Author Archives: aydan mackenzie con

As the warm spring weather melts away the winter cold, an increasing number of people, young and old, consider learning how to drive.   Despite recent advances in technology optimizing driver safety, distracted driving remains a particular concern for new drivers.

Distracted driving is a factor in 25-50% of all car accidents. Source: Shutterstock via Jim Dodson Law

From 2005 to 2008, the number of distracted-driving fatalities increased 28.4% where 16 out of every 100 car-accident fatalities involved some form of distracted driving in the U.S.A.     In 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration reported 1 in 5 traffic fatalities involved a distracted-driver!  This shocking trend qualitatively corresponds to a growth in cell-phone usage in this period.

Using a driving simulator and a pool of 20 licensed drivers with on average 11 years driving experience, David Libby et al.  compared the response time and sensory processing distracted driver with and undistracted driver.   The average reaction time of a distracted driver increased over 41% when texting, adding 0.5 seconds to the baseline average response time of 1.2 seconds for the undistracted driver.   Libby et. al. also found that distracted drivers missed 50% of the stimulus located in the peripheral vision compared to 12% for the undistracted driver.

Lim and Chi studied the effects of cell-phone bans on the reduction of distracted-driving related incidents.  By studying car-accident data collected by state agencies, they developed a mathematical model to predict the outcomes of a cell-phone ban for distracted drivers.  Lim and Chi data analysis noted that for every 100 drivers between the ages of 18 and 34, 95 were likely engaged in some form of distracted driving.  Their model determined that for every 100 car-accidents, a cell-phone ban would reduce the risk of a fatality in 95 accidents.

Simply put, distracted driving kills.  Put down your phone and get home safe :).

Aydan Con

Rausher, Shaw and Ky‘s 1993 paper in Nature, showing correlation of increase cognitive function and exposure to Mozart’s piano music, triggered a worldwide interest in developing new technology to improve learning.   Government and private corporations invested large sums of money to develop Mozart-based learning tools to improve the intelligence of students.

Rausher et. al original study recruited college students to partake in a standardized cognitive test that extrapolated to an IQ score.  Students were allowed to complete the test in one of three conditions that were assigned to them: with Mozart’s Sonata in D major, K 448 playing, with relaxing music playing in background, in silence.  Rausher’s data (Fig. 1) astonished the world, when students completing the test with Mozart’s sonata playing were found to have a higher IQ score than those under the other conditions.

Data first appeared in the paper, re-presented in graph form for clarity.

Critics of Rausher questioned the validity of the data collected in the study.  Kenneth Steele of Applachian State University questioned effects of bias due to the small sample size of the initial study and indirect comparison to a control group on the data.   Steele et al. adapted Rausher et al.‘s methodology to study changes in the cognitive performance college students when exposed to music by Mozart, Phillip Glass (minimalist music empirically shown to have opposite effect of Mozart’s music) and silence.  Steele et al. tested all participants before (pre-treatment) and after/during (post-treatment) exposure (Fig. 2) and found no significant difference between improvements in the scores of students exposed to Mozart, in comparison to the other groups.

Graph created from data presented in Steel et al.’s 1999 paper

Whether or not Mozart’s music can increase cognitive performance remains actively debated in scholarly communications, where Rausher and Steele have both continued to publish articles arguing for and against the existence of the Mozart effect.   Elsewhere, Rausher et al.‘s 1993 study has inspired applications of Mozart’s music in patients with epilepsy    Considering that the original music inspiring this research is over 220 years old, who knows what the future applications of Mozart’s masterpieces might be.

Aydan Con

PS: I don’t have permission to use a recording of the above mentioned Mozart Sonata, and my own recording of the work is not available at the time of this blog.  Instead, I have posted a performance of another work associated with the Mozart Effect, Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488.  The performance is by pianist Natalie Lo (BMus ’16) with the UBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dr. Jonathan Girard (used with permission).

RUBS: The Interesection of Music and Materials Science.

Most people would never envision a direct connection between current scientific knowledge and modern performing arts.  Developed in 2017 by researchers at University of British Columbia and University fo Michigan, the Responsive User Body Suit (RUBS) shows the influence modern materials science in contemporary performing arts.

RUBS suit, 2017 prototype — used with permission of Dr. Bob Prtichard.

Dr. Bob Pritchard (UBC) and Kara Bhumber (U of Michigan), developed the RUBS using fabrics electrically conductive fabrics.   These fabrics allow dancers to choreograph movement that can be converted into audio-visual outputs during live performances.   Polymers are used to coat the material that yield the electrically conductive and resistive properties of the body suit.  These polymer coatings allow the suit to act as a potentiometer, an electronic device that is used to vary resistance in a circuit.

An electric circuit is completed when the dancer’s hands make contact with the body suit, sending an electronic signal that can be processed by an external computer.   When the dancer moves his or her hands on the suit, the dancer can change the generated audio-visual output sensed by the audience by altering detected current processed by the computer.

Polymers, such as polyaniline and polypyrrole, have been developed into coatings commercially available “smart textiles.”   Conductive polymers  are usually organic molecules that allow for easy electron flow.   Reactions are used to change the electronic structure of the molecules, allowing for scientists to engineer specific conductive properties in these coatings.

Outside of RUBS, conductive-polymer coated fabrics are used in chemical sensing systems.  These fabrics are used in a wide range of applications due to low operational power and cost requirements .   New personal health-care and athletic equipment often use conductive fabrics in developing increasingly light and powerful monitoring equipment.

Silver-nanofibre conductive fabric. Source: LessEMF , used with permission.

Current research challenges in the design of the RUBS include the design of a polymer coating that optimizes the electrical resistance of the conductive fabric, so that the signal current does not overload the computer processors.    Additional research include the development of metal nano-fibres that can be woven into material with specific conductive properties.

— Aydan Con