A team of MIT researchers have used computers and mathematical algorithms to convert the frequencies of a vibrating web into music. The researchers presented their findings on April 12, 2021 at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Markus Buehler, of MIT, is the lead researcher on the project. He said in a statement:
The spider lives in a vibrant string environment. They don’t see very well, so they feel their world through vibrations, which have different frequencies.
These vibrations occur, for example, when the spider pulls a silk chain during construction or when the wind or a trapped fly moves the net. Spiders are sensitive to disturbances they detect with their legs.
Buehler, who has long been interested in music, wondered if he could extract rhythms and melodies from the vibrant strings of cobwebs. With this goal in mind, the team scanned a natural web with a laser to capture 2D cross-sections and then used computer algorithms to reconstruct the 3D network of the web. The team assigned different sound frequencies to the web strings, creating “notes” that combined into patterns based on the web’s 3D structure to generate melodies. The researchers created a harp-like instrument to play cobweb music. Buehler told Reuters:
Spiders are a completely different animal. What they see or hear is not actually audible or visible to the human eye or ear. And so, transposing it, we begin to experience it.
Cross-sectional images (shown in different colors) of a web were combined in this 3D image and translated into music. Image by Isabelle Su and Markus Buehler / SciTechDaily.
The team is also interested in learning how to communicate with spiders in their own language. They recorded network vibrations produced when spiders performed different activities, such as building a net, communicating with other spiders, or sending courtship signals. Although the frequencies sounded similar to the human ear, an machine learning algorithm correctly classified sounds into different activities. Buehler said:
Now we try to generate synthetic signals to basically speak the language of the spider. If we expose them to certain patterns of rhythms or vibrations, can we affect what they do and can we begin to communicate with them? These are really exciting ideas.
Conclusion: Researchers have translated the complex structure of a web into music. Listen here.
Via ScienceDaily
Via Reuters
