“Silicon nanowires grow more densely when blasted with Deep Purple than any other music tested, says an Australian researcher. But the exact potential of music in growing nanowires remains a little hazy. David Parlevliet, a PhD student at Murdoch University in Perth, presented his findings at a recent Australian Research Council Nanotechnology Network symposium in Melbourne. Parlevliet is testing nanowires for their ability to absorb sunlight in the hope of developing solar cells from them.

[..] Parlevliet says one day his supervisor wondered what would happen if the usual method of generating the pulsed plasma was replaced with music instead. After a very long morning in the lab listening to the radio waiting for nanowires to grow, Parlevliet says he worked out a way to investigate the matter.

“Instead of using the pulse from the pulse generator, I plugged the music player in,” he says. Parlevliet tested the effect of Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’, Chopin’s ‘Nocturne Opus 9 No 1′, Josh Abrahams’ ‘Addicted to Bass’, Rammstein’s ‘Das Modell’ and ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’.”

(via ABC Online)