Quiz: name that synonym! | Mind your language

Jamie Fahey: Now you know your popular orange vegetables from your war-torn republics, can you work out what these phrases refer to?

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 1 Jun 2011 | 5:55 am

Inspiratory muscle training and endurance sport performance

Strengthening inspiratory muscles by performing daily breathing exercises for six weeks significantly reduced the amount of oxygen these same breathing muscles required during exercise, possibly making more oxygen available for other muscles, new research suggests.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

NASA rover finds clue to Mars' past and environment for life

Rocks examined by NASA's Spirit Mars Rover hold evidence of a wet, non-acidic ancient environment that may have been favorable for life. Confirming this mineral clue took four years of analysis by several scientists.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Binge drinkers report sub-optimal health status more often than non-binge drinkers

Binge drinking accounts for more than half of 79,000 excessive-drinking deaths annually in the United States. A new study has looked at heavy and binge drinking in relation to drinkers' own perceptions of their overall health status. Results show binge drinkers have a 13 to 23 percent greater likelihood of self-reporting fair to poor health status.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

NASA images show oil's invasion along Louisiana coast

New images, acquired on May 24, 2010 by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft, show the encroachment of oil from the former Deepwater Horizon rig into Louisiana's wildlife habitats.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Genome of bacteria responsible for tuberculosis of olive tree sequenced

Researchers have managed to sequence the genome of the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis in the olive tree. The study represents the first sequencing of the genome of a pathogenic bacteria undertaken in Spain, being the first genome known worldwide of a pathogenic Pseudomonas in woody plants.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Blocking DNA repair protein could lead to targeted, safer cancer therapy

Inhibiting a key molecule in a DNA repair pathway could provide the means to make cancer cells more sensitive to radiation therapy while protecting healthy cells, according to new research. The findings provide new insights into mechanisms of how the body fixes environmentally induced DNA damage and into the deadly neurological disease ataxia-telangiectasia.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm

Seal bulls in the service of science

"Gustavo" is an imposing bull always in search of the best feeding grounds. At the beginning of the Antarctic winter the mighty elephant seal bull and others were tagged with state-of-the-art satellite transmitters. Researchers will learn where the animals migrate, where they find prey at what depth and under what oceanographic conditions the food supply is good in the Southern Ocean.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Life on Titan? New clues to what's consuming hydrogen, acetylene on Saturn's moon

Two new papers based on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft scrutinize the complex chemical activity on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. While non-biological chemistry offers one possible explanation, some scientists believe these chemical signatures bolster the argument for a primitive, exotic form of life or precursor to life on Titan's surface. According to one theory put forth by astrobiologists, the signatures fulfill two important conditions necessary for a hypothesized "methane-based life."
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

'Remote control' for cholesterol regulation discovered in brain

Circulation of cholesterol is regulated in the brain by the hunger-signaling hormone ghrelin, researchers say. The finding points to a new potential target for the pharmacologic control of cholesterol levels.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Hip exercises found effective at reducing, eliminating common knee pain in runners, study suggests

A twice weekly hip strengthening regimen performed for six weeks proved surprisingly effective at reducing -- and in some cases eliminating -- knee pain referred to as patellofemoral pain (PFP) in female runners.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am

Sands tarred

Florida's famous sandy beaches fear oil spill impact
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 4:16 am

UK to rule out waste charges

The communities secretary is to say he wants people to be rewarded not penalised to encourage recycling.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 4:11 am

Let's be honest about placebo | Ed Halliwell

Rather than dismissing treatments that use placebo as hocus pocus, we should learn what we can from this powerful effect

Though it's rarely treated as a religious issue, the alternative medicine debate has a lot in common with the God versus science wrangle. Just as religious belief is scoffed at by atheists, so "traditional healer" services, while providing comfort and relief for many, are prone to come into collision with rationalist claims that they're based on fantastical faith-based premises, that they prey on the delusions of the vulnerable, and do no meaningful good.

