If you found a news story involving a person named Beat Wampfler, it should not be a surprise to discover that it was a story about music. That would be a perfect name for a percussionist, wouldn’t it? However, he’s not a musician (it least not professionally). Beat Wampfler is a Swiss cheesemaker.
But by pegging him as a musician, you would not have missed the truth totally, because this is a news story about both music and cheese. And nearby in my news feed is a separate story about playing sound waves for bees and fish. Cheese, bees, fish…what do all of these have in common?
All told, in this week’s news items, these “scientists” have been hard at work. If you’d rather that smart scientists use their expertise to address global climate change and pollution, fight hunger, alleviate poverty, or cure cancer, I have one more bit of news for you. Not every scientific study is geared towards bettering the world. There are some head scratching, head banging, mind boggling, and hand wringing studies that may have some foggy application to real life, but otherwise make me wonder if the people carrying them out are wasting their talents.
The Fish and the Bees
Let’s start with a discussion of the fish and the bees. Thanks to technology, scientists bridged the communication gap between two very different kinds of animals. Using robotic stand-ins with both communities, a group of fish and a group of bees communicated with one another and reached a shared conclusion. How’s that for consensus and collaboration?
The bee robots vibrated, made air movements, and changed temperature, while the fish robot could change its color, shape, and movement. By emitting certain signals, these robots coerced both bees and fish to adapt their behaviors in a space of about 25 minutes. The fish started to school, grouping together more tightly in response to the signals, while the bees swarmed around a robotic terminal on a vibrating table.
At first glance, this seems like a giant freaking waste of scientific resources. But luckily, there could be some future application. For example, after fine-tuning their approaches, perhaps scientists can broadcast signals to certain animal species to tell them to stay away from a specific area where there is danger (such as pesticides or other human activity). So I won’t write off this study completely, despite having questions about its overall utility.
The Cheese
From slash, splash, and buzz, buzz, we move onto a study about playing music to cheese and then determining which cheese tastes the best. Worthless waste of resources? Probably. But the idea with this one is that the microorganisms on cheese may behave differently to different sound waves. And perhaps that has some application either in the industry or in teaching us how sound can best be used to help control certain things (perhaps even disease).
Swiss scientists (and the cheesemaker Beat Wampfler) played different kinds of music to wheels of Emmental cheese. They played Mozart, Led Zeppelin, and A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ), plus had a control wheel of cheese that heard no music. 24 hours a day would freak me out, but the cheese and its microorganisms heard music constantly. The conclusion is that the control cheese (no music) was inferior to the musical cheese.
Specifically, the cheeses exposed to music had milder flavors than the cheese that had no music. And the wheel fed with hip hop from ATCQ was sweeter and favored most by the judges. "I like its flavor and so the hip-hop cheese was my favorite cheese ... rock 'n' roll and techno, there was not such a big difference," according to Beat Wampfler, as reported by National Public Radio (NPR).
The Ring Heard Round the World
If playing sounds to fish, bees, and wheels of cheese is not your cup of tea, then did you hear the ringing sound that encircled the globe late last year? At that time, there was a seismic event in the South Atlantic Ocean, in a chain of islands called Mayotte just off of Africa and near Madagascar. This seismic event rang the whole globe and was detected all over the world, yet no one actually heard it (unless you did).
What gives? Apparently, the strongest undersea volcanic event in recorded history may have occurred at that time as these Mayotte islands are rapidly being re-shaped by volcanic forces underneath the ocean.
Perhaps we can be thankful that it wasn’t making the kind of pop that Krakatoa did when it exploded in 1883. That boom was heard as far away as Western Australia and Mauritius; it was said that anyone nearby within a few miles would have been deafened. A 2018 explosion there also created a deadly tsunami, which is another tragic effect of seismic events at sea.
Scary stuff. I’d rather listen to the bees. And the fish. And maybe the cheese. Does it communicate, too?
References:
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/what-caused-mysterious-seismic-wave-recently-wash-across-our-whole-planet
https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/19100/20190324/scientists-bridge-the-communication-gap-between-fish-and-bees.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#Pre-1883_history
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/24/706344902/need-a-cant-miss-wheel-of-cheese-try-playing-it-some-hip-hop?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
All images public domain. The carrot is a red herring. The volcano is above the water. The cheese pictured may not be Swiss. All errors, oversights, and omissions are mine and mine alone.
