Simpleology Blog

We've all been told that music soothes the soul. But I never really thought it could inspire groundbreaking developments in science--at least not in any way that I thought was possible.

This was why I was all ears when the subject of genetic codes set to music came up.

In their quest to make life easier for fellow scientists who had vision problems, Rie Takahasi and Professor Jeffrey Miller of the University of California decided to inject some rhythm into genome biology or the study of genes.

To put it simply, Takahashi and Miller came up with their music by assigning notes to amino acids. In 2007, it was reported that the duo were piloting a computer program with the help of collaborator Frank Pettit.

The said program aims to use Takahashi and Miller's genome translation rules to convert amino acids into sound. This way, vision-impaired scientists don't have to rely on elaborate diagrams of genome segments to interpret research data.

With this development underway, it won't be long before scientists gather data from genome music alone. They wouldn't need to go through mind-boggling charts and models to identify gene defects. In this sense, they can literally save lives through music.

I bet that sounds great to them.

Credits: Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Suggested Resource: Are you into making music that matters? Sign up for Simpleology's music promotion course so you'll know how to put it out there and, perhaps, be heard by people who want to use the art of sound to make a difference.