We saw the latest round of this ding-dong last week, in the wake of a study that claimed to have found a plausible mechanism for a pain relief mechanism in acupuncture. Experimenting on mice, researchers found that rotating needles just below the knee resulted in a two-thirds reduction in pain levels and a 24-fold rise in the production of adenosine, an anti-inflammatory molecule. For the pro-acupuncture camp, this was proof that the therapy works, while critics pointed out that mice are not humans, that other studies have shown you get an analgesic effect when you stick the needles at non-acupuncture points, that sham needles which don't pierce the skin have the same effect, and that any pain relief obtained is so small as to be of little clinical benefit.

Of course this study – and the rest – shed no light on the issue that makes acupuncture so loved and despised – the proposition that it promotes healing by unblocking qi energy in the body, restoring an internal balance between yin and yang. Just as scientists have so far failed to find evidence for God, so qi has proved a property elusive to mice-prodding (and other) investigators. And yet it is this belief which forms the basis for most acupuncture practice, for the trust that patients tend to have in the method, and for much of the ire heaped on it by critics.

While both sides bicker, perhaps each is missing a trick – the importance of the placebo effect and what it tells us about the power of the mind. Placebo is sometimes a dirty word in medical discussions – we often hear procedures dismissed as "just placebo", while drug companies do their utmost to demonstrate that their remedies outperform dummy pills. But perhaps we might do better to more actively harness placebo, which actually represents the healing ability of our own minds and the environments we place them in.

Research on the placebo effect has show that a treatment's effectiveness is significantly impacted by a whole range of factors that seem to have nothing to do with the treatment itself. How well it works can depend on the "warmth, attention and confidence" of the person administering it, by how much the patient believes it'll work and by how much they want to get well. Placebo injections often work better than placebo pills (at least in the US, where "shots" are often seen as a stronger treatment – in Europe placebo pills are slightly more effective), while stopping a placebo treatment often creates withdrawal symptoms. Blue sedatives are more than twice as effective as pink ones (although not among Italian men – one explanation being that they associate blue with the national football team, which gets them excited rather than sleepy).

Researcher Daniel Moerman describes the placebo effect as a "meaning response" – the mind consciously or unconsciously makes positive associations with a treatment that then creates healing. It is an issue of faith – and thanks to acupuncture's reputation as a "holistic" treatment, the time, care and attention that practitioners bestow on their patients, and the patients' trust in and desire for an acupuncture-assisted cure, the treatment appears to work for lots of people. These may not be the only reasons it works – the latest study would suggest there's something else going on (the mouse mind is unlikely to attach much meaning to the needles in their knees).

But even if treatments like acupuncture were "just" placebo, does this make them all bad? Critics would say yes, as the treatment is then based on false premises, and therefore unethical. Others might shrug that if it helps, it helps – even if the belief that creates the positive response is questionable. But wouldn't it be more interesting to use what we know about our brain's power to heal to develop an integrated mind-body medicine where information about the "placebo" response is celebrated. This would mean working to ensure that each medical procedure is offered in an ambience of care and attention, and where patients learn (honestly, rather than through any elaborate smokescreens) that adopting particular states of mind can have an impact on the course of illness and are given practical methods to help cultivate those states. This is already beginning to happen with the spread of evidence-based treatments based on meditation, visualisation or cognitive therapy.

We don't need to know whether qi exists to learn from people's responses to acupuncture, just as we don't need to know whether God exists to appreciate the magic of everyday existence. In either case, wouldn't it be more helpful to make the most of what we do know? That learning how to work more consciously with our mind states can help us live a happier life, in healthier bodies.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 7 Jun 2010 | 4:00 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Active and warmer weather was expected to spread across portions of the Plains on Monday as a warm front over Texas lifted into the Central Plains.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:54 am

Eight jailed over Bhopal gas leak

An Indian court sentences eight people to two years each in jail over the 1984 Bhopal gas plant leak that killed thousands.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:51 am

Paper industry tests genetically altered trees (AP)

