
BIG QUESTION
BIG QUESTION
Big question, what could it be,
completes the essence of reality?
Well… ask free with liberty.
It’s not enough to just say so.
Faith won’t do, we got to know…
CHORUS:
Why? Why does it look this way?
Pretty things in nature,
look pretty for functional reasons.
Awww… How? How did we get here?
Our planet is a lonely spec in the
great, enveloping cosmic dark.
Big question, got to face:
where we going with the human race?
Well… ask how it’s going to be.
It doesn’t have to be this way so
stand up and let me hear you say:
(CHORUS)
Big question,
aim to shock.
This boat was meant to rock. Yeah!
Ask out of the
comfort zone.
Take a step into the great unknown
and ask…
(I want to be a scientist.)
Dr. Dan, Science Man
Whitney Houston sang “I believe the children are our future.” This translation of that statement is meant to continue the sentiment begun in the previous track, Big Question and empower and excite the next generation of enquiring minds.
DR. DAN, SCIENCE MAN
This is really exciting
It’s exciting to ask why. Why? Why? Why?
I’m inviting you, just try. Mua-ha-ha, aw yeah.
It’s exciting to ask how. How? How? How?
I’m inviting you, ask now. Aww…. Dr. Dan!
A hypothesis is a potential explanation
for an observation. Science man!
Science is the most powerful tool for
understanding nature. Dr. Dan!
Form a hypothesis, test your hypothesis!
Whoo hoo. Science Man! Just give it a shot,
and you will see: It’s exciting to ask why.
Why does the earth orbit the sun?
I’m inviting you just try. Mua-ha-ha.
It’s exciting to ask how.
How does it work?
I’m inviting you,
Ask now. Dr. Dan, Science Man.
Peer Review
The translation of the peer review process into hip-hop rhetoric with an overtone of the Bestie Boys won’t come through until the last verse of this track. Meanwhile, there are some in-your-face science fireworks.
PEER REVIEW
review, that’s peer review (x4).
Come on everybody let’s get along, (h’uh!)
we can all groove to the science song. (yeah!)
Plugging along, we be going strong,
with a scientific method
you can’t go wrong now.
It’s only human to make mistakes
and curiosity is the great escape.
You be playing games and developing tricks.
Add logic and now you got the powerful mix.
(What’s up!)
(extendedCHORUS)
Cause we’re going insane we got to maintain,
so ditch the fears and whip out the brains.
Playing it cool, I always got the equation:
analytical tools for every occasion.
Cause sucker MC’s always hyping up smack
but the math says their data’s all whack.
I give them the rap of reality.
Gotta break it down scientifically.
(CHORUS)
Dark Matter
Dark matter is a mysterious cosmic entity. What is it? Where could it be? The intrigue is at a fever pitch. Everybody rock out, it’s dark, and it MATTERS!
Dark Matter
Dark matter, dark matter holds it all together
if you say it don’t matter well…
dark matter is the matter that you can’t see.
Dark matter, dark matter,
make my universe six times fatter.
Eyes closed when I feel your gravity,
your darkness matters to me.
Edgar Allen Poe feeding the id,
reminiscent of something Rembrandt did,
yeah, dark matter is a matter of fact
cause visible things interact with…
Dark matter,
dark matter gotta be there from
what we’ve gathered since 1934
postulated by Fritz Zwicky
Dark matter, it’s a dark, dark matter.
You’re gonna make a WIMP’s
heart just shatter when you
force a change in rotation of a galaxy,
your darkness matters to me.
Blackout time like a sonic boom.
Door flies open when you enter the room.
Halo of darkness, you know it ain’t right
when your dark power’s gonna bend the light.
Black lipstick and raven wings,
observing your effect on visible things.
Background glow with anisotropy,
indirect proof but where can you be?!
You’re my… Dark matter, dark matter,
matter of fact, you’re gonna
make my brain scatter.
Obfuscated in physical mystery,
dark matter matters to me.
Inter-cranial Data Transfer
Eventually, the angst of human romance will resolve with neural bridging sometime in the future. For now all we can do is stare into the eyes of the ones we love, wondering about their neuronal mysteries. Will intracranial data transfer ever become inter-cranial data transfer?
Inter-cranial Data Transfer
I’m bored and blind,
but if I could see your mind,
I’d read it all the time.
I’m stuck inside mine.
My heart is breaking without your
intracranial data transfer.
CHORUS:
When you call my name
I only hear what you say.
Look into each other’s eyes,
we’re never going all the way.
Behind those eyes,
the neurons fire away,
and I long to have a word
with them some day.
