In full swing
The swaying feeling in jazz music that compels ft to faucet might come up from near-imperceptible delays in musicians’ timing, Nikk Ogasa reported in “Jazz gets its swing from small, subtle delays” (SN: 11/19/22, p. 5).
Reader Oda Lisa, a self-described intermediate saxophonist, has seen these refined delays whereas enjoying.“I recorded my ‘jazzy’ model of a beloved Christmas carol, which I despatched to a pal of mine,” Lisa wrote. “She praised my effort total, however she urged that I get a metronome as a result of the timing wasn’t constant. My response was that I’m a slave to the rhythm that I hear in my head. I feel now I do know why.”
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Murky definitions and measurements impede social science analysis, Sujata Gupta reported in “Fuzzy definitions mar social science” (SN: 11/19/22, p. 10).
Reader Linda Ferrazzara discovered the story thought-provoking. “If there’s no consensus on the phrases individuals use … then there may be no productive dialogue or dialog. Individuals find yourself speaking and dealing at cross-purposes with no mutual understanding or progress,” Ferrazzara wrote.
Fly me to the moon
Area businesses are getting ready to ship the subsequent era of astronauts to the moon and past. These crews shall be extra various in background and experience than the crews of the Apollo missions, Lisa Grossman reported in “Who gets to go to space?” (SN: 12/3/22, p. 20).
“It’s nice to see a broader recognition of the work being performed to make spaceflight open to extra individuals,” reader John Allen wrote. “Future house journey will and should accommodate a inhabitants that represents humanity. It received’t be straightforward, however will probably be performed.”
The story additionally reminded Allen of the Gallaudet Eleven, a bunch of deaf adults who participated in analysis performed by NASA and the U.S. Navy within the Nineteen Fifties and ’60s. Experiments examined how the volunteers responded (or didn’t) to a spread of situations that may usually induce movement illness, equivalent to a ferry journey on uneven seas. Learning how the physique’s sensory techniques work with out the same old gravitational cues from the interior ear allowed scientists to higher perceive movement illness and the human physique’s adaptation to spaceflight.
Candy goals are fabricated from this
A memory-enhancing technique that makes use of sound cues might increase a longtime therapy for debilitating nightmares, Jackie Rocheleau reported in “Learning trick puts nightmares to bed” (SN: 12/3/22, p. 11).
Reader Helen Leaver shared her trick to a superb night time’s sleep: “I discovered that I used to be having robust disagreeable adventures whereas sleeping, and I might awaken scorching and sweaty. By eliminating the quantity of warmth from bedding and an electrically heated mattress pad, I now sleep nicely with out these nightmares.”
Pest views
In “Why do we hate pests?” (SN: 12/3/22, p. 26), Deborah Balthazar interviewed former Science Information Explores employees author Bethany Brookshire about her new e-book, Pests. The e-book argues that people — influenced by tradition, class, colonization and way more — create animal villains.
The article prompted reader Doug Clapp to replicate on what he considers pests or weeds. “A weed is a plant within the mistaken place, and a pest is an animal within the mistaken place,” Clapp wrote. However what’s thought of “mistaken” depends upon the people who’ve energy over the place, he famous. “Grass in a garden could be a superb factor. Grass in a backyard choking the greens I’m making an attempt to develop turns into a weed. Mice within the wild don’t trouble me. Discipline mice migrating into my home when the climate cools grow to be a pest, particularly once they eat into my meals and go away feces behind,” Clapp wrote.
The article inspired Clapp to have a look at pests via a societal lens: “I had by no means considered pests when it comes to high-class or low-class. Likewise, the residual implications of [colonization]. Thanks for scary me to contemplate a few of these points in a broader context.”