MIT researchers translated the Covid-19 virus into music to offer a new perspective

Team Udayavani, May 24, 2020, 9:00 AM IST

Researchers and scientist all over the world are trying to figure out the new found virus. Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are  looking at the virus with a new perspective, they are hearing it in musical form.

Markus Buehler, material scientist and professor of engineering at MIT, translated the structure of the coronavirus protein into a musical composition.

Using machine learning and AI technology Buehler and his team were able to calculate the vibrational spectrum and make that audible, creating overlapping melodies that would create a composition or audible representation of the protein.

Buehler said, “When we translate the protein into sound and music, we basically follow the sequence by which these proteins are constructed, you can imagine this being a piano with 20 keys. Each key has a unique sound, but this sound isn’t a sound that comes from a string or a drum membrane or a trumpet. It’s a sound that actually comes from the real vibrations off of chemical building blocks”

The researchers claim that  it is easier to hear abnormalities in the structure of a protein rather than scrutinizing data and looking at it under a microscope at the nano-level.