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Date: | Wed, 9 May 2007 11:25:21 -0400 |
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ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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This article
(http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070430/full/070430-7.html) and the
gene2music site
(http://www.mimg.ucla.edu/faculty/miller_jh/gene2music/examples.html)
seem to expand on the science song discussion we had earlier.
Unfortunately the interface to create music from gene sequence is not
easy or intuitive However, they do provide examples of music created
from protein sequence data
(http://www.mimg.ucla.edu/faculty/miller_jh/gene2music/examples.html)
From the Summary of the project:
The primary goal of this work is to convert genome-encoded protein
sequences into musical notes in order to hear auditory protein
patterns. Although there have been previous efforts to do this, one
of the main problems has involved the large jumps between consecutive
notes in a 20 note range (2.5 octaves) that results from a one-to-one
amino acid-to-musical note assignment. Some other concerns include
assigning rhythm, dynamics, and accompaniment according to the
characteristics of the protein sequence.
We derived a reduced 13 base note range according to hydrophobicity
and pairing of similar amino acids. The amino acid pairs were
differentiated using variants of three-note chords, namely the root
position and first inversion chords. A rhythm has been encoded into
the musical sequence according to the organism's codon distribution
used in the genome-encoded protein sequence. Such a designation
allows each amino acid to be represented by different note durations.
The result is a set of rules that produces musical compositions that
can be applied to any protein sequence [1]. As an example, we have
used a prototype human protein, Thymidylate Synthase A (ThyA). A
detailed description of our coding assignment can be found in the
Project Evolution.
In addition to the primary goal, we also aim to use this conversion
to help make protein sequences more approachable and tangible for the
general public and children. The project also opens opportunities for
visually impaired scientists to access protein sequences more
readily. We show and allow one to listen to examples of several
proteins translated into music by these methods and also provide the
opportunity for others to convert their own gene of interest using
our GENE2MUSIC program.
Martin
--
Martin Weiss, Ph.D
Vice President, Science
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111 th Street
Corona, New York 11368
718 699 0005 x 356
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