Soundtrack for the news! Swine Flu as Ambient Music

[tamaranth]

“Swine Flu Hemagglutinin”: amino acid sequence as ambient music | Stephan Zielinski

The algorithm I used is a bit complicated, but just in case you’re curious: since the gene is expressed as a surface protein antibodies can sense, it’s considered as a string of amino acids. Each beat corresponds to one amino acid, and the piece is in 3/4 time, so each six measures would correspond to five turns around the alpha structure.

It sounds slightly, stereotypically 'Oriental' to my ear, with unexpected percussion.

Now I want to write fiction where listening to this is infection ... or immunisation ... or palliative.

via boingboing

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

The infection thing has already been done in "Threshold". Not that that should stop you from doing it better, of course.

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

A few days ago, I bought a new necklace of brightly coloured wooden beads that's safe for my anklebiter to chew on.

Today I realized that it looks like ghyrm.