logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2023
11m 47s

Song of the Stars, Part 1: Transforming ...

Scientific American
About this episode
Space is famously silent, but astronomers and musicians are increasingly turning astronomical data into sound as a way to make discoveries and inspire people who are blind or visually impaired. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 
Up next
Yesterday
The doctor fighting for pain-free IUDs
In this episode of Science Quickly, Rachel Feltman speaks with Helena Kopp Kallner, an ob-gyn and a professor, about her promising new study that shows local anesthetic can reduce pain during placements of intrauterine devices (IUDs). These devices are one of the most effective a ... Show More
18m 43s
Oct 7
Who’s accountable when AI goes wrong?
When news broke that OpenAI agents had breached the AI platform Hugging Face, many headlines framed it as a case of “rogue” artificial intelligence acting on its own. But how much of that narrative was reality, and how much was hype? In this episode, Rachel Feltman speaks with AI ... Show More
14m 55s
Oct 5
El Niño flood threats, measles risks and a risky viral trend
In this episode of Science Quickly, we explore how an El Niño–driven Kelvin wave could increase coastal flooding risks in California, why researchers say a plan to weaken vaccine requirements could leave Florida vulnerable to major measles outbreaks and what experts want people t ... Show More
14m 35s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
Song of the Stars, Part 1: Transforming Space into Symphonies
Space is famously silent, but astronomers and musicians are increasingly turning astronomical data into sound as a way to make discoveries and inspire people who are blind or visually impaired. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 
11m 47s
Sep 2023
Song of the Stars, Part 2: Seeing in the Dark
A blind astronomer “sonified” the universe’s most explosive events: gamma-ray bursts. By listening to, rather than looking at, the data, she made a critical discovery and changed the field of astronomy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 
11m 40s
May 2021
Season 5, Episode 5:Listening to the Universe, with Kim Arcand
NASA spacecraft deliver stunning visual imagery of the cosmos, but we can also experience that data by turning it into sound. 
19m 10s
Nov 2019
The Sound of Space
The previously silent world of outer space is changing. In this audio tour around the Universe, Dr Lucie Green explores the sounds of space.Some sounds have been recorded by microphones on-board interplanetary spacecraft. Others have been detected by telescopes and sped up until ... Show More
28m 17s
Jan 2022
A Sonic Journey across the Universe
The sounds of the cosmos revealed through the sonification of astronomical data. 
29m 29s
Dec 2015
Sounds of Space 1: The Solar System
The previously silent world of outer space is getting noisier. Listen in to sounds recorded on board spacecraft and sonifications of space data. Originally broadcast 30 June 2015. 
26m 52s
Mar 2023
Universal Harmonies: Sonifying images for science and accessibility
<p>Kim Arcand from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory joins Planetary Radio to share her team’s new album “Universal Harmonies.” It’s a beautiful collection of sonified observations taken by the space telescope that aims to make space images more accessible to people with low or no ... Show More
55m 23s
Nov 2025
The Sound Barrier #4: Listen to the universe
When Wanda Diáz-Merced lost her sight as a college student, she thought her dreams of becoming an astronomer were over — until she learned to listen to space instead. Wanda is one of several pioneering scientists listening to space. For this episode, we also spoke to Robert Wilso ... Show More
37m 25s
Apr 2023
Cosmic Queries – The Sound of Space with Kimberly Arcand
<p>What does space sound like? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Matt Kirshen explore space sonification projects and Chandra x-ray data with astronomy visualization expert Kimberly Arcand. Hear what the supermassive black hole at the center of The Milky Way sounds like…</p><p>NOTE: StarTa ... Show More
51m 39s
Dec 2015
Sounds of Space 2: Deep Space
Take a sonic tour of the universe - this time, deep into the cosmos. Some sounds are recorded sound, others are data that have been sonified. Originally broadcast 7 July 2015. 
26m 53s