AP - The commercial paper industry's plans to plant forests of genetically altered eucalyptus trees in seven Southern states have generated more cries from critics worried that such a large introduction of a bioengineered nonnative plant could throw natural ecosystems out of whack.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:40 am

Trained noses to sniff out Gulf seafood for oil (AP)

AP - William Mahan bends over a bowl of raw shrimp and inhales deeply, using his left hand to wave the scent up toward his nose. Deep breath. Exhale. Repeat. He clears his palate with a bowl of freshly cut watermelon before moving on to raw oysters. Deep breath. Exhale. Repeat.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:36 am

Exxon execs warn on curbing on deepwater drilling (Reuters)

Reuters - ExxonMobil warned against quick reactive changes to deepwater drilling laws that damage long-term investment decisions and urged governments to take time to assess the reasons for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:24 am

In Pictures: Large Blue

A record breaking year for Britain's Large Blue butterfly.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:22 am

BP faces another tough week despite well progress (Reuters)

Reuters - BP faces another difficult week of tough questions from investors and U.S. lawmakers despite making progress in capturing an increasing amount of oil spewing from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:00 am

BP sucking up 10,000 barrels daily from US oil leak (AFP)

AFP - Engineers hoped Monday to make more headway in their bid to contain a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after BP announced it was now capturing some 10,000 barrels of crude a day from the ruptured well.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 2:26 am

Cockroaches 'recommend food'

Cockroaches 'recommend' good food sources to each other by communicating in chemicals, say scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 1:49 am

Humpback whales form friendships

Humpbacks are the first baleen whales shown to form lasting bonds, with female "friends" reuniting each summer.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 1:41 am

Bumblebees on 'rescue mission' perish

Short-haired bumblebees were due to be flown from New Zealand and re-introduced to Britain to tackle pollination crisis

An "international rescue mission" to tackle Britain's pollination crisis has suffered a setback after a shipment of bees due to be imported into the country died just days before their release.

Natural England, the government's countryside agency, chose the short-haired bumblebees from New Zealand because they were originally from the UK, but have since become extinct in their homeland.

But less than two weeks before the selected bees were due to be flown over and released on Friday, scientists say they have died in hibernation.

The setback is an example of the problem conservationists are increasingly warning of: that once a species has been destroyed in its local habitat, it is very hard to restore it - a strategy they fear many rely on when they are pushing through developments and other threats to biodiversity.

However, Natural England said the deaths would only delay the re-introduction project, which is now planned for next summer, and they were confident it would eventually succeed.

"An expedition to New Zealand will take place this November to collect queen [bees] to rear, and the next generation of queens will be returned to the UK the same time next year for release," said a statement from the agency. "Over the next six months, work will concentrate on creating more habitat for bumblebees, perfecting the rearing technique in New Zealand and raising the profile of the importance of bumblebees with local communities. This is a long-term project and we hope for many future releases."

The short-haired bumblebees were transported to New Zealand in the first refrigerated lamb ships in the late 19th century, to pollinate crops of red clover to help new emigrant farmers. They have clung on in small numbers, but are unprotected and under threat.

The plan to bring them back to the UK, where they were declared extinct in 2000, was in response to a steep decline in bumblebees and other pollinating insects in recent years, a problem blamed on the loss of most wildflowers in Britain's intensively farmed landscapes - some of which were also transported to New Zealand and have survived in the South Island's England-like climate.

To prepare for the bees' return, Natural England worked with farmers in Kent to make more than 550 hectares of land suitable for the bees, as well as nesting birds, mammals and invertebrates.

