Monday, October 9, 2017

Moonlight Sonata

My stream of consciousness rambling.
You know how the people at Google say they know what you want before you know it yourself.  As I just read the biography of Elon Musk, Google keeps suggesting to me any articles about Tesla and SpaceX.  A few days ago Elon Musk posted on Instagram photos of earth from his satellite.  In the caption he just wrote "Moonlight sonata."  You can hear the soft piano music as you are watching photos of our planet from space.
A new friend I met told me he practices transcendental meditation two hours a day. After years of practicing Iyengar yoga I only got to do some visualization and guided meditation.  My curiosity led me to the trusted YouTube.  I typed TM in the search.  The first video that showed up was introduction to TM.  The music was the soft piano melody of moonlight sonata.  The instructions were to do absolutely nothing. No effort in trying to focus on anything just be quiet in the moment hear the soft music.
I never learned to play music and I cannot carry a tune.  I was wondering about all the students of piano who worked on playing Moonlight Sonata for hours and hours.  My friend who loves music claims that it is like oxygen for her.  For her there is no life without music.  It gives her a high like some people get from alcohol or drugs.
Personally I get a high just thinking about my knowledge of protein chemistry.  I am thinking of the building blocks of proteins as the alphabet of life.
The alphabet is what helps us write and communicate our knowledge to the future generations. 
In Hebrew there are 22 letters and they are classified by the part of the mouth that produces them: Guttural letters, letters made by the lips, teeth or tongue.

Image result for hebrew alphabet

Similarly proteins, the language of life, are made of 22 amino acids.  The amino acids are classified by their chemical properties: Acidic, basic, neutral or hydrophobic.  (They attach to fat or lipids and not the water medium.)

Image result for amino acid alphabets

Some of the longest words in English are made of 15 to 22 letters.  On the other hand proteins have a much more complex task and some are as long as 5,000 amino acids.
What about music?  As far as I know there are 8 musical notes.
 And the combinations of melodies and songs and symphonies are
 staggering!  Just listen to the Moonlight Sonata!

No comments:

Post a Comment