Bravo! It is so encouraging to hear work that captures the wonder and mystery of science, as well as the routine and accidental aspects of lab research--all without a reporter's voice.
In a way, THE SINGING YEAST CELL is a marvelously "dated" kind of feature in that it hearkens back to the cult film THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS (with Stevie Wonder) and to various 1970s and 1980s NPR documentaries--for example, on the Electromagnetic Spectrum--which used tones and music imaginatively and effectively. (Alas, nowadays such radio techniques are all too often dismissed as inappropriately artistic, confusing, even 'manipulative.')
I especially appreciated Claes' use of "mystery" sounds: sounds which are not explained, or not immediately explained, or which are self-explanatory over time. Such sounds make make the radio piece all the more vivid.
By the way, this superb feature reminds me of when, at NPR ages ago, I assigned a reporter to do a piece about certain cells in the human cochlea which apparently vibrate at a constant frequency and thus "broadcast" a tone. I would now like to encourage Claes to consider producing a piece about--THE SINGING EAR CELLS.
Review of The Singing Yeast Cell
Alex van Oss
Posted on June 27, 2004 at 02:16 PM
Bravo! It is so encouraging to hear work that captures the wonder and mystery of science, as well as the routine and accidental aspects of lab research--all without a reporter's voice.
In a way, THE SINGING YEAST CELL is a marvelously "dated" kind of feature in that it hearkens back to the cult film THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS (with Stevie Wonder) and to various 1970s and 1980s NPR documentaries--for example, on the Electromagnetic Spectrum--which used tones and music imaginatively and effectively. (Alas, nowadays such radio techniques are all too often dismissed as inappropriately artistic, confusing, even 'manipulative.')
I especially appreciated Claes' use of "mystery" sounds: sounds which are not explained, or not immediately explained, or which are self-explanatory over time. Such sounds make make the radio piece all the more vivid.
By the way, this superb feature reminds me of when, at NPR ages ago, I assigned a reporter to do a piece about certain cells in the human cochlea which apparently vibrate at a constant frequency and thus "broadcast" a tone. I would now like to encourage Claes to consider producing a piece about--THE SINGING EAR CELLS.