science wire

Through a study of the relationship between music and dance in ballets produced between the two world wars, Stanford graduate student and conductor Anna Wittstruck illustrates how composers sought to bring audiences together.

As more animal shelters, primate centers and zoos start to play music for their charges, it's still not clear whether and how human music affects animals. Now, a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that while cats ignore our music, they are highly responsive to "music" written especially for them.

Three music education leaders will present research at a public lecture this month showing the advantages children can gain from music.

The Demo , which will be performed at Bing Concert Hall in April, examines the life and work of tech visionary Douglas Engelbart.

By Lauren Goshinski / 412-268-1533 / laurengo [a] andrew.cmu (p) edu / and Pam Wigley / 412-889-6238 / pwigley [a] andrew.cmu (p) edu A purposefully untitled show, only identified by a v

Tuesday marked the official opening of a new exhibition for Culture at King's College London, Maggi Hambling's War Requiem & Aftermath .

A musician who has consistently hit the top notes is to retire after 35 years at the Lancaster University organ console.

From March 17, Kettle's Yard will present a major exhibition to mark the centenary of the death in the First World War of the French-born sculptor and draughtsman Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915).

ANN ARBOR-The University of Michigan has received a gift of $2 million to establish the Thai Professorship of Theravada Buddhism, which will further enhance one of the largest Buddhist studies programs in North America.

Anyone who might be dreading the end of winter or cannot wait until it arrives again can now enjoy the beauty and mystery of icicles all year long with the Icicle Atlas.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.

Research on the songs of plain wrens may help understand more about human conversation. By Marie Guma Diaz UM News CORAL GABLES, Fla. (March 02, 2015) — Known for their beautiful singing duets, plain wrens of Costa Rica perform precise phrase-by-phrase modifications to the duration between two consecutive phrases, achieving careful coordination as their songs unfold, according to a new study published in the Journal of Avian Biology.

With his death Friday, a planned April 10 artist talk in Royce Hall has been cancelled. Refunds are available.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Lebermann Foundation of Austin has committed $1.5 million to create two endowments at The University of Texas at Austin honoring the parents of former Austin civic leader Lowell Lebermann.

Zocalo UCLA professor Darnell Hunt, co-author of the recently released Hollywood Diversity Report, talks about some of its findings as Hollywood Reporter executive editor Matthew Belloni and Christy Haubegger of Creative Artists Agency listen.

One of Australia's foremost Indigenous artists, Richard Frankland , has joined the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and Me

A major archive comprising hundreds of hours of unseen's with many of the world's leading artistic figures has been established at the University of Leeds.

Deborah Bull, Director of Cultural Partnerships at King's College London, was on stage yesterday to launch the UK's biggest ever joint arts campaign.

Scientific imaging techniques are uncovering secrets locked in medieval illuminated manuscripts - including those of a thrifty duke.

A major report published today Tuesday 17 th February 2015, entitled Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth, argues that the concept of creativity is being squeezed out of public education, closing off creative opportunities and cultural experiences to young people.

Music is found in all human cultures and thus appears to be part of our biology and not simply a cultural phenomenon.

If you're having trouble expressing romantic sentiments on that Valentine's Day card to your honey, it might help to know that, over the last 100 years, lots of others have had the same difficulty talking about love in all its permutations.

By Erin Keane Scott / 412-268-2068 / and Pam Wigley / 412-268-1047 Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama invites you to "ease on down the road” to the Philip Chosky Theater for the color

By Alastair Blanshard Olivia Newton-John has a lot to answer for. Even now, after 35 years has passed, it is hard to forgive her for her role in Xanadu , a film consistently voted as the worst film of 1980.

A study of tracks from the debut albums of major hip hop artists has found that rhyming patterns come as second nature to some of rap's biggest stars - likening them to modern-day poets. Linguists at The University of Manchester have examined the tracks of artists including multiple Grammy award-winner Eminem and Public Enemy, finding that the rhymes that make them superstars are so intuitive they are not within their conscious control.

Research into England's oldest medieval altarpiece - which for centuries provided the backdrop to Westminster Abbey coronations - has revealed that it cost no more than the rather unprincely equivalent of eight cows.

ANN ARBOR-A new series to be published by online Detroit-based arts and culture journal Infinite Mile, in partnership with the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design, casts a critical eye upon the topic of art and gentrification in the city of Detroit and beyond.

On Thursday, 12 February, ahead of the Whitworth's reopening, we'd like you to post your pictures of the art gallery online as part of our Big Reveal.

100 years ago the racist film inspired Black filmmakers to respond and the film still resonates as the country struggles to achieve racial justice Allyson Nadia Field "The Birth of a Nation" premiered in Los Angeles Feb.

Center for the Arts in Society Selects "The Requiem for Rice" as Final Performance Initiative Project-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University By Shilo Rea / 412-268-6094 Edda Fields-Black '

Bob Dylan is the ultimate musical shape-shifter. In his five-decade career, he has refused to stay in the same place for long, moving fluidly between genres, voices and performance styles.

The famous World War II-era poster of Rosie the Riveter is less a document that changed the world than the other way around - an image the world adopted and filled with meaning.

"Why is my heart broken?" asked Dani Belko, a producer at Schell Games, as she played a videogame called "A Plug's Life" on a large screen in Carnegie Mellon University's Hunt Library.

How is it possible that simple acoustic vibrations, hand gestures, and even ink patterns can give one person access to the thoughts of someone else? This is the central question of linguistics, and one that has fascinated Kai von Fintel throughout his career.

A new book containing some of the latest fascinating research into the Viking Age has been published by experts from The University of Nottingham, Oxford University and the Chester Grosvenor Museum. ' In Search of Vikings: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Scandinavian Heritage of North-West England ' is a unique collection of new discoveries from the arts and sciences about the presence and influence of these famous Scandinavian invaders in a region considered as a Viking 'hot spot'.

In this week's issue of the journal Science , MIT researchers report that just four fairly vague pieces of information - the dates and locations of four purchases - are enough to identify 90 percent