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Home > Volume 91 Issue 13 > Preserving Terra-Cotta Soldiers, Making Music In The Lab
Volume 91 Issue 13 | p. 56
Issue Date: April 1, 2013
Preserving Terra-Cotta Soldiers, Making Music In The
Lab
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By Linda Wang
Department: Newscripts
Keywords: music, lab equipment, terracotta soldiers, pollution, Xi’an Terracotta
China’s famous Xi’an Terra-Cotta Army Warriors, on display in the pits from
which they were excavated, might need extra protection from visitors, according
[+]Enlarge
to a study in Environmental Science & Technology (DOI:10.1021/es303981m).
When people pass through the exhibition halls surrounding the pits, they bring
outside air with them. Coauthor Zhaolin Gu of Xi’an Jiaotong University and
colleagues note that, along with humidity, air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide
and nitrogen oxide can play a large role in the deterioration of the statues. For
example, they say, the formation of gypsum on the surface of the relics could be
related to the interaction between SO2 or SO42– in the air and CaCO3 in the soil
and on the surfaces of the relics.
The researchers recommend using new measures to better preserve such
artifacts. One approach is to use air curtain technology to help create an
Climate control: Terra-Cotta Warriors need protection.
Credit: Jarno Gonzalez Zarraonandia/Shutterstock
invisible barrier between the warriors and visitors.
The devices that generate the air curtain would resemble household air conditioners, blowing powerful air currents over the top of
the pits to keep pollutants and heat away from the statues. A layer of cool air at the bottom of the pits would form a blanket of
stagnant air around the relics to help prevent their further deterioration.
“Archeology museums have the responsibility of preserving and exhibiting the cultural inheritance of our ancient civilization,” the
researchers write. “The challenge for the archeology museums is to produce an appropriate environmental control to ensure
long-term preservation of relics within the premise that [it] could also maintain the panorama view of the excavation sites.”
With all the scientific instruments humming and the glassware shaking about, a research lab can be noisy. But that clamor is music
to John LaCava’s ears.
“In the laboratory, if you pay close enough attention, you can hear a lot of interesting sounds and a lot of rhythms,” says LaCava, a
research associate in Michael P. Rout’s cellular and structural biology lab at Rockefeller University. “I thought it would be
interesting to get some of that recorded and turn it into music.”
So with the help of professional music producers Dan Kramer and Nicole Jung, LaCava and coworkers at Rockefeller incorporated
everyday lab noises into musical compositions.
He says the idea to record the sounds came to him in a “eureka moment” when he was in the lab seated among a large jug of liquid
being mixed with a magnetic stir bar, a water bath shaker, and a platform rocker. “Between the three of them, they were drumming,”
says LaCava, himself a drummer who has played in several bands. “And everything just came together.”
LaCava says two of his favorite sounds are high-pressure liquid nitrogen being released from a tank and centrifuges accelerating
and decelerating. The former makes a high-pitched squeal followed by a low resonance, and the latter covers a wide tonal range.
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Preserving Terra-Cotta Soldiers, Making Music In The Lab | Apr...
http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i13/Preserving-Terra-Cotta-Soldie...
A strong proponent of science outreach, LaCava
aims to make science more accessible to the
public through music. “People like music, and if I
could do a project that brings science and the
ideas of science, including critical thinking, to
people through music or art, then I might reach
ECLECTIC
LaCava's musical compositions incorporate lab
someone.”
sounds such as those emanating from a microfluidizer,
a water bath shaker, pipette tips being ejected, and
His website, SoundsofScience.net, features
centrifuge lids opening and closing.
Credit: Produced by Dan Kramer
his musical arrangements and also includes a
database of science and engineering sounds
(www.sosdb.net). The recordings are publicly available for download to anyone who wants to
incorporate them into a musical composition. And LaCava invites Newscripts readers to upload
their own recordings to the database.
Pitch-perfect: Lab equipment can
yield lovely music.
Credit: Shutterstock/C&EN
Linda Wang wrote this week’s column. Please send comments and suggestions to [email protected].
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2013 American Chemical Society
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