A story in the BBC caught our eye today, as a US team found that industrial noise disrupted the behaviour of animals that pollinate plants and disperse seeds. Pusblishing in  the Royal Society Proceedings, the team speculate that this could be responsible for changing our landscape.

Team leader Clinton Francis from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in North Carolina, tested the effects of industrial noise on wildlife in Rattlesnake Canyon Habitat Management Area (RCHMA), New Mexico.

“Fewer seedlings in noisy areas might eventually mean fewer mature trees, but because pinon pines are so slow-growing the shift could have gone undetected for years,” Dr Francis explained.

“Fewer pinon pine trees would mean less critical habitat for the hundreds of species that depend on them for survival.”

So speaking to your plants is okay but keep the noise down!

A New Scientist article presents a study showing that mice with heart transplants survived twice as long if they listened to classical music rather than pop music after their operation. Masateru Uchiyama of Juntendo University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan said, ”We don’t know the exact mechanisms but the harmony of Verdi and Mozart may be important.”

Not all are convinced. John Sloboda, a professor of psychology at the University of Keele, is sceptical about the effects. “I think it dangerous to dub this an ‘opera’ or ‘Mozart’ effect on the basis of exposure to one piece from each genre,” he said. “The effect might be totally specific to that piece, or even the recording, played at a specific volume, so we know nothing about what characteristics of these pieces might have caused the immunosuppressant response.”

Mozart is now locked in to our ‘A’ playlist here at 247Moneybox.com towers – bring on the benefits!