Singing News and Research

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Concert venues are banking on proof of vaccines or negative tests to woo back fans

Fans of the band Wilco could have reasonably interpreted frontman Jeff Tweedy singing "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" at an Aug. 13 concert at St. Louis Music Park as the universe explaining the past year or so.

30 Aug 2021

Study reveals measures to tackle musical COVID-19 transmission

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe in 2020, musicians around the world were desperate for the answers to two pressing questions: Can playing musical instruments transmit COVID-19? And if so, what can be done?

28 Aug 2021

Mother's voice reduces signs of pain in premature infants

A baby born prematurely often has to be separated from its parents and placed in an incubator in intensive care.

27 Aug 2021

COVID-19 pandemic illuminates the importance of airborne transmission of respiratory viruses

SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind today's global coronavirus pandemic, spreads primarily by inhalation of virus-laden aerosols at both short and long ranges -;and a comprehensive new assessment of respiratory viruses finds that many others probably do as well.

27 Aug 2021

Fine aerosols generated during talking, singing may play a major role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been thought to spread primarily when an infected person coughs or sneezes, but little is known about its transmissibility through activities such as breathing, talking, and singing.

11 Aug 2021

A California bill would limit protests at vaccination sites. Does it violate the first amendment?

A proposal sailing through the California legislature that aims to stop people from getting harassed outside of vaccination sites is raising alarms among some First Amendment experts.

9 Aug 2021

Aerosol generated by playing wind instruments is less than that produced when vocalizing

Aerosol generated by playing woodwind and brass instruments is less than that produced when vocalizing (speaking and singing) and is no different than a person breathing, new research has found.

29 Jun 2021

New transparent material can capture respiratory droplets effectively from air

Although plexiglass barriers are seemingly everywhere these days -- between grocery store lanes, around restaurant tables and towering above office cubicles -- they are an imperfect solution to blocking virus transmission.

17 Jun 2021

Duetting songbirds 'silence' their partner’s brain to coordinate the duets

Art Garfunkel once described his legendary musical chemistry with Paul Simon, "We meet somewhere in the air through the vocal cords ... ."

31 May 2021

Researchers examine effect of depression on mother-infant relationship

In a study funded by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) researchers examined whether depression, either before or during pregnancy, affects the mother-infant relationship. The research was published today (Tuesday 25 May) in BJPsych Open.

25 May 2021

Long and short-range risk of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2

In a recent research study, Florian Poydenot et al. performed a quantitative assessment of indoor and outdoor transmission risk; and how to reduce the contributions of public spaces to the propagation of SARS-CoV-2. The study is published on the medRxiv, a preprint server for health sciences.

12 May 2021

Spiritual fitness and meditative practice may reduce multiple risk factors for Alzheimer's disease

It is projected that up to 152 million people worldwide will be living with Alzheimer's disease (AD) by 2050. To date there are no drugs that have a substantial positive impact on either the prevention or reversal of cognitive decline.

11 May 2021

A new approach to estimate the risks of exposure to COVID-19 under different indoor settings

Two MIT professors have proposed a new approach to estimating the risks of exposure to Covid-19 under different indoor settings.

16 Apr 2021

High SARS-CoV-2 attack rates linked to singing events

Now, a team of researchers from the Netherlands and Sweden demonstrates that airborne spread via infectious droplets or aerosols over longer distances of more than 1.5 meters due to singing is possible during singing events.

8 Apr 2021

Choir singing may have positive effects on cognitive functioning of elderly people

Alongside the effects of lifestyle, including physical exercise and diet, on aging, research has increasingly turned its attention to the potential cognitive benefits of musical hobbies. However, such research has mainly concentrated on hobbies involving musical instruments.

10 Feb 2021

Symptomatic COVID-19 cases extremely low among YMCA summer campers in North Carolina

Cases of symptomatic COVID-19 were extremely low among children and staff at a network of YMCA summer camps held last year in North Carolina that took precautions like masking and physical distancing, with close to zero transmissions occurring at the camps, according to researchers at Duke Health, Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

7 Feb 2021

Resonance-guided vaporization may provide new ways of treating tumors

Sending tiny droplets to a tumor and having them vaporized using focused ultrasound: it could be a new way of tracing a tumor or deliver drugs locally.

4 Feb 2021

Songbird system may provide new treatment options for children with autism

Inactivating a gene in young songbirds that are closely linked with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevents the birds from forming memories necessary to accurately reproduce their fathers' songs, a new study led by UT Southwestern shows.

4 Feb 2021

Are public health ads worth the price? Not if they’re all about fear

The public service announcement showed a mother finding her teenage son lifeless, juxtaposed with the sound of a ukulele and a woman singing, "That's how, how you OD'd on heroin."

19 Jan 2021

Schlieren techniques demonstrate patterns of exhaled air spread from wind instruments and singers

In an interesting new research paper published recently on the bioRxiv preprint server, scientists describe the dispersal of exhaled air, potentially infected, from singers and those playing wind instruments, using Schlieren techniques, a visual process that is used to photograph the flow of fluids of varying density. This could help assess measures to assess the actual spread of infectious droplets or aerosols in such situations.

10 Jan 2021