Topic description and stories

A man playing a bonang

Pythagoras was wrong: there are no universal musical harmonies, study finds

27 Feb 2024

The tone and tuning of musical instruments has the power to manipulate our appreciation of harmony, new research shows. The findings challenge...

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Soundwave

Scientists find upper limit for the speed of sound

12 Oct 2020

A research collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Queen Mary University of London and the Institute for High Pressure Physics in Troitsk...

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Clangers

Mice sing like jet engines to find a mate

10 Oct 2016

Mice court one another with ultrasonic love songs that are inaudible to the human ear. New research shows they make these unique high frequency...

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Noises off: the machine that rubs out noise

02 Oct 2013

Future hearing aids could be adjusted by the wearer to remove background noise using new technology that could also be used to clean up and search...

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Detail from the event poster.

You hymn it, we’ll play it

21 Jun 2011

An epic, 24-hour celebration of religious music will be taking place at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, this week, starting on Wednesday evening (...

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Babylon

Babylonian bounces back

29 Sep 2010

Almost 2,000 years after its last native speakers disappeared, the sound of Ancient Babylonian is being lined up for an unlikely comeback, in an...

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Democracy

Power to the people?

26 May 2010

Greece was the birthplace of democracy, but our own political system would be unrecognisable to voters in Ancient Athens. As Classicist Paul...

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Abigail Brundin

A fresh look at the ‘grand narratives’ of literary history

01 Aug 2009

Renaissance scholar Dr Abigail Brundin, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Italian, has been awarded an ‘I Tatti’ Fellowship from Harvard...

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King's College Cambridge

Cambridge academics elected as Fellows of the Royal Society

15 May 2009

Nine of the 44 new Royal Society Fellows announced today are Cambridge academics. Their election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society recognises...

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Solar Panels

Sustainable energy – without the hot air

13 Mar 2009

How easy is it to kick our fossil fuel habit? Could Britain live on its own renewables? Professor David Mackay, from the Department of Physics, will...

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Penderecki

Science of music exhibition goes on schools roadshow

10 Oct 2008

Hundreds of schoolchildren in South Cambridgeshire will learn about the science of musical sound this week as part of a touring outreach exercise.

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Violin

Virtual violins

01 Sep 2008

Why does one violin sound different to another? Investigating this question has brought together researchers from music, engineering, experimental...

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