Did you know that the nucleotide sequence of DNA can be converted into music? In 1986, the Japanese geneticist Susumu Ohno discovered DNA music by converting the nucleotide bases G, T, C, and A to the musical notes A, C, G, and D, respectively. This intriguing revelation led to the question: if DNA can be translated into music, can music, in turn, affect or change our DNA? Sound, as we now know, possesses mass and has the ability to move matter. By delving into the study of cymatics and exploring the potential effects of music on DNA, we can begin to uncover the possibility of utilizing music as a healing tool.
How does the fact that I can encode a thing into musical notes mean that I can suddenly make music into DNA? I mean, I can turn any sequence of letters into music and back, what does this mean? Also, healing and DNA are not congruent, DNA is going to be the last thing you’re gonna touch when you’re trying to heal something.
Agreed - the quote is from the youtuber who posted the video. However hyperbolic their intro, however, I found the concept fascinating, and thought posting it would make for good discussion.
Yes! Absolutely fascinating, I really appreciate you sharing it! This idea of sounds having healing properties recently came up in this post of an article on cats purrs. I think generally people are attracted to a cats purr just because it feels nice without being aware of what processes it may be triggering in their body, which makes me wonder how much of other animal communication could come down to a similar phenomenon. This video mentioned some stuff about binaural beats and how different frequencies of sounds supposedly are able to enhance various things like focus, memory, sleep, etc. So maybe it is possible that sometimes animals are making sounds not just to communicate specific messages to each other, but maybe also a way to enhance certain skills/processes that they or their group may need at that time, and possibly even without them being aware of why they are doing it, possibly akin to how plants may use sounds to induce the production of chemicals related to plant defense.
Thank you for the links - checking them out now. I was familiar with the research on cat purrs, but didn’t realize plants used them as well (although it absolutely makes sense).
I dig the community you’ve created here - I’ve been interested in the topic for a long time as a musician, and it’s great to find like minds.
Thank you for saying that, I am glad you have found it useful! It was very pleasantly surprising to see something show up here that wasn’t posted by me, it is a first I believe. Lately I’ve really been thinking about this stuff from the perspective of the sounds being made used more as language with units of literal meanings, it is nice to be reminded of the idea that the sounds animals make may be more abstract/emotional like music.
Another place you may be interested in if you are not already there is the Earth Species Project discord group, the link to the discord is down at the bottom of the page.
I hear you there - I run a small community, @13thFloor, and it took about 100 posts to get things rolling there. That’s usually how it goes for the first few months when starting up a new community. 10% of your viewers will vote, 10% of them will comment, and about 10% of those will actually post new topics.
One thing I’ve found helps subscription count is when posting something from another community, if you thank the OP and @ them in a comment, they’ll get a notification and usually end up subscribing, as they know they have a friendly place for their content.
I like your related communities idea there on the sidebar - been thinking of doing something similar for our community. Thanks for the discord link!
I’ve gone down a bit of a 13thFloor rabbit hole, thankyou very much. What a great idea for a community! I really liked that Kurt Vonnegut letter, as well as the Muppets video. I haven’t given the Muppets any thought in so long, that song is so right on. This is the first time I’d looked at kbin at all.
Thanks so much for the tip, hadn’t considered crossposting someone else’s post, great idea!