Some claim sound was used to move the stone blocks for the construction of the pyramids and other ancient structures... who knows 🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️
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Alien bees. :)
Oh, scientists!
This is interesting. But I think it probably was some sort of coincidence or both bees and fish decided to provide scientists satisfactory results to end the madness.
I wouldn't be surprised if microorganisms on cheese were annoyed with constant music. Can they even hear the sound/vibration in the same frequency as humans? I am skeptical of this. Maybe it is a marketing/branding strategy/hoax?
I think I won't be eating cheese for a while now. :)
I don't think these studies are waste of time/talents though. There are many scientists working in different fields. Each helps the other with making certain conclusions. Sometimes most incredible discoveries/inventions happen by accident.
Very true. They probably have some value, but also it's easy to make some fun of them. :)
This is a weapon. I went to a technology fair at a local technical university and basically all of their research in various fields was sponsored by the defense industry. non Newtonian fluids are being studied for applications in liquid body armor.
They do sponsor a lot of research. Though they may not report out the stuff that's important.
This is fascinating research that impacts something I am presently working on. Thanks very much!
But there’s this ancient saying that no knowledge is a waste
Thanks for sharing these scientific findings @donkeypong!
Hope you’re celebrating Steem 3years anniversary?
Stay awesome as we continue to explore life!
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Probably, but I have a hard time understanding soem fo the Ignoble candidates each year.
https://www.improbable.com/ig/
I LOVED this post, what a great read! Interestingly enough, I also ran into a sound experiment going on- at HAARP the past few days called Ghosts In The Air, I'm just looking into it now- https://www.ghostsintheairglow.space/live-feed
Interesting. I'll have to check it out.
I can understand how the living beings react to sound as we are all connected at a certain frequency level, but the experiment with the Cheese is very fascinating.
Wow! informative and interesti g study just like the Japanese Scientist study on waters reaction to sounds...awesome reactions.
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Water reacts to more than volcanoes, I guess.
thanks for upvoting...appreciate it much
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A fascinating read, next time I'm at the farmers market I'll ask them if they play music to their cheese.
And what kind...
Rock for Roquefort? Smooth Jazz for Camembert.
A very interesting review @donkeypong and I used to hear that certain music has a very beneficial effect on the growth and well-being of flowers, but to improve the quality of cheese from music, this is surprising to me. As for fish and bees, these studies can also be very interesting and useful!
Interesting and mildly useful, I think.
@donkeypong, Very interesting to read very informative to anybody information. But some places I were wondered. However currently technology has more powerful. In fact everything can be do. Someone can think this is worthless effort and wasting more resources. No...
I believe there are so many advantages can find still this Sound Experiments operation.
What sorts of advantages?
Cheese is a milk product coming from cows. Cows, bees and fish are or have been living. So perhaps the cells of a once living organism respond to music thus these cells may not be completely dead. Play them some Wolfgang Mozart and good classical piano. They say babies in the womb love it too! LOL Thanks @donkeypong
Raw cheese is not completely dead. It has microorganisms that play a big role in fermentation and ripening.
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It's amazing, and this is a very good and very interesting discussion, I'm waiting for your next article.
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I do believe that frequencies of sound waves has a great impact to the smallest molecules in our bodies and influences our health @donkeypong since our bodies like any living organisms are made out of mainly water and thus sensitive to vibrations/frequencies.
If we take the time to listen to nature will communicate with us and it makes us all that better in our everyday life. @donkeypong I would love to talk to you about something. Think you could DM me on Discord. It is not about anything you think it is about, I do not want an upvote or a resteem of a post or anything of that nature. Just need some info.
Ha! This is great, I hadn't heard about these experiments, I particularly like the bees/fish one.
However, even though the cheese one seems like a (hilarious) waste of time, you just never know, soundwave tech is interesting, and it's more than interesting that sound effected the flavour!
Sound waves are used in motorcycle tech, to move exhaust fumes out of the pipes quickly and efficiently.
The main thing to remember for people looking at these experiments and scratching their heads, is to distinguish between science and technology, whereby the latter is always a few steps behind the former, reaping its benefits.
Cg