This is the final segment in a series I helped write and produce for Jim Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet. In this piece, experimental musician Bart Hopkin talks about how our ears allow us to “see” things.

Sounds – Sound Analysis: Our ears are giving us clues to our surroundings – Are you listening?

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It’s kind of like a thumb piano, but it jingles and rattles in unexpected ways when you pluck it. It was created by Bart Hopkin, a Bay Area experimental musician and the subject of this series I produced for Jim Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet. In this segment, Hopkin talks about the freedom of creating music on an instrument that’s never been played before.

Sounds – Rattle Tyne: Creating new music on an instrument that’s never been heard before.

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This next segment I helped write and produce for Jim Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet is about music and math. Experimental musician and instrument builder Bart Hopkin talks about how each musical note vibrates at a certain frequency, and how the ratios between these frequencies create musical intervals. (Or something like that. Best listen to really understand it.)

Sounds – Frequency and Math: They’re playing my favorite equation!

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In this segment for Jim Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet, experimental musician Bart Hopkin asks “Does that have musical potential?” He talks about creating instruments from everyday objects, as inspiration for the latest Kids’ Science Challenge, a nationwide competition for 3rd to 6th graders.

Sounds – Anything Goes: The tools you need to create you own musical instruments may be hiding in plain sight in your kitchen or garage.

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Experimental musician Bart Hopkin talks about creating a new musical scale in this segment I helped write and produce for Jim Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet. This musical instrument series is to help inspire 3rd to 6th graders for the Kids’ Science Challenge, Pulse of the Planet’s free, nationwide competition.

Musical Instruments – Corrugahorn: It looks like an Octopus and creates its own brand of musical sound.

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In this segment for Jim Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet, experimental musician Bart Hopkin talks about one of his colleagues, Tom Nunn, creator of the Crustacean. The sound of this thing is incredible – like an underwater orchestra. Hopkin also talks about how some of the best music evolves from instruments you can’t control.

Musical Instruments – Steel Vibration: How can you keep a piece of steel vibrating for a long time? Are the balloons ready?

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The music of Bart Hopkin’s Savart’s Wheel is so cool (and disturbing), it warranted two programs. In this one, Bart talks about why this instrument doesn’t fit one of the traditional musical categories – it’s neither string, wind, brass, nor percussion. Listen to hear why.

Musical Instruments: Categories – Experimental musician Bart Hopkin describes how he created an uncategorizable instrument.

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This is the first of the most recent series of programs I produced for Jim Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet. Jim handed me a transcript and a DVD filled with audio/video clips from his interviews with experimental musician and instrument builder Bart Hopkin and told me to go to town. I found about ten stories in there, and so far he’s aired eight of them. This is the first:

Musical Instruments: Sound Wheel – What does it take to design a completely new kind of musical instrument?

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In this Pulse of the Planet segment, UC Merced professor Christopher Viney and Kids’ Science Challenge winner Olivia Smith-Donovan talk about how to build something BIG based on a natural phenomenon that is, in fact, very, very small. This is the final segment in the series I helped write and produce for the KSC bio-inspired design competition.

Maple Seed Drop – Scaling: When you’re building a larger invention from a smaller scale model, the design is likely to change!

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The next in the series of segments I produced for Jim Metzner’s Kids’ Science Challenge. In this one, UC Merced professor Christopher Viney talks about how maple seeds fall ever so gently to the ground.

Maple Seed Drop – How it Works: Scientists are baffled by the way in which a maple seed spins to the ground to slow the rate of its descent.

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This is the next in a series of segments I produced for Jim Metzner’s Kids’ Science Challenge, based on Jim’s interview with UC Merced engineering professor Christopher Viney.

New from Nature: A 5th-grade winner of the Kids’ Science Challenge comes up with a great idea, inspired by nature.

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This is a series I helped write and produce for Jim Metzner’s Kid Science Challenge, a national competition for 3rd to 6th graders. The theme for this challenge was bio-inspired design, and the winner was Delaware 5th grader Olivia Smith-Donovan. She traveled to California to meet with UC Merced professor Christopher Viney to help make her maple seed helicopter design a reality. I produced four segments from their time together, using audio and video interviews to pull together the sound of their experience. This is the first:

Floppy flier: Maple tree seed pods are the inspiration for a new way to deliver relief supplies via airplane.

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The third and final segment I produced for Jim Metzner from his interview with Richard Gross, professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Carbon-Friendly Plastic: Not only does bio-based plastic degrade in the environment, but when it does, no extra carbon dioxide is released.

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The second piece I produced for Jim Metzner from his interview with Richard Gross, professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Microbe Fermentation: With a little coaxing, microbes can be trained to create a variety of useful materials.

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I recently started doing some production work for Jim Metzner, creator and host of Pulse of the Planet, daily “two-minute sound portraits of the planet” that air on radio programs across the country. Jim would essentially hand me a raw interview he’d recorded and say “find me some stories.” My first assignment was an interview with Richard Gross, a professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Compostable Plastic: Conventional plastic can persist for hundreds of years, but bag your produce in bio-based plastic, and you can toss the scraps AND the bag right into the compost bin.

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