into the future on d. w. dot com science and research for asia. hash tag germany decides. the day before the general election on d w a day dedicated to democracy. from its dramatic beginnings in germany until the present day how is the nation of culture fearing election year. where do the german people see their place in europe and the world. democracy day september twenty third d. w. . welcome to tomorrow today this week we're looking at the power of music you'll see how it can make learning math easier. and how helpful it is in treating elderly

patients with dementia. as an encore the secret lives of fireflies why do they glow. welcome to the show. algebra arithmetic geometry mathematics are often seen as too dry and theoretical critics complain that school children learn to solve problems but rarely ever acquire a grasp of underlying mathematical principles what do you think are they right we asked on twitter. how do you remember your math classes forty one percent of you love them more than expected. thirty seven percent said they could take it or leave it. while around one in five of you hated math class with a vengeance. adding music to the mix might have changed a few minds this project shows how.

much. the student johann boy has written some math songs that have become internet hits. even help in understanding the pythagorean theorem. in music is magical for learning math music teacher marcus love a check wants to take the you tube concept and bring it into the classroom he calls it the musical way to learn math. and moves you commit if you bring music into the lessons of other subjects that works magically the subjects automatically grow more interesting explaining becomes easier the child gets the opportunity to actually do something ok it's home.

math and music are siblings rhythm chords and harmonics all work according to mathematical principles if the math behind the music is correct then we perceive that music as beautiful. that's also true for a complex music pieces like this japanese song it has special rhythms that work well as an experiment during math lessons. when it's all right let's try it all together ready. while singing the students and this was classroom i'm supposed to visualise what they hear that means they should interpret and write down on paper the laws and

rules of the tones in beats they hear they don't write musical notes they use pictures and symbols experts call with the students are doing mathematics zeeshan mathematics you know has mathematics zation means translating and every day situation into a generally abstract language upstroke extracting an actual situation and trying to recognise the laws behind it and it's masticate it's a kind. of the color represents a pause and the x.'s represent the next. you can assume that's over he's done and that's a great i think the top is like a key and that's also a true. you can use. you can invent some characters and then say blue is pink is high this red is a pause and green is even higher. in

this exercise the goal is to find a new way to think about math by using music the class is divided into two groups half of the classes clapping their hands in a circle counting from one to thirty all multiples of three are substituted with the word pain then they move to multiples of four. the other half of the class is at the blackboard they listen to the group in the circle and try to recognize the pattern. notice immediately that the pattern has to have a certain amount of regularity but if you follow the game you multiples of three exercise it's easier because you always see the same person but with a multiples of four there are always different. i thought the experiment was good. it's good that you can come by max and. on the one hand you have to clap the rhythm

properly and on the other you have to think about the multiples. perhaps there will soon be a subject called mathematic until then students can learn arithmetic with the help of songs written by johann boyish. the. music can sound like this. yes. or like this what different styles have in common is an ability to touch us and the power to heal.

but does. this cafe in zero people dance their worries away it's refreshing and good exercise. because it. must suffer from dementia even if it's not always obvious to outsiders. the show gets both body and soul moving it happens automatically. seventy five has alzheimer's it was diagnosed two years ago. he comes here regularly with his partner. and he's i've noticed that there's more within me than i knew about. when i've been learning a new language that's called movement. i don't have to dredge my memory it just happens on the spur of the moment. dementia pretty much shuts down the brain neurons die and are not replaced.

thomas because they're sixty six and his dementia is advanced he can no longer speak most tasks are beyond him. when he hears the music here he starts to dance with his wife christina. he never used to dance it started with his dementia anything that reaches the soul movement it becomes more important as the mind ceases to do what it used to now it's more about feelings it was. seventy three he had a. stroke a few weeks ago and can hardly speak now rehab involves music it should help him learn to talk again. the stroke often damages the language center in the brain music can help reactivated

music stimulates many regions of the brain. for example the order to recall tags. the lining in memory center and the regions associated with remembering sounds and melodies music triggers emotions that happens here. singing or playing an instrument activates this region. listening to or making music stimulates the restoration of language by creating or enhancing connections between a whole range of systems in the brain. bruno serato solo comes in right on cue. near. when. that's clicked ice that's the means for him if we're lucky and

a patient used to sing a last song stored in their memory then they're all my people to call up the words of the lyrics in connection with the melody or. what's going on in an emotional terms that's a very big deal when they realize they can still do that they can find the words just come to them at the right moment that's a possum for us. so . soul is a good example he's had a hard time talking but he can sing very well. it's not the language center that's activated but other regions of the brain.