"This international rescue mission has two aims – to restore habitat in England, thereby giving existing bees a boost; and to bring the short-haired bumblebee home where it can be protected," said Poul Christensen, Natural England's chairman, when the project was announced last year [2009]. "Bumblebees are suffering unprecedented international declines and drastic action is required to aid their recovery. Bumblebees play a key role in maintaining food supplies - we rely on their ability to pollinate crops and we have to do all we can to provide suitable habitat and to sustain the diversity of bee species."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Jun 2010 | 11:59 pm

Cyclone Phet kills seven in Pakistan: minister (AFP)

AFP - Heavy wind and rains killed seven people, damaged property and flooded homes in southern Pakistan, but the disaster Cyclone Phet threatened to bring was averted, officials said Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Jun 2010 | 11:55 pm

Backward-Spinning Black Holes More Powerful (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Oddball black holes that spin backward in the opposite direction of their surrounding debris discs appear to create more powerful jets of radiation than their regular-spinning brethren, a new study has found.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Jun 2010 | 11:45 pm

2 abandoned baby pygmy elephants saved in Malaysia (AP)

AP - Malaysian wildlife authorities rescued two starving pygmy elephant calves on Borneo island in the first known cases of the endangered animals being apparently abandoned by their mothers, an official said Monday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Jun 2010 | 11:25 pm

Costa Rica puts brakes on popular stem cell tourism (Reuters)

Reuters - Costa Rica is cracking down on an unauthorized stem cell clinic that has attracted hundreds of foreigners seeking relief from degenerative diseases and serious injuries.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Jun 2010 | 11:06 pm

Costa Rica puts brakes on popular stem cell tourism

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Costa Rica is cracking down on an unauthorized stem cell clinic that has attracted hundreds of foreigners seeking relief from degenerative diseases and serious injuries.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Jun 2010 | 11:06 pm

Climate wiped out Europe's apes

Great apes were wiped out from ancient Europe when their environment changed drastically nine millions years ago.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Jun 2010 | 10:15 pm

Sexsomnia: 'Sex While Sleeping' Condition Studied

Men report doing it more than women, a new study finds.
Source: Livescience.com | 6 Jun 2010 | 10:01 pm

Islands Grow Even as Seas Rise Around Them

A new study calms fears about Pacific Islands shrinking due to the swelling global sea level.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 6 Jun 2010 | 9:35 pm

The Moment Jupiter Got Slammed, In Color!

After the exciting events of Thursday night's Jupiter fireball sighting, amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley has created a stunning color photograph of the moment of impact.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 6 Jun 2010 | 8:55 pm

Journey to the Stars

It's immersive, it's explosive, and best of all it's free. On June 7th, NASA will begin sending complimentary DVDs of the smash-hit planetarium show "Journey to the Stars" to teachers and students around the country. Today's story from Science@NASA reviews the show and tells educators how to request their copies.
Source: Science@NASA Headline News | 6 Jun 2010 | 7:33 pm

Brain scan 'lie detector' warning

Measures are needed to stop brain scans being misused by courts, insurers and employers, experts are warning.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Jun 2010 | 5:08 pm

Headless Romans were gladiators

Evidence from tests on 80 skeletons of young men found in Yorkshire gardens points to world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard, archaeologists say

The haunting mystery of Britain's headless Romans may have been solved at last, thanks to scars from a lion's bite and hammer marks on decapitated skulls.

The results of forensic work, announced today, on more than 80 skeletons of well-built young men, gradually exhumed from the gardens of a York terrace over a decade, suggests that the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard has been found.

Many of the 1,800-year-old remains indicate much stronger muscles in the right arm, a condition noted by Roman writers in slaves trained from their teens to fight in the arena. Advanced mineral testing of tooth enamel also links the men to a wide variety of Roman provinces, including North Africa, which was another a feature of gladiator recruitment.

The conclusions are consistent with York's importance in the Roman world as a provincial capital and major military base for years of campaigning north of Hadrian's Wall. Many senior generals and politicians held posts in the city and Constantine appointed himself emperor there in 306AD. Such distinguished residents would have required a high standard of social life, according to the York Archaeological Trust, which has supervised the excavations in Driffield Terrace.

Field officer Kurt Hunter-Mann said the accumulation of evidence now pointed to a gladiator graveyard rather than to a military suppression of aristocratic rebels by Caracalla, another emperor who visited York, as suggested by earlier theories.

