The ancient Greeks may have been onto something when Pythagoras mused about the music of the spheres — a flawed, if romantic concept suggesting the mathematical relationships between celestial bodies could likewise emanate harmonious sounds not unlike violin strings.
Pythagoras was as far from the modern scientific mark as any 6th-century philosopher could be, but a new experiment at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has given the world a winking reminder that there's more to the music of our universe's birth — and that it can be detected in the resonance of protons, which still ring like a bell with the excited clamor of the Big Bang.
