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It’s often said the sense of smell is most closely connected to long-term memory. The news offers little comfort to us forgetful people with a diminished sense of smell. But increasingly, neuroscientists are discovering how sound can also tap directly into our deepest memories. Patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia seem to come alive, becoming their […] Don’t Think Twice: A Poignant Film Documents How...

According to DEVO's co-principle songwriter and bassist Gerald Casale, the experimental art band turned early MTV pop-punk darlings were “pro-information, anti stupid conformity and knew that the struggle for freedom against tyranny is never-ending.” Their singular performance garb also set them apart, and none more so than the bright red plastic Energy Dome helmets they donned 40 years ago […] DEVO Is Now Selling COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment:...

It’s not like we’re maestros…it’s a moment of joy in this moment of anxiety. —Emma Santachiara, Rome As reported by The New York Times, Ms. Sanachiara, age 73, has joined the vast choir of ordinary Italians taking to their balconies and windows to participate in socially distant neighborhood singalongs as coronavirus rages through their country. The Internet […] Italians’ Nightly Singalongs Prove That Music Soothes the...

The techno-futurist prophets of the late 20th century, from J.G. Ballard to William Gibson to Donna Haraway, were right, it turns out, about the intimate physical unions we would form with our machines. Haraway, professor emeritus of the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, proclaimed herself a cyborg […] Electronic Musician Shows How He Uses His Prosthetic...

I always champion anything that will improve the lives of people with disabilities and put it on the front burner. - Itzhak Perlman At its best, the Internet expands our horizons, introducing us to new interests and perspectives, forging connections and creating empathy. The educational children's series Sesame Street was doing all that decades earlier. Witness this brief […] Itzhak Perlman Appears on <I>Sesame Street</I> and Poignantly...

“In forty years of medical practice,” wrote Dr. Oliver Sacks near the end of his famous career, “I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical ‘therapy’ to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens.” The comment might not surprise us, coming from such an unorthodox thinker as Sacks. But we […] The Therapeutic Benefits of Ambient Music: Science Shows...