
Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius - dimas
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090914111418.htm
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mrshoe
Fungus is the new computer. There's nothing like that feeling a beginning
programmer has when he realizes that he can give the computer a few simple
instructions and, in a matter of seconds, the computer does something that
would take thousands of man-years of manual computation.

This is why biotech is such an interesting field. If we can give fungi and
bacteria simple instructions and let them execute those instructions in
massively parallel fashion, we can accomplish amazing feats.

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jacquesm
I don't really see the link with computing here. The fungi changed the cell
structure of the wood, chemistry and woodworking on a microscopic scale.

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cakeface
There is no link with computing as in running a program. The link is the
perception changing technology that lets us accomplish previously difficult
tasks in a simple manner.

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fizx
Worth noting that this was only a single-blind test, with a sample size of 1
violinist.

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hawk
There were 5 violins, 2 of which were fungus violins, one of those in
particular received a staggering 60% of the votes. Not sure what the best
conclusion to draw is but it's certainly believable that one day you'll be
able to get a cheap violin with incredible tone quality.

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rms
I assure that you that short of molecular self-assemblers, these fungus
treated violins are not going to be cheap. They will cost well above the
average for a new violin, but much, much less than a violin from a classic
master.

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StrawberryFrog
True, but no-one is making Stradivariuses these days.

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lkozma
Stradivarii ? :)

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mynameishere
The prices of the Stradivarius violins are as reasonable as the price of Van
Goghs and vintage wines. The truth is, Joshua Bell playing a swinette would
sound better than me on a Stradivarius.

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wallflower
Since you mentioned Joshua Bell, I'd like to remind people of the previously
posted on News.YC Pulitzer-award winning article, "Pearls before Breakfast"

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/04...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)

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Dilpil
As the article points out, other more mundane violins have done the same
thing.

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philh
"Identify these sounds" is a fundamentally different exercise to "decide which
of these sounds you prefer". And the sample size in that instance was three.

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doosra
Wait, just by chance it looks like there was a 4/5 chance that the
Stradivarius would loose/be outdone.

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ibsulon
That's like saying a grandmaster has a 4/5 chance of losing a 5 person chess
tournament. The competition must be genuinely good to have a chance.

