Korean scientists think plant genes could be turned on by blasting fields with classical music. According to New Scientist (subscription required) actually playing Beethoven to rice plants in a lab had no effect but when sound was played to plants at specific frequencies two genes became more active. The ald gene became more active at 125 and 250 Hertz, and less active at 50 Hertz. In their paper in Molecular Breeding the researchers suggest that in transgenic plants the expression of any gene fused to ald could be regulated by sound.

Newspapers in the UK are having a lot of fun with the suggestions. Heir to the throne Prince Charles was ridiculed in the 1980s for saying “I just come and talk to the plants, really – very important to talk to them, they respond.” So the research is leading to a number of “Charles was right” stories (The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail).