CERN physicists design a 'cosmic piano' that plays Jazz using raw cosmic ray data, sounds like R2-D2 of Star Wars

At the Montreux Jazz Festival, which was held in Switzerland in July 2014, Jazz pianist Al Batter ended up playing an unusual instrument to produce music. The instrument, called the “cosmic piano” has been designed and developed by the physicists at CERN and used data from cosmic rays to produce Jazz music.

The innovative device produced a musical note and a flash of a light as soon as a cosmic particle passes through the detector pad installed on the instrument. A series of particles, thus detected on the instrument, create beautiful music. The musical notes created are not at all rhythmical or soothing to the ears, however, if a musician puts his heart out to produce some beautiful music, the device could do wonders.

The cosmic piano has been co-invented by physicist Arturo Fernandez and his collaborator Guillermo Tejeda. The duo used the components of the ALICE experiment to build the instrument, wherein the APD signals are converted to LVDS signals. The conversion produces musical tones and lights up the LEDs in the device as a cosmic particle reached the detector.

The Physics World reports that the instrument looks “a bit like a fancy staircase and sounds a bit like R2-D2 from the Star Wars films.” The cosmic particles are produced when the cosmic rays get in touch with the molecules on Earth and interact with it. Once the cosmic particles reach the detector on the instrument, it generates an optical signal which converts APD signals to LVDS signals, resulting in beeping sounds and flash of a light.

Since its appearance at the music festival, the device has actually proved to be a hit among people despite high costs. Several pieces of the device have been sold for around US $2,500.

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