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Stradivarius violins are renowned for their supposedly superior sound when compared to other instruments. This has resulted in numerous studies hunting for a scientific reason for why Strads sound so good. A number of these studies have focused on the chemical composition of the wood in violins made in Cremona by Antonio Stradivari in the 17th and 18th centuries. Others have considered the violins made by Stradivari's contemporary, Joseph Guarneri del Gesu, whose violins are widely considered to be just as good.
Research often looks at how the materials used in the construction of the instrument define its superior quality. For example, one study argued that a "little ice age" which affected Europe from 1645 to 1715, was responsible for the slow-growth wood used in the construction of the violins that gives them a particular quality. This type of wood would have been available to all violin makers in Europe so other work has looked at the particular varnish applied to Strads. But the most recent study on this showed that Stradivari finishes were also commonly used by other craftsmen and artists and were not particularly special.
Now a team of scientists from National Taiwan University have tried to uncover the secret of Stradivarius violins by analysing the chemistry of the wood they're made from. The researchers found that the aged and treated maple wood had very different properties from that used to make modern instruments. But is there really a secret to be found in the Stradivarius?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by VLM on Wednesday December 21 2016, @07:47PM
Scientists Are Studying What Makes Stradivarius Violins Special
I wonder if there's ever a time they were not. From memory of a rerun, verified by Google search, air date October 11th 1981 PBS NOVA TV show season 8.
Something that annoys me about the shills at PBS is they are all about public support and the virtues of the leftie commons and their sacred goal of educating us and our children around fundraising time, but they never upload anything to archive.org or youtube. Basically they collect donations to keep the money. Bunch of crooks. Not exactly Kahn academy, nope.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @08:04PM
Pretty much every goddamn episode of NOVA is on YouTube. They don't seem interested in having them taken down.
NOVA is produced by WGBH Boston, not PBS. Take it up with them, dumbass.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Francis on Wednesday December 21 2016, @08:53PM
Why would they upload them to archive.org or youtube? http://www.pbs.org/show/nova/episodes/ [pbs.org] Considering the length of the episodes on there, they're mostly full episodes. Granted, they're not all there, but there's a huge number of episodes available for free.
What annoys you about them, is that they're lefties, not that they're doing anything wrong here. The shows are freely available without paying anything, the pledge drives are how the materials are funded. Which is even more important since the various rightwing nutjobs are continually after their funding sources for failing to back their nutty theories of the world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @09:41PM
Troll? Haha more like telling it like it is.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/should-big-bird-be-subsidized-82894/ [christianpost.com]
Yes, creationism, flat earth, unnecessary environmental protection cause God will fix it... such great "theories" deserving of public funding! And the conservative folks get mad when they are modded trolls but do the same thing when they don't like something. I will say the 2nd paragraph is trollish, no need to go full blown douche about it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday December 23 2016, @05:28PM
There seem to be a few episodes missing, like, say, everything predating 2014 or so.
There were some good historical episodes. Voyager 2 at Saturn was a classic.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday December 21 2016, @09:06PM
> [...] PBS is they are all about public support and the virtues of the leftie commons [...]
The PBS certainly are a beneficiary of the commons that is the publicly owned airwaves. I'm not aware that, beyond wanting to continue broadcasting, they advocate for the idea of a commons. Can you provide an example of that?
Are you saying that in America, the notion of the commons is only valued by the left, and that the PBS only represent a leftist viewpoint?
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @09:37PM
Here we see a native right-winged human attempting to engage in social discourse. These primates tend to operate from a fear based perspective which makes most of their social conversation combative. Lets see how this one fares when his views are open to public review.
It looks like his claims of "left wing" conspiracy are being met with disdain and even the resident trans-gender women aren't responding to his advances. It seems that criticizing an altruistic group of content producers has had a negative backlash, though thankfully this right-winger is likely to survive as the combative method of discussion has been caught off guard by simple fact checking.
This little guy will probably sit out this slight error until he gathers up the courage to try again. Let's check on to one of the more moderate members of the species to see if a less extreme position is more successful.