Neural circuits do govern what you do
and what you’re feeling too.
(I wonder what you’re feeling.)
I only wish I knew (wish I knew),
oh, cause if I did we might just get more
inter-cranial data transfer.
(CHORUS)
So lonely inside me, bioelectricity.
And it’s lonely inside you,
we let the nervous feeling brew.
I want to feel what you see,
adapt synapses plastically
and build a neural bridge with you. Ooooh.
(CHORUS x2)
Sines and Cosines
Simple harmonic motion is everywhere. Sines and Cosines cites several important examples of cycles. Concepts of frequency and amplitude are implied musically for phenomena in the world around us.
Sines and Cosines
S=O/H C=A/H T=O/A
The rhythm of the seasons,
the beating of wings, the ebb and flow,
the too and fro in - oh so many - things.
The moon above, cyclic love,
planets circle around.
Simple harmonic motion
is everywhere to be found.
CHORUS:
Sine me, cosine you,
we repeat things we do.
Sine me, cosine you,
we repeat things we do.
Yeah…
The pop and lock in the way you rock,
I wanted you to stay
but the tick and the tock in the way you
walked away the other day.
Vaporize, fall from the skies
take a river back to the sea.
Broken ties I’ll imagine your eyes
until you come back to me.
(CHORUS x3)
Sharks
A rock-umentary of our ocean’s top predator, Sharks is a song that was meant to thrash and chomp. Listen for the electricity in the musical interlude, representing the lateral line, a super human sense that allows them to feel electricity sensitively.
Sharks
Ooh, oh. Living in the ocean, all seven seas,
sensing prey a mile away,
the drop of blood will tease.
High atop the food chain,
without cancer in their way.
The fate they find on a hook and line
is a threat sharks face today.
And it’s day, night, day, night,
sharks must always swim.
With a left, right, left, right, rhythm of a fin.
The ferocious bite of shark teeth
complements the burn of their abrasive skin.
Sharks (X12), they’ve been around so long.
Sharks (X10), there’s something going on!
Sharks (X12), they’ve been around so long.
Sharks (X10), there’s something going on!
And it’s day, night, day, night,
sharks must always swim.
With a left, right, left, right, rhythm of a fin.
The ferocious bite of shark teeth
complements the burn of their abrasive skin.
LASERs
The word laser is an acronym: L.A.S.E.R. Learn what it stands for with this song, LASERs.
LASERs
CHORUS: Light amplification,
stimulated emission of radiation (X4)
A population inversion
means photonic coercion.
Power addition by stimulated emission.
This brilliant gain,
it came from Einstein’s brain.
It was 1917 when he hatched the scheme.
Superposition, it’s plain to see
the wave part of this duality.
You can do it in a resonating cavity
like Maimen did back around 1960.
(CHORUS)
Pump electron clouds with energy,
the photons say,”Energy, come go with me.”
Cloned photons are instantly born
and the group marches on, and on and on.
Walking in step at the speed of light,
though at rest infinitely light.
Their relativistic momentum rocks.
Thinking about light is so outside the box.
Optical components, aligned in a maze,
figure it out and you can get them to lase.
A point source of light, focused infinitely far.
Monochromatic, Yeah, it’s a L-A-S-E-R
… stands for
(CHORUS)
Valence Electron Blues
From the point of view of an atom who is missing an electron, the human emotive suggestions of tracks 6 & 7 don’t really cut it. Valence Electron Blues get’s at the relevant issue: charge imbalance.
Valence Electron Blues
Woah, atomic clock is ticking
and that’s just about all the news.
I gots ta find me another atom
with a negative charge to lose.
I got a bad case of,
the Valence Electron Blues.
Ion affinity got the best of me and now
I gotta fill up my S and P (orbitals that is).
My electro-negativity dreams of stability
and your opposite charge is the rest of me.
Oh, I beg down on my knees
no time to choose:
Valence Electron Blues.
Oh please won’t you be my donor,
you know I’ve paid my dues.
If I could bond with a complementary partner,
we’d be getting rave reviews.
I’ve got a hole to fill,
I’ve been consoled but still,
got these Valence Electron Blues.
Now I’m not a loner no more,
She likes my positive cation attitude.
Satisfactory action, zero net charge
and electrons by the twos.
H’uh, isn’t it ionic no more
Valence Electron Blues.
IQ
The most beautiful organ in the human body is not the hand writing delicate calligraphy, it is the brain. This direct attack on the promiscuous lifestyle of teenagers conveys the prerequisite understanding that looks aren’t everything.
