Protein Structure Data Represented As Music
As reported by [arstechnica]:
Making music with materials is interesting, but finding ways to represent those materials nature and structure directly in an accessible audio format is even more interesting. Seven years ago MIT scientists mapped the molecular structure of Spider Silk proteins on to musical theory to create the [sound of silk], a direct translation of its molecular structure represented as sound, with the hopes of creating a radical new way of creating designer proteins.
Now MIT materials engineer Markus Buehler and co have created a more sophisticated system that can convert protein structures into music, and then converting it back to create novel proteins that have never been seen before. Amino Acids naturally vibrate with characteristic frequencies, so what they've done is map them to frequencies that people can hear, creating a scale of 20 unique notes. Then they translated several protein structures into audio compositions and used machine learning to recognize specific musical patterns, and then generate new musical scores which it then translates back into new protein structures. They've even created an Android app called the Amino Acid Synthesizer so users can create their own protein compositions from the sounds of amino acids.
There's a video explaining it [here], its a facinating mix of audio interface design and molecular science.
-- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
