I loved this week’s session about physics and music, despite the fact that I was not naturally keen on the physics of musical instruments. This lecture by Professor Ducas reminded me of the physics labs I had taken in high school – we definitely had a session with strobe lights and seeing harmonics. One of the questions that was frequently brought up in that course was: “If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”. I learned in this lecture that the answer, from a physics point of view, is “yes.”
As someone who is not musically trained, I found the physics of instruments intriguing. Wind and Brass, String, the Piano, and Voice – these four groups of instruments, although physically different, all play notes and chords. However, as mentioned in the reading, they have different tonal qualities that appeal differently to different listeners. I prefer the piano and guitar, along with non-operatic singing.
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When I was in elementary school, there was a lot of talk about mad cow disease. At that time, I did not know what exactly it was. All I heard was what was on the news – that it was a brain-eating disease that you could get from eating cow products, especially the parts with the bone and bone marrow. For a while, I did not eat beef. It came up again in middle school when I was visiting Korea – people were protesting against the import of American beef. However, the noise surrounding that issue subsided, and I did not hear about mad cow disease after. Little did I know that I would learn about it at Wellesley.
The scientific name for mad cow disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy. When found in humans, it is also known as a variant of Creuzfeldt-Jacob disease. It spread among cows as they were fed the remains of infected cows. Humans began to contract the disease by eating the infected animal. Although it was commonly believed that as long as one avoided the brain, spinal cord, and organs, one was safe, that is not true. According to a paper published by Dr. Ramasamy, the infected prion protein can be found in virtually all parts of the body, not just the nervous system. This finding makes me a bit uncomfortable consuming beef – I may have to rethink my choices.
I Ramasamy, M Law, S Collins, F Brook (April 2003). “Organ distribution of prion proteins in variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease”. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 3 (4): 214–222.
Ah, I remember when the mad cow disease “epidemic” was prevalent in Korea. Everybody was going crazy, and the purchase of beef dropped significantly. Luckily, this “epidemic” subsided and people went back to daily life again, but it is frightening to think that we had the idea wrong about consuming only parts of the organs to contradict it. Imagine if people in Korea had known about the prion protein theory that Dr. Ramasamy posted–Korea would have gone even crazier.
Yes I remember this happening as well. News of mad cow disease has subsided, but I wonder if there are still cases of mad cow disease cropping up around the world. It is unsettling to think what infected food particles cows are eating and how we could end up getting this disease.