Daniel Lev­itin, in This Is Your Brain On Music, sug­gests the fol­low­ing sound exper­i­ment. Sit­u­ate your­self some­place where you can close your eyes and focus on the sounds around you. When you open your eyes, write down each sound you heard and the object that made that sound. If you are in a rel­a­tively quiet spot, try this exper­i­ment the next time you are in a more sound-rich environment.

I began this arti­cle while Read the rest of this entry »

A Leap for All Life: World’s Lead­ing Sci­en­tists Announce Cre­ation of Ency­clo­pe­dia of Life (a data­base of all liv­ing things)

Press Release: Bio­di­ver­sity, Sci­ence Com­mu­ni­ties Unite Behind Epic Effort To Pro­mote Bio­di­ver­sity, Doc­u­ment All 1.8 Mil­lion Named Species on Planet

• WASHINGTON (May 9, 2007) – Many of the world’s lead­ing sci­en­tific insti­tu­tions today announced the launch of the Ency­clo­pe­dia of Life, an unprece­dented global effort to doc­u­ment all 1.8 mil­lion named species of ani­mals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the his­tory of the planet, sci­en­tists, stu­dents, and cit­i­zens will have multi-media access to all known liv­ing species, even those that have just been discovered.
• Over the next 10 years, the Ency­clo­pe­dia of Life will cre­ate Inter­net pages for Read the rest of this entry »