Rhythmic tunes trigger synchronized eyeblinks and automatic bopping or swaying, new research suggests. Read on >
Music and the mind: What the science of music reveals about cognition, emotion, and identity
When former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head in 2011, her doctors used every available tool to help her regain the ability to move and speak. Alongside speech and physical therapy, Giffords began relearning the French horn, an instrument she had played as a teenager. Music therapy helped heal the shattered connections in Giffords’s brain—a tool that she has credited with helping her reclaim her ability to speak. Read on >
Music is not a universal language...
but it can bring us together when words fail. Societies, animals and even machines have music in common. Our varied experiences of it might tell us about the origins of language. Read on >
Listening to music
Listening to music most days could guard against dementia, study suggests. A new study finds that regularly listening to music or playing a musical instrument may help older adults protect against cognitive decline. Read on >
Why do we follow trends?
What's got rabbit-like ears, huge eyes, nine teeth and a demonic grin? It’s Labubu! These ugly-cute toys have gone viral online, largely thanks to social media’s trending machine. Their fame was previously limited to China and parts of Asia, but since 2024 their popularity has grown and the dolls can now be purchased in more than 30 countries round the world.
This week, the global demand for Labubu inspired us to play around with trend-based science. Why do we find songs annoying after repeated listenings? Listen on->
Music on our minds
There are songs that can transport us to memorable moments from our past, especially from our adolescence. Those memories are often vivid, conjuring up intense feelings about a first love, a broken heart, a shared experience with friends. Music, even just a few notes, has a way of unlocking forgotten events and relationships, creating a soundtrack for our lives. Listen here->
How music can be used as medicine
Music has the power to evoke a wide range of emotions.. It can make us feel melancholy. Or it can fill us with hope.
Music is often tangled up with memories and experiences, too. There’s probably a playlist you associate with every stage of life — from the music that helped you through high school, to the song that reminds you of a lost loved one. Listen here ->
World Science Festival: Cool Jobs
Some music makes you dance and other music makes you cry. Watch on >
COVID-19 strikes discordant note
As live shows disappear, singers and musicians are using tech and social media to entertain an unprecedentedly large audience. Read on >
Stewart Copeland's Adventures in Music
Stewart Copeland explores the transcendental powers of music and how certain sounds have the ability to move us, transport the mind and even help us escape this world - if only briefly. Watch ->
Tis the Earworm
he day after Halloween it starts: the ubiquitous and relentless drone of holiday music. It’s likely infesting your brain. But help is on the way! How earworms get into your brain and how to get them out. Listen here >
Perceptions of Musical Octaves Are Learned, Not Wired in the Brain
In the lowlands of Bolivia, the most isolated of the Tsimané people live in communities without electricity; they don’t own televisions, computers or phones, and even battery-powered radios are rare. Read on >
How Silence Makes the Music
One of the most arresting objects on display in the musical instruments galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a 2,000-year-old bell from Japan that was built to be mute. Read on >
How to Get Rid of an Earworm
An earworm expert explains how to unstick that song that’s stuck in your head, and why it got lodged there in the first place. Read on >
How Sound Becomes Music
Music plays many roles. It can awe a concert hall full of adoring fans, woo a would-be lover, or soothe a fussing child — and psychological scientists are discovering just how deep our connection with this intimate art form goes. Read on >
From Funerals To Festivals, The Curious Journey Of The 'Adagio For Strings'
Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is one of the most recognizable pieces of classical music in the world. It's become America's semi-official music for mourning, used at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's funeral and after JFK's assassination. But somewhere along the way, it went from an anthem of sadness to one of joy. Read on ->
Sad songs, explained
It only takes a few notes of Sarah MacLachlan’s “Angel” over images of homeless dogs and cats to trigger our tear ducts. Heartbreaking visuals aside, what makes the song itself so sad? What is it musically about a song that makes it sound sad? Hosts Nahre Sol and LA Buckner hear from experts and break down the components of sad-sounding music, creating their own somber composition. Read on >
