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Graphic - Scientific American Mind SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND
July 2009 Issue
What Do We Know about Tourette's?

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Brendan Borrell

Band of Bots Don't Play Musical Instruments--They Are the Instruments

GuitarBot couldn't keep a tune. "It's too high at the top, and too low at the bottom," Michael Hearst complained as he hopped onto the platform, giving the tuning knob a hopeful quarter-turn. But when he climbed down again and hit a button on his keyboard, the mechanical bridge slid back up the track, thumbing a note before wailing off-pitch once again.

Faced with this minor malfunction, Hearst was going to have to make do with GuitarBot's other three strings if he wanted to finish recording the "The Saddleback Caterpillar," a new song for his upcoming album, Songs for Unusual Creatures. [more]

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