Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

Much as people thump a watermelon to test its ripeness, Stanford composer Jonathan Berger wants them to use sound in novel ways to figure out the world.

So he put sound to the way professional golfers swing their clubs. The result: It's now possible for pros and duffers alike to improve their game by listening to their own strokes. In another experiment, runners, rowers and other athletes can "hear" how their bodies are performing -- from heart rates to stress levels -- while practicing.

And Berger's sounds for digital images of microscopic cells can help doctors distinguish cancerous ones by the "music" they make.