Harmonic Loop
Recent reports about harmonizing mosquitoes have intrigued me greatly. Get the scoop at Neurophilosophy , or listen to the story on NPR . In either place you can hear the sound that's generating the buzz: turns out that the annoying whine a mosquito makes is produced by the wings as they rub against themselves. Interesting. But the amazing part is that female mosquitoes can determine if the frequency of the whine from the male's wing-beats will harmonize with its own wing-beats, and the resulting harmonic tone generated by their respective whines appears to be a primary mating signal. In the YouTube link on the Neurophilosophy post and on the NPR report we humans can listen in on their duet. Incredibly, with careful observation, entomologists have recorded the third-tone of a mosquito's harmonic convergence. Musicians are trained, obviously, to recognize and respond to harmony. I'm not a musician, but I did play guitar in a band in college, and I clearly remember the f