How old is Singing.?
20,000yrs..? 50,000yrs?
Truth is nobody knows, but we have a friend who came upon a bone flute in Slovenia thought to be 40,000yrs old. If you've ever tried playing the flute you'd soon figure it a lot more complex than singing.. which kinda tells how singing is older than 40,000yrs and do I mean by a lot, like 200,000yrs. So, let's be reasonable and say singing is likely 250,000 yrs old.
Now--no---I'm not about to suggest this is the reason Wellington's Orpheus choir :-) was not only the first in the world to sing Requiem in commemoration first anniversary 9/11 and to do so more than willingly and handsomely in congregant-to-cathedral (art) style [truth is I can't be sure NZ's been above the waterline all that time, tho I could assert quite fairly that this choir's voices did not sound fishy--not one bit!!)
Okay, back to the serious stuff now, this is a science thing, a cognitive science thing.. And specifically whether we humans are 'hardwired' for singing or find it acquired? Not a bad question, huh, specially when guys like Stevie Pinker pop the oral---music is 'auditory cheesecake' and we get out kicks from it by way an auditory system and brain evolved for other reasons. Yeah, that's what he said, and it's not too polemic to say in response he's hollering the obvious into that big time lag we know so little about in where exactly skills, sensitivities and so on fitted in whatever sequence makes for evolution anyways. Then again lets be charitable--is he saying hardwired for something else got left behind and the new deal is whatta we gotta today? If he is then he'll get on well with David Huron
So much for argument.. next the science and Laurel Trainor
Which for this kind of thing does not need the musical. It does need the amusical. Why? Because the purpose of the science is to find that link between response and auditory input. And the way to design this is through music structure. Specifically used were 'pitch'(high/low frequency) and 'pitch interval' (the difference twixt high & low. So, Laurel studied subjects listening to auditory patterns containing both properties and observed Event-Related brain Potentials(ERPs). These potentials show the brain registering differences between expected stimulus and the unexpected one heard. For non-musicians the results show how encoding of the sound properties(pitch and pitch interval) is automatic.
All to do with your physiology folks. Music's connoiseurs know the influence on psyche and emotions of musical content: with it go physiological reactions like BP, breathing, temperature, and at a 'higher level', tears, 'lump' in the throat, shivers. And now, wouldn't you know hitech's in the act--neuro-imaging with MRI shows increased activity in brain areas accompany positive emotive experience..
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The Congress of Neuro-Endocrinolgy(subject: biochemistry of nervous systems and apps arising) Conference is coming this week. We'll be there to sort and report consumer newsworthies.
Meantime..

National Institute of Standards and Technology chemists researching plastic microsystems say biochips in your future are very likely.
Lab-on-a-chip systems are miniaturized chemical and biochemical analyzers for quick and low cost tests. Presently they are a glass apparatus but plastics are on the way
. Technical issues are how do fluids flow in plastic microchannels and accurately measuring fluid temperatures--to ensure correct chemical reactions--is another. A technique for sustaining ionic properties of solutions at nanolitres(=billionth litre) volumes is critical.Brilliant laser micro-engineering on microchannel walls has given a basis for mixing solutions within such tiny systems.

And some entertaining reading.
Keeping My (Differently-Sized) Eyes On You.
People with asymmetrical bodies are more likely to be jealous lovers, notes Alison Motluk in this unusual report.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992698
PS: We wondered what it was about Brad Pitt that ravers go for :-)
And then Reuters came in with this.. for the guys.. about other guys..
Stunning new research reveals that men don't like being compared to buff, muscled hunks..
http://www.reuters.com news_article.jhtml?type=healthnews&StoryID=1373713
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Talk about surprise! China has made very strong noises about signing up to Kyoto. Meaning to say they are at least willing to cut their industrial profile as 'major polluter'. Which leaves another major polluter - USA - following room. Though, of course, wouldn't its lead be preferable. Hunan province in China has a million people and soldiers mobilised against likely flooding from a big lake overspill there. Radio news carried a beeb reporter at the site Friday saying the rain had stopped and skies were blue. Trouble was inflow rivers still had something more to do. Let us PRAY with humble hearts that things hold and abate. Drowned is an awful fate. President Carduso of Brazil signed a decree making Tumucumaque Mountains a National Park. The world's largest tropical terrain and virginal rainforest. Great! And WOW! are we pleased Norway scrapped its experiment to dump liquid carbon dioxide on deep ocean seafloors. A Long Island utility is into wind farm energy platforms at sea. Lettus hope it remains nice to sit beside the seaside for folks there :-). President Bush felt enabled to speak of his neighbours in a radio clip and without the slightest hint of hypocrisy convey a belief that thinning saplings and scarifying undergrowth was a good way to go on the environment. Pity he didn't think of this before the forest fires! And the Wall Street Journal is resplendent with a headline behind the US Admin's call to Africans acceptance of biotech food--else how can one believe they are starving! Do they have to be starving before eating it? The US National Association of Sciences(NAS) has come out with its 'negative review' on biotech animals R&D--this required they scrutinise the risks not benefits--and resulted in a "mild to moderate" overall risk level. Which, they sensibly say, will require a precautionary approach to the accumulation of knowledge. Meanwhile from Switzerland news of the WHO is that risk is unlikely from gene-altered foods. Last word for now: that a firm call exists at Earth Summit II to address poverty. Agreed despite Worldbank worries that social and environmental considerations will impede economic growth.
Obit: We mourn with http://www.earthjustice.org the loss of brilliant wildlife photographers Galen Rowell and his wife Barbara. Take a moment to remember them and their exquisite work: http://ga0.org/ct/qpzK2JY1jPJ2/
Week's choice Link:http://www.xanga.com/home.asp?user=poirosplanet
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A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall.
Last week we recorded how a rise in temperature would increase microbial decomposition in peaty(acid) soil forest floors and carbon dioxide emissions from it.
This week work undertaken by Manfred Boelter, Institute for Polar Ecology at the University of Kiel in Germany, explores the very significant Arctic Tundra region and its central role in global ecology over the next decade.
The region is 5.7 million sq.kms, over fifty per cent of it in Siberia. 98 per cent of this ecosystem is locked up in its soil. Mainly peat bogs. Presently a carbon sink, the 1.5 degrees C average increase in temperature predicted would increase permafrost loss and turn this into a net emitter of GHG. In turn, this would raise the temp more and with it metabolic activity of microfauna.
Boelter's specialty research is in deep-layer microbial activity. Until his work only estimates existed. Alarm bells will likely ring if he is ignored. Why? Answer: because he has proven that D-L microbes produce ten times more carbon per sq.m per day than earlier estimates told. What's more the tundra soil acts as a trap (or sink) to retain this until mosses slowly release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in their life cycle.
Warm and dry here, he says, will have little added effect. The big danger - and do we know what else water has been doing around the place this past wee while - is waterlogged. Instead of carbon dioxide the GHG emitted will be worse. Methane.
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AIR POLLUTION RISKS EXERCISE-INDUCED HEART DAMAGE
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/07 020730075756.htm
Breathing polluted air, especially smoky exhaust that billows from factory smokestacks and the tailpipes of some diesel-powered buses and trucks, is bad for people with heart disease, according to the first study of its kind reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
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