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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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A weekly programme looking at the science that's changing our world.

A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.

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BBC Inside Science: Violins - Social networks and cliques in great tits and snow monkeys - Exploring DNA and art

11/05/2017

Violins - Social networks and cliques in great tits and snow monkeys - Exploring DNA and art

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, Violins - Social networks and cliques in great tits and snow monkeys - Exploring DNA and art

Do new violins sound better than old famed instruments? A scientist and soloist discuss.

New research finds that classical concert-goers rate new fiddles higher than revered old fiddles. How was this acoustic science done and what does soloist Tasmin Little think?

Classical music fans will know well the legendary violins made by the likes of Stradivarius and Guarneri in the 17th and 18th century. But new acoustical research has found that concert goers rated the music of new fiddles higher than that from old and revered Italian violins. Dr Claudia Fritz of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris explains how she did this study and what she found. Virtuoso soloist Tasmin Little plays her 260 year old Italian instrument for presenter Adam Rutherford and offers her thoughts on the findings.

Adam also hears about personality and social cliques in great tits in Oxfordshire, and social networks and disease in Japanese snow monkeys. Adam chats with Leicester University geneticist Turi King and artists Ruth Singer and Gillian McFarland about their collaborative project to explore DNA through art.

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BBC Inside Science

Violins - Social networks and cliques in great tits and snow monkeys - Exploring DNA and art

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