Blind since adolescence, Wanda Diaz-Merced developed a technique called “sonification” to convert astrophysical signals into sound. Highlighting this remarkable tool for research and inclusion, it advocates for science open to all profiles.
Apologizing for the fictitious delay, Wanda Diaz-Merced, smiling broadly, invites us into her office at the Astroparticle and Cosmology (APC) laboratory. Similar to two stars, his gray-blue eyes immediately catch the eye. A look that does not return, Wanda Diaz-Merced is blind. Planets, stars, galaxies… she doesn’t see them. Despite this, the astronomer does not miss any of the spectacles of the sky, thanks to the technique she developed to convert the signals coming from space into audible sounds. A tool that allows the scientist to access data differently before further analysis. And, of course, a fantastic onboarding tool. After a year spent at the European Gravitational Laboratory (EGO), near Pisa, Wanda Diaz-Merced has just arrived in Paris for a year. There he will continue his unique endeavor to make the heavenly signals available to all.
Born in Puerto Rico, Wanda Diaz-Merced says she has always been interested in science. Although at the beginning of her studies, she first thought of medicine. But his future is quickly threatened. Having started to lose her sight during adolescence, she went completely blind in her senior year. ” I couldn’t even read what the teacher wrote on the board and obviously I no longer had access to books », she recalls, talking about a critical period in her life when she stopped almost everything.
Her friend rescues her from the night her disability has thrown her into. An amateur astronomer, he participates in NASA’s participatory science project Radio Jove, which consists of recording and analyzing radio emissions from Jupiter, the Sun or the galaxy using a small antenna that you assemble yourself. And he had the young student listen to the transposition, at audible frequencies, of the radio signal of a solar eruption. ” I had the impression of hearing the Sun in real time, then, after the eruption, the background noise of the galaxy », the scientist recalls with emotion. She adds: “ I felt deeply that an opportunity had presented itself “.
Astronomer’s ear
In particular, Wanda Diaz-Merced is getting closer to the Radio Jove project. “ I sat on conference calls and did everything I could to learn », she says. Until she was selected in 2005 for a summer internship at the Goddard Spaceflight Center, in the United States, where she met astrophysicist Robert Candey, whom she still calls her mentor today, almost twenty years later.
I had the impression of hearing the Sun in real time, then, after the eruption, the background noise of the galaxy.
She began working with him on the development of the xSonify program, which enables the translation of signals from astrophysical objects into variations in the frequency and intensity of sound. “ Then I could analyze my first data from the radio telescope », she explains.
The following year, she worked on images taken by the Swift satellite of gamma-ray bursts, bursts of ultra-energetic photons emitted by merging neutron stars or exploding giant stars. ” That’s when I realized that astronomy is a science I can do. »
An artist’s impression of a gamma ray burst, one of the cosmic events that Wanda Diaz-Merced can observe thanks to the sonification of astrophysical data.
In 2013, Wanda Diaz-Merced defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Glasgow. She then continued her postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, at the South African Astronomical Observatory, in Japan, then at EGO. Over the years, she has refined her approach to sonifying astrophysical data, which she applies to the solar wind, coronal mass ejections, cosmic rays, and even black hole mergers. As she explains, “ sonification does not replace rigorous mathematical analysis, but provides access to data through which potentially interesting signals are discovered for further study “. Moreover, through a series of perceptual experiments, the researcher shows that sound, including capable astronomers in the context of professional practice, increases the possibility of accessing very weak signals that are by nature invisible to the human eye.
Investigating signals from space
At the same time, Wanda Diaz-Merced participates in various inclusive participatory science projects. For example, in 2016 she held a TED conference where she advocated for science accessible to everyone. Then in 2019, she co-directed the conference ” Astronomy for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion », organized at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
Wanda Diaz-Merced has created a device to convert noise from space into audible sounds.
Sonification does not replace rigorous mathematical analysis, but provides access to data through which potentially interesting signals are detected for further study.
In Paris, the researcher began discussions with her new colleagues to clarify how she would communicate with them about laboratory topics. As Antoine Kouchner, its director, explains, “ electromagnetic radiation, cosmic rays, neutrinos, gravitational waves, the specialty of APC is that it gathers teams working on all the messengers thanks to which we can observe the Universe. From this point of view, Wanda’s approach could be very interesting to investigate these signals and contribute to the mission of opening the laboratory to everyone. »
On a strictly scientific level, sonification of data could, for example, find application for preparing observations of the Franco-Chinese Svom satellite, whose launch is planned for March 2024. Its mission: to determine the characteristics and location of gamma-ray bursts, which enables their monitoring by terrestrial observatories. Enough to make discoveries that more traditional approaches wouldn’t allow? For now, it’s still just a hypothesis. One thing is certain, with ears more than ever turned to the sky, Wanda Diaz-Merced intends to show that astronomy, without delay, would have everything from opening to all approaches and all profiles.♦