It’s noisy in the world of science this week, we’ve got screaming earths, singing cave men and musical jelly.

Star Scream

Scientists looking at the auroral kilometric radiation have come up with an interesting by-product. This awful noise.

This radio emission is caused in a similar way to the northern lights. When charged particles from the Sun hit Earth’s ionosphere it seems they don’t just make a light show, they make noise. It’s like some kind of demented space disco (press release).

The serious point of this work is to look at how this auroral kilometric radiation spreads out, as Space.com notes:

Theorists had long figured the radio waves, which were not well studied, oozed into space in an ever-widening cone, like light from a torch.

But new data from the European Space Agency’s Cluster mission, a group of four high-flying satellites, reveals the bursts of radio waves head off to the cosmos in beam-like fashion, instead.

And looking for this noisy radiation could help us detect planets orbiting other stars, say the researchers.

Here’s the research paper. And you can hear another AKR noise recording here, along with other cool space noises.

Singing Cave Men

Livescience has an interesting, if wildly speculative, musical story. Iegor Reznikoff, of the University of Paris X in Nanterre, says ancient cave men liked a good tune.

He is going to tell a forthcoming conference that the areas of their caves with the most painting also have the best acoustics.

“Why would the Paleolithic tribes choose preferably resonant locations for painting,” asks Reznikoff, “if it were not for making sounds and singing in some kind of ritual celebrations related with the pictures?”

Even better, Live Science says, “Humming into some bends in the wall even produced sounds mimicking the animals painted there.”

Jelly music

Finally, at an architectural banquet later this week the noise of wobbling jellys will be converted into music, according to the Times.