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The Singing Yeast Cell
Website: 20 Jun 2004
By: TobiasEnhus
N/A

http://www.nicala.org/yeastcell.htm.

Using an atomic force microscope (http://www.sst.ph.ic.ac.uk/photonics/intro/AFM.html), it's possible to 'touch' a cell with a nano probe, measuring oscillations in the cell membrane without destroying the cell. UCLA researcher James Gimzewski and his graduate student Andrew Pelling tried amplifying and listening to these oscillations through speakers and were astonished to discover that healthy yeast cells vibrate at audio rates (and that unhealthy cells split into inharmonic clusters of frequencies). For a "video"/slide show explanation, visit the web site of "The Singing Yeast Cell." (Some of the background music for the slide show comes from Cliff Martinez' and Tobias Enhus' Kyma-synthesized soundtrack for Narc).

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