are. the farrelly usually was not bad zing. on the singing lessons. are somehow liberating. for you in this pair for i in this. patient has made excellent progress at first he couldn't us are aware of that you could tell he knew what he wanted to say but he couldn't find the words to say is well it's not a few. weeks later he can form sentences to say what he wants. when i was not some kind of automatic response you can't really express himself.

at the cafe the party is in full swing. yes but early to non is eighty four and her dementia is far advanced still there's one song that always does the trick suddenly she's wide awake and on her toes shit seriously. let's face it. it's resonates somewhere deep inside feel songs from long ago are still familiar i find it so touching to see her the way she used to be you taught me a good time. kate if it was ever if. everyone is in a good mood and somehow liberated and for

a moment thanks to the power of music. these sponges are surrounded by water music and speaking of sponges what are they and biological terms anyway many people might guess their plants but they're not they're animals when it comes to the science of life sometimes the i deceives and that's not just true of sponges. peter roma tayo from one wants to know. what's the difference between fruit and vegetables. the botanical answer vegetables are plants with leaves and roots. but the fruit always grows from blossoms except that zucchini blossoms don't produce any fruit or do they they can be confusing biology is usually viewed as an orderly science. for example are vertebrates that live in water and have gills.

birds are vertebrates that have feathers and wane. and mammals are vertebrates covered in hair. but try to differentiate between a fruit and vegetable and even scientists can get a little confused it doesn't help to judge the matter based on sugar content either take carrots for example they can be really sweet but they're still considered a vegetable the bottom line is that society decides what it considers to be a fruit or a vegetable. real botanists used another criteria. they call annual plants that have to be sown a new each year vegetables. whereas fruit grows on perennial trees or shrugs which live for many years an apple tree can live for a century or even longer. but even here there are exceptions like asparagus

a perennial vegetable but no matter what you choose to call them in the end it's the flavor that matters. if you have a science question write us if we decide to showcase your query on the program we'll send you a d.v.d. of our animated einstein explaining many of the great scientists theories. the most important thing is to never stop asking questions. in human development some phases are more difficult than others puberty for example causes huge physical and emotional changes. experts say this period is accompanied by big changes in the brain. and during pregnancy a similar process occurs.

having a child design i point in many women's lives a source of great joy and fulfillment the whole process brings physical and emotional changes. but the back door lever to back it after i go i was very happy full of love in every fiber of my being everything was suffused with joy flashes of feeling. i was just by used an emotion. i am whatever feeling and i'm getting that . everything changed suddenly when my daughter was born in motion when i thought it was brutal i was in the same person anymore i never used to be frightened but i am now i'm much more wary i never used to have second thoughts about things but i do know. so what exactly does change and what are the causes psychologist and neuroscientist erica from barcelona university spent eight years

researching the issue she worked with a group of women who were planning to have their first child she took brain scans before they got pregnant and then after they gave birth and then again two years later. barbara miller compared the scans to those of women who didn't have children in her conclusion after a woman gives birth her brain is no longer the same. i don't know if that women who became of the volume of gray matter in a certain specific regions decreased home and this was done. and that was true for all the mothers in the test the regions that changed are marked in yellow. and that's almost maybe half in this cross-section and you see the changes at the front and the back. of the city and we see them from a different perspective it's just that this yaquis. shrinking grey matter is also

been observed in children in the run up to puberty the phenomenon has been dubbed synoptic pruning it's thought to be an indicator of learning in specialisation the hypothesis is that in pregnant women a similar process of preparation takes place and hansing the mother's ability to recognise the needs of her child. look we think it has to do with what's known as a mother's instinct. that's what helps some of the recognise what's going on and have a basis on enables her to tell if it's hungry or in pain and. the changes take place in regions associated with social cognition an area often called emotional intelligence the volume reductions showed a substantial overlap with brain regions involved in a woman's response to her baby after it's born scans were also made as women were shown photos of their own in other babies so miska sacked even. when the mother

