September 17th, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
The Violin Player was originally created as a performance text, cheapest to be spoken aloud.
The substance of the text is concerned with the nature of performance, the history and language of music, acoustics, musicianship, the evolution of music, and sound perception.
The Violin Player was first presented in 1991 at Vanderbilt Hall, Harvard University.
View the text:Â The Violin Player
photo credit: Christian Gaser
September 17th, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
Harvard Museum of Natural History
NEW EXHIBITION: Language of Color
Opening Friday, September 26
Whether it’s the brilliant blue wings of a butterfly, the scarlet feathers of a tanager, or the stripes of a zebra, animals display color in vastly different ways and for different reasons. This exhibit combines dramatic specimens from across the animal kingdom with computer interactives, hands-on activities, and a stunning display of live dart frogs. Visitors will learn how color and its perception have co-evolved, resulting in a complex and diverse palette used to camouflage, startle predators, mimic other animals, attract a mate, or intimidate a rival. Through September 6, 2009.
Exhibition Opening lecture by Dr. Hopi Hoekstra
Nature’s Palette: the Biological Significance of Color
Thursday, Sept. 25, 6:00 pm.Free and open to the public.
The range of colors we see in nature is striking and beautiful, and it also drives how plants and animals communicate with one another.  With examples of her own research on the genetic architecture of rodents, Hopi Hoekstra, Associate Professor of Natural Sciences and Curator of Mammals in Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, will discuss the many ways that color is made, used and perceived  — and why that’s where the true elegance and ingenuity of natural selection lies.
Harvard Museum of Natural History
26 Oxford Street Cambridge, MAÂ 02138
July 21st, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
well, approved of course it did. Read more.
May 1st, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
“By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON – The happy babbling that entertains parents as their babies try to mimic speech turns out to have a parallel in the animal world. Baby birds babble away before mastering their adult song, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.”