Learning to play music by ear is challenging for most musicians, but research from a team at the University of Waterloo may help musicians-in-training find the right notes. The Waterloo team analyzed a range of YouTube videos that focused on learning music by ear and identified four simple ways music learning technology can better aid prospective musicians — helping people improve recall while listening, limiting playback to small chunks, identifying musical subsequences to memorize, and replaying notes indefinitely. “There are a lot of apps and electronic tools out there to help learn by ear from recorded music,” said Christopher Liscio,…

A pioneering method to simulate how microscopic particles move through the air could boost efforts to combat air pollution, a study suggests. Tiny particles found in exhaust fumes, wildfire smoke and other forms of airborne pollution are linked with serious health conditions such as stroke, heart disease and cancer, but predicting how they move is notoriously difficult, researchers say. Now, scientists have developed a new computer modelling approach that dramatically improves the accuracy and efficiency of simulating how so-called nanoparticles behave in the air. In practice, this could mean simulations that currently can take weeks to run could be completed…

A new study reveals the biological secret to the Zika virus’s infectious success: Zika uses host cells’ own “self-care” system of clearing away useless molecules to suppress the host proteins that the virus has employed to get into those cells in the first place. While these cell surface proteins are valuable for viral entry, they also have roles in producing an antiviral response. Before that can happen, the virus manipulates a process cells use to keep themselves healthy to lower the proteins’ activity, clearing the way for unfettered viral infection. Though other viruses, such as HIV, are known to silence…