Far-Out Music

If you're an astrophysicist, you rely a lot on your vision in your work. Other than the brain you use to process the data you review, your eyes might be your most valuable asset.

So when astrophysicist Wanda Diaz-Merced began losing her sight as a complication of her diabetes, she might have thought her career was over. Until she realized that the hisses and pops that came from the radio telescope that scanned the heavens were sounds she could listen to and scan for patterns just as sighted scientists reviewed charts and plots of data visually.

Stars produce many kinds of radiation, not just light. Radio telescopes are among the devices that astronomers use to receive those other kinds of radiation and study those features. Diaz-Merced uses a software program which "audifies" or turns the different radiation measurements into sounds. Irregularities in the sound can point her towards some feature of a star that should be looked at more closely, or even perhaps to a flaw in the equipment. She's talked some of her sighted colleagues into using her system as well, listening to the data at the same time they're reading it.

Another researcher heard the sound loops that Diaz-Merced's software produced and noticed that some of them had recognizable melodies or tunes. That researcher teamed up with other musicians to create songs that have the sounds of Diaz-Merced's readings at their center.

I remember when I was younger hearing other kids sometimes say science was boring. Although my frequently-chronicled cerebral work stoppage in the presence of algebra may have derailed my ability to pursue scientific inquiry professionally, I remain fascinated by it and those who practice it. And as Wanda Diaz-Merced shows, science is never boring, not even a little bit.