sees her own baby has increased activity in exactly the regions that change during pregnancy. where we see a shrinkage of the grains. that doesn't happen when she sees another baby. but. it's thought the flood of hormones that comes with pregnancy somehow causes the changes in the brain progesterone levels for example search ten to fifteen fold . baba miller and her colleagues believe that the changes in the brain prepare a woman for her role as mother. but a lot of them in the family and in a given accountable that is probably the case that these women can recognize faces better no doubt in order to protect themselves from risks or to improve their ability to find help with. our interpretation. is not their thing that us here on. the study shows that the changes in door for at least two years after a woman has given birth. there are many unanswered questions such as when exactly

during pregnancy the changes take place and what exactly triggers them. to have offspring almost all animals first have to find a partner. for human beings that's generally associated with falling in love a time of glowing feelings and emotional upheaval. but the stars of our next report have their own way of going about looking for partners as they glow too but in a very different way. i warm summer's night at the end of june in cologne. the whole city is illuminated . no one here has any idea what's about to take place just a few kilometers ahead of time and

a glorious spectacle i wonder of nature. it's well worth a trip into the forest. nikou a visa and mohamed my mary have come to witness the magic that takes place here every season the night before muhammad stole the show for the first time this year the stars are bugs this doesn't have on and there were huge swarms of them also for the room and we could start here the server left here knows what it's all set up camp yeah exactly. what time was it what so stated what about ten p.m. it's going to take a while it's all right. then at a quarter past ten the show begins. the hour of the firefly also known

as lightning. only the males are. hundreds of. that show takes place for one reason only to find. memory and for services i like to imagine that the light has been here for millions of years. before humans showed up with even before they were electric lights it fascinates me there's something poetic about it was clear to us. that what makes the fireflies glow and what do they look like up close.

that. they are fanciful how often the hope of what you know is that glowing like diamonds. climb a little brown bug non-descript in the light in a good duckling and. with what i understand is one stuck in a spider's web. it may be trapped but it keeps on blowing. the light producing organ it's at the back of the up demand. a chemical reaction in the cells creates a life. almost all of the energy gets turned into lice. there's no artificial light that's more efficient but where the females. one

looks very much like a female. i have massive oil it's almost very timid dry leaves you can hardly see. the females just on the forest floor without moving. much later than the males. scientists believe the females only send out light signals after they're stimulated by the males beginning to glow their light attracts the males. for male fireflies it's crucial to quickly find a mate masing is first come first served. after making the males love light fades away and they die. the males also short of their lights and begin with egg production. two days later still die as well. after ninety minutes the spectacular show is

over. but for the next few evenings the fireflies will be out there searching for a mate. an organism's ability to emit light has a name bioluminescence. it occurs when a protein called a lucifer in and an enzyme called the lucifer rays react with energy rich a.t.p. molecules and oxygen. as the report mentioned this chemical process is very efficient ninety five percent of the energy it produces is emitted as light just five percent as heat. within can doesn't light bulbs that ratio is reversed and there inefficiency inspired researchers to make l.e.d.s. modeled on fireflies. for more stories from the world of

research and technology head for our web site d w dot com flash science and if you want to get in touch head for our twitter and facebook pages we love hearing from you. that's it for this week but join us again next time when we'll head out to the countryside on the farms of the future pesticide and fertilizer use could be regulated by drones the technology holds great promise in agriculture more on that next week on tomorrow today see you then.

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i don't think the folk at all on the whole like you can get that up to the minute news or dipping in the background to political developments. to. bring you more of the oil. climate change. waste. pollution. isn't it time for good news. africa people and projects that are changing environment for the better it's up to us to make a difference let's check. the good for. the environment magazine. d.w. tagged germany decides what is your take on the whole position regarding not only climate change. what do you want to know about germany's general election.

ask w. your questions about germany. and america. write to us on facebook we'll answer your questions. she's long been a symbol of hope in syria i try to help people. does she stand for change or the false facade of her husband's rule of telling us. she believes in my projection that that they are saving syria. the beautiful face of the dictatorship starting october first on d w. s gemini decides the candidates. d.w. xena's pool and just for up the courage to have interviewed almost all the front runners in germany's upcoming parliamentary elections. and now look at four thirty

in. the amount. cast that germany decides. the candidates september twenty first on. you're watching news live from berlin hurricane low rio rips across the caribbean after causing widespread devastation in domenica from rio has no bearing down on the virgin islands and puerto rico a category five storm lashing a region already battered by hurricane arma. also coming up me and mars later on.