The sound of science delivers a mellifluous note

If you’re not ready to fork out tens of thousands of euro to get your hands on a lovingly hand-crafted violin, perhaps you can spend a couple of hours and €8 making your own.

A basic scientific understanding of shape and sound, a keen imagination, and materials lying around the garage are all you need, says Dr Shane Bergin of University College Dublin.

Tonight the physicist and his undergraduate students will be joined by colleagues and music students from Trinity College to run a workshop about the sound of science at the National Concert Hall.

The pack of musical and scientific experts will teach children, their parents and grandparents about how the scientific laws of sound, resonance and vibration produce the miracle of music.

The intergenerational, interdisciplinary workshop, which focuses on "blurring the boundaries between maths, science and music", is just a snapshot of a larger programme that Bergin has run for over a year. The musical scientist, who plays ukulele, guitar and piano, and sings, happened on the idea while talking to colleagues with vastly different areas of teaching expertise.

Science is creative

“People might think they’re very disparate subjects, but that isn’t necessarily true,” Bergin says. “Any subject taught well is creative – even science is all about using your imagination, asking questions and

being creative

. ”

Involving their undergraduate students in the teaching process, he says, is an important tool to start encouraging everyone to look beyond disciplinary limits.

“For a number of music students, this is the first time they’ve really connected with physics and science, and they’re far less afraid of [it] ,” says Bergin. “And it’s a very vulnerable position to be put in when you’re performing something musically, and then the scientists get to experience that . . . emotional payoff.”

University students and their teachers have since visited more than 1,000 primary school students, to guide them through the questions that link the worlds of music and science.

Tonight’s investigations include whether sounds can actually break glass, why the rich drone of a cello is much more mellifluous than scraping fingernails on a chalk board, and how different shapes produce different sounds. Then, participants will roll up their sleeves to put theory into practice by making their own musical instruments.

“No 10-year-old needs to be told how to be creative in this way,” he added. “We structure the workshop around play, and just discovering these new theories.”

The workshop at 6pm is sponsored by Science Foundation Ireland. Tickets are €8 and can be booked at science.ie or.nch.ie.