What Mark Whittle has said about Sonification of scientific data
3 quotes · 1 episode · Sep 18, 2026
Mark Whittle, Professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia who sonifies the early universe, has been quoted on Sonification of scientific data 3 times in 1 episode of TED Radio Hour, most recently on September 18, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
Whittle chose sound rather than imagery to communicate cosmology because astronomy's public presentation is overwhelmingly visual.
“I just thought it was a wonderful way of communicating to the public what these new discoveries were, was to actually use sound as the bridge”
TED Radio Hour: Big mysteries explained through your senses (Sep 18, 2026) · Listen from 11:20
Whittle says the raw cosmic sound resembles noise because the young universe's harmonics are very wide, so he narrowed them to make them musical.
“if you're standing at a piano, you don't put your finger on one note. You put your full forearm onto a lot of notes. It all comes out together. And so it's not very musical and it's more like noise”
TED Radio Hour: Big mysteries explained through your senses (Sep 18, 2026) · Listen from 16:58
Whittle says the piano rendering uses the first eight harmonics, which are the ones telescopes have detected.
“those are the first eight harmonics, which are basically the eight that have been seen by telescopes”
TED Radio Hour: Big mysteries explained through your senses (Sep 18, 2026) · Listen from 18:34
Episodes
Big mysteries explained through your sensesTED Radio Hour · Sep 18, 2026 · 50 min
Manoush Zomorodi talks with astronomer Mark Whittle, smell researcher Paule Joseph and artist Yiyun Kang about perceiving hidden realities through the senses.
Mark Whittle on other topics
- Big Bang cosmology · 7 quotes
- Cosmic microwave background · 2 quotes