IQ
Boom, oh yeah, do it mathematically.
What you want? One, two, IQ!
CHORUS:
Ohh girl I like it like that when you’re
punching calculators
and your data’s all PHAT.
Yeah boy, it turns me on when you
hit the math and
work it till the break of dawn.
Yeah we up in the club with
people bumping their booty,
acting dumb as a brick
so I put them off duty.
Please, you’re so dirty trying to
get you freak on but
nerdy’s so hot right now,
let’s see you get your geek on.
Just before the night was through,
she come up out of the blue,
she hit me with the 1-2.
Her IQ wrecked the whole damn crew,
got the hizzo hopping like a kangaroo. She said,
“If you want to pick my combination lock
you better use your brain not your.
I choose a boy with analytical skill,
2-bit hustlers, y’all best go chill.
If you want to penetrate my boundary layer,
reduce your turbulence and
fit these curves like a player,
I’m looking for intellectual thrills,
find my Reynolds number
and maybe we can chill.”
Now I ain’t no fool so I said, “It’d be cool
if maybe we could study
some day after school.”
I got real nervous,
I started to fidget
but she got data acquisition:
“just give me your digits, boy.”
(CHORUS)
So I spent a day or two thinking damn she fine,
forget the pants I got to get inside her mind,
she’s so sexy cause she’s so smart.
She making girl technology like state of the art.
Then Monday rolls around
and it’s back to school.
She’s rocking the scene
I mean home boy’s drooling.
Pick your jaw up off the floor, come on,
respect is what this situation calls for.
I raised my hand at the head of the class,
P*V=N*R*T that’s an ideal gas.
“Very good, that’s right”
is what the teacher said
but then she hit me with the text:
“I think you might have misread.”
You see you can’t assume this equation scales
if it’s wicked cool the ideal gas law fails.
Let’s hit the books we can cover the bases.
Swing by tonight, I will
teach you the special cases.”
(CHORUS x2)
Sun
The equator has sunshine, photosynthesis, tropical islands and reggae music. This song was written on the island of St. John.
Sun
Dancing in the sun, black body radiation.
Feeling the love of Jah (ooh, Jah)
beam down onto the Rasta (Natty Dreadlock).
Electromagnetic love,
propagating from space above.
Solar power rock the Casbah (rock it mon).
Fourteen hundred Watts per square meter.
CHORUS:
Woah yeah look up to the sun.
Help me sing this song,
it’s the heliocentric one.
We singing oh yeah, look up to the sun.
Won’t you help me sing this song,
it’s the heliocentric one.
Cannot overestimate your worth,
illuminating half of earth.
Make a beautiful rainbow
and photosynthesis make the coconut grow.
You lash out with your solar flares,
been doing it four point six billion years.
You’re older than my grandpa.
I hope you never go supernova so I sing to you.
(CHORUS)
From up above you’re giving more
I pay respect to you oh sun.
Cause I know inside your core
you got the nuclear reaction.
(1/2 CHORUS)
You ask: how big is the sun?
Well it’s 99% of our solar system.
I love the big ball of plasma in the sky and
Jah Rastafari!
(CHORUS)
The Data Say
People’s inability to grasp simple scientific results, or the unwillingness to accept future implications, isn’t helping stop climate change. When a scientist says there’ a 98% chance of doom with a 1% uncertainty, don’t interpret that as “Scientists are uncertain.”
The Data Say
Take it away with me, forget your policy.
It ain’t cool pissing in our pool,
better listen to what I say.
In the situation room, models spell doom.
Ecological disaster,
whole thing gonna go BOOM.
CHORUS:
Well, read what the graphs say, better
learn to extrapolate,
it’s gonna be hot in here
(it’s getting hot in here),
our biosphere (biosphere).
Money and corporate greed
choke us and bring the heat.
Gotta keep it cool baby,
or the data say we’re gonna pay.
Some once said global
warming was not for sure,
but now climate instability be killing the poor.
1-2-3 Doubt ain’t uncertainty,
amiss in self destruction is a
terrible way to be.
Don’t tell me “relax” when it’s clear to see…
pollution from your tailpipe, you
better kneel down and kiss the tree and…
Take it away with me, just take away the seed.
Koyannasquatsi ain’t free, got to pay the fee.
(CHORUS)
Bling It On
It’s no secret, hip-hop artists like the bling-bling. This song suggests a diamond alternative that is optically way cooler.
Bling It On
Boom, oh yeah, do it mathematically.
What you want? One, two, IQ!
CHORUS:
Ohh girl I like it like that when you’re
punching calculators
and your data’s all PHAT.
