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“Ode to Joy” by Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the first songs I learned to play on the violin.
I will never forget the joy I felt as I played the iconic fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony alongside my fellow orchestra members, each note in celebration of the other.
But every moving musical moment has a flip side, and Beethoven also channeled his feelings of despair into his final symphony.
Beethoven began to lose his hearing in his 20s and became deaf in his 30s – but that did not stop him from composing some of his greatest and most enduring pieces.
It was the wish of the classical composer that his health issues be understood and communicated to the public. Although his doctor’s notes were lost over time, scientists sequenced Beethoven’s genome from a lock of his hair last year.
Now, researchers are one step closer to understanding the mysterious ailments of the troubled genus.
Explorations
A new analysis of Beethoven’s hair has revealed that the composer had lead poisoning towards the end of his life. He died aged 56 in 1827.
Tests showed elevated levels of lead, as well as arsenic and mercury, in two of his greens, likely from drinking wine sweetened with lead.
Researchers do not believe lead poisoning was enough to kill him, but it may have contributed to the composer’s known gastrointestinal problems and deafness.
Uncovering the factors that led to Beethoven’s death from kidney and liver disease may also shed light on how the composer turned his pain into music.
“People say, ‘Music is music, why do we need to know about any of these things?’ But in Beethoven’s life, there is a connection between his suffering and the music,” said William Meredith, a Beethoven scholar.
Solar update
Dazzling auroras could appear in the skies over places as far south as Alabama this weekend due to a rare spike in solar activity.
Scientists at the Space Weather Prediction Center observed multiple coronal mass ejections and flares. The large clouds of ionized gas, known as plasma, and dynamic magnetic fields are erupting from a cluster of sunspots that measure 16 times the diameter of Earth.
The predicted solar storm has the potential to disrupt the power grid and communications on Earth, but experts agree that people do not need to take extraordinary measures to prepare for space weather.
However, you may want to take photos of the sky with your phone, as your camera may capture the dancing lights of the aurora borealis.
We are a family
Millions of years ago, lava flows on Earth created a network of huge underground tunnels called lava tubes, providing our Neolithic ancestors with a great place to beat the heat.
During the Stone Age, as early as 7,000 years ago, the tunnels sheltered herders and their livestock from the relentless heat and wind of the Arabian Peninsula.
Researchers in Saudi Arabia have uncovered carvings depicting people on stick figures alongside animals such as dogs and sheep on the walls at Umm Jirsan. Artifacts have helped archaeologists piece together the story of the people who sought refuge in the lava tubes as well as how they adapted to such high environments.
Once upon a planet
Strange creatures began to appear on Earth more than 500 million years ago – and scientists now think it’s because the Earth’s protective magnetic field almost collapsed.
The first life forms were single-celled, microscopic organisms. But 591 million years ago, the Earth’s magnetic field weakened significantly, which could have allowed an increase in oxygen in the atmosphere.
After this event, animals with strange fan, donut and tube shapes appeared in the fossil record, representing the first complex animals on the planet.
Consequences
A rare event is turning the Great Barrier Reef, as well as reef systems around the world, into silent marine graveyards.
This is the fourth major coral bleaching event, driven by rising ocean temperatures amid the climate crisis, since the late 1990s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Ocean heat waves are stressing corals, causing them to expel algae and drain their colors, and death is occurring at unprecedented levels, experts say.
“What’s happening now in our oceans is like underwater wildfires,” said Kate Quigley, chief research scientist at Australia’s Minderoo Foundation. “We will have so much heating that we will be going to a tipping point, and we will not be able to come back from that.”
Discoveries
Take your time exploring these new findings:
— When attacked by predators, a dice snake fakes its own death as a defensive measure — and uses gory special effects for a convincing theatrical display.
— The Dark Energy Camera captured a dramatic image of the “Hand of God” cosmic feature that appears to reach an unprotected galaxy – but is actually a celestial phenomenon.
— The historic first crewed flight test of Boeing’s Starling spacecraft has been rescheduled to May 17 at the earliest after a faulty valve halted Monday’s launch attempt.
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