Signs of respect accorded to the remains, including piles of grave goods for use in the afterlife, had appeared to support the earlier notion. The initial finds of some 60 skeletons also turned up evidence suggesting lavish funeral feasts, with beef, pork and horsemeat on the menu.

But accounts of gladiator burials make it clear that similar pomp accompanied the rites for many long-serving gladiators, who were comparable to modern football stars apart from their often bloody end. Decapitation was a regular conclusion to bouts and the coup-de-grace often came with a hammer blow to the head.

Other theories about the grave have included a pagan rite involving decapitation, or a pogrom against a minority group such as Christians, but evidence for either is lacking. Gladiators were brought into the debate in earnest three years ago, when the discovery of burials of arena combatants at Ephesus in Turkey revealed a similar combination of hammer blows to the skull and decapitation as at York.

The animal bite has also tilted the balance of the evidence, after a further 23 skeletons were found during excavation for a resident's patio. Hunter-Mann said: "It is one of the most significant items of the evidence accumulated. A large carnivore bite – probably a lion's but possibly from a tiger or bear – must have been sustained in an arena. The great majority of the skeletons are also male, very robust and mostly average height, which is telling along with the arm muscle asymmetry."

York appears to have held major arena events until as late as the fourth century AD, avoiding the decline into the spectacle known as Venatio, or the hunt, which saw cash-starved provincial governors provide deer and even rabbits in place of the exotic beasts associated with gladiator spectaculars.

Dr Michael Wysocki, senior lecturer in forensic anthropology and archaeology at the University of Central Lancashire, who has carried out recent tests, said: "We don't have any other potential gladiator cemeteries with this level of preservation anywhere else in the world. It is a unique Roman burial assemblage. Anthropologically speaking, the material is particularly significant because it includes such a broad spectrum of healed and unhealed injuries associated with violence.

"Nothing like the bite marks has ever been identified before on a Roman skeleton. It would seem highly unlikely that this individual was attacked by a lion or tiger as he was walking home from the pub in York 2,000 years ago."

Work is continuing on the remains and at the dig, which will be featured in a Channel 4 documentary, Gladiators: Back From The Dead next Monday (14 June). The discoveries add to the formidable Roman reputation of York, which has the remains of walls, tombs and a large civil settlement, plus a ghostly cohort of soldiers whose tramp through the cellars of the Treasurer's House by York Minster is the subject of centuries of claimed sightings.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Jun 2010 | 5:02 pm

Science Weekly: It's all about altitude at the World Cup

Steve Haake, head of sports engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, joins us to explain why altitude could make the difference between triumph and disaster at World Cup 2010 in South Africa. He also predicts that goalkeepers will be moaning about the design of the balls.

Steve will be giving a talk at the Royal Institution on 8 June.

We look at some of your responses to last week's live recording of this podcast at the Science Museum in London.

Following a discussion at the Hay Festival on 10 years of the Human Genome Project, we reveal what Nobel laureates John Sulston and Martin Evans, and Michael Morgan, former CEO of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, had to say about Craig Venter's creation of the world's first synthetic genome.

We visited the Royal Society's exhibition celebrating its 350th anniversary. Keith Moore, its librarian, tells us about Robert Boyle's list of scientific ambitions.

View a gallery of the Royal Society exhibition here.

In the newsjam we discuss the ban on mephedrone, trials to begin on a breast cancer vaccine, a resignation over GM foods, and why six men will be spending 520 days locked inside a spaceship in a Moscow car park.

Guardian science correspondent Ian Sample and Observer science editor Robin McKie were on hand in the studio to throw around the World Cup ball.

WARNING: contains strong language.

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

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Listen back through our archive.

Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Jun 2010 | 5:01 pm

BP cap catches '10,000 barrels'

BP's latest bid to cap a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is now capturing more than half the estimated leak, it tells the BBC.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Jun 2010 | 4:16 pm

Meditation Dulls Experience of Pain

Meditation keeps the mind from anticipating pain, and so dulls a person's experience of pain.
Source: Livescience.com | 6 Jun 2010 | 4:10 pm

Amazon forest fires 'on the rise'

Forest fires in the Amazon are increasing and could jeopardise efforts to curb forest-related emissions, a study finds.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Jun 2010 | 3:41 pm

Antipsychotic deflates the brain

Drug for schizophrenia causes side effects by shrinking part of the brain.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/FbPfmrx1XpY" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 6 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm

Microbes and Mozart | Guy Dammann

Classical music recordings have allowed performing traditions to stagnate – good luck to those using them to treat sewage

Critics such as Norman Lebrecht have been warning of the death of the recording industry which, for better or (often) for worse, has been the major force in classical music for the last half decade. Lebrecht's suspicions have by and large proved correct, receiving further confirmation in figures released recently by the BPI which show an alarming 17.6% drop in classical sales figures since 2009 against a backdrop or a market-share decline, since 1990, from 11% to a meagre 3.2%.

To put this in perspective: a major US release such as Hilary Hahn's recent Bach: Violin and Voice disc, backed by a serious publicity drive (including an appearance on The Tonight Show at the height of the Leno/O'Brien controversy), sold a meagre 1,000 copies in its first week and fewer than 500 in the following weeks. To put this in perspective further: these figures were enough for Hahn to leap to No 1 in the Billboard classical charts.

But if it seems fair finally to say that the classical music record industry is up shit creek, it would be mistaken to assume it's up there without a paddle. Indeed, it may just have been handed a very sizeable paddle: one made, in fact, for no other purpose than paddling through shit. If reports are to be believed, a potentially life-saving new market has emerged in the form of the microbes used in the treatment of sewage. According to Anton Stucki, chief-operator at the Treuenbritzen sewage plant in Germany, his playing of recordings of Mozart's operas will stimulate the bacteria. "We're still in the test phase," he said, "but I've already noticed that the sewage breakdown is more efficient."

Stucki attributes this new phase of the much-trumpeted (but never proven) "Mozart effect" to the idea that the harmony to be found in Mozart's music corresponds directly to the harmony that binds atoms to atoms, molecules to molecules. It's another version of the ancient Greek doctrine of the harmony of the spheres, according to which music is simply a manifestation of the numerical proportions that hold the universe together.

One of the interesting things about such doctrine is that it allowed numerous scholars and philosophers to spend huge amounts of time studying music without ever having to yield to the temptation to hear any. Indeed, according to the ancient and scholastic division of musical learning, the two higher spheres of music – musica mundana and musica humana – had absolutely nothing to do with music as it was actually practised. The third and lowliest, musica instrumentalis, which concerned the kind of music you could actually play, was by and large beneath consideration.

That's all changed now, thankfully, and music is generally considered as less a branch of scientific learning than an art form, charged with human meaning. And one of the chief reasons for this, regardless of the cosmic harmoniousness of the music played, is that music has always been the most collaborative of the arts. It acquires the larger part of its meaning and value from the energy invested into it composing, playing and listening to it: and the live collaboration of the audience with the performer has always been a crucial part of this.

This is why I've always been suspicious of records and have never wasted too many tears over the collapse of the classical record industry in its current guise. Because so much of this live energy is lost in the transfer from concert hall to vinyl or plastic, the art of listening to music, as the philosopher RG Collingwood put it, changes from being one of "collaborating" to one of "overhearing".

Although the golden age of classical record industry produced some wonderful – and of course wonderfully preserved – music making, part of the trouble with it has always been the normative power it has held over the way we hear music, generating myths about "definitive" interpretations, stagnating performing traditions and turning the culture of classical music into a kind of starry-eyed collectors' club. With the passing of these once great gods, recordings are once again becoming what they were always supposed to be: mere records of live events.

So the news from the sewers of Treuenbritzen is good, not because it opens up a new, albeit somewhat smelly, audience for classical music, but because it reminds us that while the music of the spheres and other spinning discs may be excellent for the health of everything from atoms and microbes to planets and galaxies, live music is best saved for the living.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Jun 2010 | 10:00 am