Yeah boy, it turns me on when you
hit the math and
work it till the break of dawn.
Yeah we up in the club with
people bumping their booty,
acting dumb as a brick
so I put them off duty.
Please, you’re so dirty trying to
get you freak on but
nerdy’s so hot right now,
let’s see you get your geek on.
Just before the night was through,
she come up out of the blue,
she hit me with the 1-2.
Her IQ wrecked the whole damn crew,
got the hizzo hopping like a kangaroo. She said,
“If you want to pick my combination lock
you better use your brain not your.
I choose a boy with analytical skill,
2-bit hustlers, y’all best go chill.
If you want to penetrate my boundary layer,
reduce your turbulence and
fit these curves like a player,
I’m looking for intellectual thrills,
find my Reynolds number
and maybe we can chill.”
Now I ain’t no fool so I said, “It’d be cool
if maybe we could study
some day after school.”
I got real nervous,
I started to fidget
but she got data acquisition:
“just give me your digits, boy.”
(CHORUS)
So I spent a day or two thinking damn she fine,
forget the pants I got to get inside her mind,
she’s so sexy cause she’s so smart.
She making girl technology like state of the art.
Then Monday rolls around
and it’s back to school.
She’s rocking the scene
I mean home boy’s drooling.
Pick your jaw up off the floor, come on,
respect is what this situation calls for.
I raised my hand at the head of the class,
P*V=N*R*T that’s an ideal gas.
“Very good, that’s right”
is what the teacher said
but then she hit me with the text:
“I think you might have misread.”
You see you can’t assume this equation scales
if it’s wicked cool the ideal gas law fails.
Let’s hit the books we can cover the bases.
Swing by tonight, I will
teach you the special cases.”
(CHORUS x2)
Universe Groove
The universe is big. It’s easy to feel small … but not with science. Universe Groove is a happy, feel-good hit that has all the rock-and-roll pizazz of Dark Matter, but without the darkness.
Universe Groove
Look out at the stars, I wonder where we are.
How we got here in this life we hold dear.
Feeling so small in the face of it all,
but science of the universe
is breaking through the wall.
The big bang: it happened so long ago
(13.8 billion years).
Inflation taught the universe how to grow
(28 billion parsecs).
Throughout the entire cosmos, there is
intrinsic outward expansion.
Spiraling inertia, and some repulsive force
of unknown nature.
The Hubble Space Telescope peers back,
thirteen point two billion light years.
Planets, stars, galaxies and the
contents of intergalactic space.
In this nebulous continuum of life,
we are all one with stardust.
In this nebulous continuum of life,
we are all one with stardust.
The cosmos is rocking
to the Universe Groove.
And we got the relic glow as proof
that it all began with a birth of mass,
then a white-hot fog of plasma and gas.
Elegan Model
Elegan Model puts a scientific spin on Cascabel, by Martin Zarzar. The neuro-science of simple model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans for short), provides stunning insights representing only the beginning of neuroscience today.
Elegan Model
Hmm, simple worm, crawling in a dish:
you’re the perfect model
for my scientific wish!
Simple worm, simple worm, crawling in a dish.
You’re the perfect model
for my scientific wish. (3,4)
Simple worm, simple worm,
you cannot do much.
No higher order function
but you’ve got cryophilic touch.
Crawling to the left, crawling to the right,
crawling to a temperature
where you can feel all right.
Crawl away from acid, crawl away from base,
hitch a ride with NASA to
crawl around in space.
Simple worm, simple worm,
crawling in a dish. (3,4)
You’re the perfect model
for my scientific wish.
Simple worm, simple worm,
I wonder what you think
I’ve tagged 300 neurons
with calcium-sensing ink.
Imaging your thoughts,
neuron-letter words. (3,4)
Elegan simplicity, synchronize the nerds.
I’ll be imaging your thoughts to learn your
neuron-letter words.
We need elegan simplicity to
synchronize the nerds.
Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star
In this scientific reproduction of the children’s classic by Mozart and Charles Bradlee, sound scientific lyrics give the kiddies something they can hold onto in adult life.
Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
how I wonder what you were.
Atmosphere refracted ray,
turbulence making light beams stray.
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
I still wonder what you were.
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
I will find out what you were.
Atoms make Fraunhofer lines,
fingerprint them in my mind.
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
now I know just what you were.
Twinkle, twinkle little star
how I wonder what you are.
I see your distant past today,
so many light years far away.
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
how I wonder what you are
IQ Reprise
The Blue Massive Dub Mix produced by Jay Sustain. Play this track often at parties.