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Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” is one of the first songs I learned to play on the violin.
I will never forget the elation I felt as I joined my fellow orchestra members in playing the iconic fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony, with every note participating in a celebration of togetherness.
But every exuberant musical moment has a downside, and Beethoven also pours his feelings of despair into his final symphony.
Beethoven suffered hearing loss in his 20s and became deaf in his 30s – but that didn’t stop him from composing some of his greatest and most enduring pieces.
It was the classical composer’s wish that his health problems be understood and conveyed to the public. While his doctor’s notes were lost to time, scientists last year sequenced Beethoven’s genome from his hair strands.
Now researchers are one step closer to understanding the mysterious ailments of the troubled genius.
Explorations
A new analysis of Beethoven’s hair has shown that the composer suffered from lead poisoning towards the end of his life. He died at the age of 56 in 1827.
Tests revealed that two of his ditches contained incredibly high levels of lead, arsenic and mercury, likely from drinking wine sweetened with lead.
Researchers do not believe lead poisoning would have been enough to kill him, but it could have contributed to the composer’s known gastrointestinal problems and deafness.
Unlocking the factors that led to Beethoven’s death from kidney and liver disease could also shed light on how the composer turned his pain into music.
“People say, ‘The music is the music, why do we need to know all this?’ But in Beethoven’s life there is a connection between his suffering and the music,” says William Meredith, a Beethoven scholar.
Solar update
Blinding aurora may appear in the sky this weekend over locations as far south as Alabama due to a rare spike in solar activity.
Scientists at the Space Weather Prediction Center have observed multiple outbursts and coronal mass ejections. The large clouds of ionized gas, called plasma, and dynamic magnetic fields erupt from a cluster of sunspots measuring 16 times the diameter of Earth.
The predicted solar storm has the potential to disrupt Earth’s power grid and communications, but experts agree there is no need for humans to take extraordinary measures to prepare for space weather.
However, you may want to take pictures of the sky with your phone, as your camera may capture the dancing lights of the aurora borealis.
We are family
Millions of years ago, lava flows on Earth created a network of enormous underground tunnels called lava tubes, providing a perfect place for our Neolithic ancestors to beat the heat.
During the Stone Age, some 7,000 years ago, the tunnels protected shepherds and their livestock from the brutal heat and winds of the Arabian Peninsula.
Researchers in Saudi Arabia discovered engravings of images showing people in stick figures alongside animals such as dogs and sheep on the walls of Umm Jirsan. Artifacts have helped archaeologists piece together the story of the people who took refuge in the lava tubes and how they adapted to such arid environments.
Once upon a time there was a planet
Strange creatures appeared on Earth more than 500 million years ago – and scientists now think this is because Earth’s protective magnetic field nearly collapsed.
The first life forms were single-celled, microscopic organisms. But 591 million years ago, Earth’s magnetic field weakened dramatically, potentially allowing for an increase in oxygen in the atmosphere.
After this event, animals with strikingly strange fan, donut, and tube shapes appeared in the fossil record, representing the first complex animals on Earth.
Implications
A rare event is transforming the Great Barrier Reef, as well as reef systems around the world, into silent marine graveyards.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it is the fourth mass coral bleaching event since the late 1990s, caused by rising ocean temperatures during the climate crisis.
Heat waves at sea put pressure on corals, causing them to shed algae and lose their colors. The die-off is happening at unprecedented levels, experts say.
“What’s happening in our oceans now is akin to underwater forest fires,” said Kate Quigley, principal investigator at Australia’s Minderoo Foundation. “There will be so much warming that we will reach a tipping point, and we will not be able to come back from that.”
Discoveries
Take some time to explore these new findings:
– When a dice snake is attacked by predators, it pretends to be dead as a protective measure – and uses gory special effects to put on a convincing theatrical performance.
— The Dark Energy Camera has captured a dramatic image of the cosmic feature “God’s Hand” appearing to reach out to a defenseless galaxy — but it’s actually a rarely seen celestial phenomenon.
– The first historic crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starling spacecraft has been moved to no earlier than May 17 after a valve failure halted a launch attempt on Monday.
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