CUE University

Science

What research says about rhythm, time, perception, numbers, behaviour and the patterns we notice.

Science does not need to validate every CUE idea to make these questions fascinating. This section explores what is measurable, what is still debated, and where CUE finds interesting parallels.

Featured · The Numbers Inside

The Numbers Inside Music

Why rhythm, harmony and pitch are built on mathematical relationships.

Music feels emotional, but underneath it sits a precise world of ratios, frequency, repetition and timing.

  • 2:1 octave
  • 3:2 fifth
  • 4:3 fourth
  • 5:4 major third
  • harmonics
  • twelve tones
Read article →
Octave 2:1 Fifth 3:2
Two tones in simple ratios line up regularly: 2:1 every cycle of the lower note, 3:2 every second cycle.

Explore science

Mind

How brains find patterns, notice numbers and build a sense of now.

In progress: What Science Says About Intuition

Body

The clocks, rhythms and habits that run beneath the day.

In progress: Why Timing Changes Performance · Why We Repeat Habits · The Science of Stress and Decision Making

Nature

Cycles, symmetry, spirals and the moon, measured.

In progress: Why Cycles Appear Everywhere in Nature · Why Spirals Keep Appearing

Numbers

The numbers that keep turning up, and why.

In progress: Why Prime Numbers Are So Strange · What Makes 41 Interesting?

Information

Bits, entropy and the arrow of time.

In progress: What Is Information? · How Numbers Become Data · Why Time Has an Arrow

Perception

Colour, light and the model of the world your brain builds.

In progress: Color Is Something Your Brain Builds · Why Rainbows Have Their Shape · Why Your Eyes Do Not See Reality Directly · What Brain Waves Actually Mean

Life

The code, cycles and simple rules behind living things.

In progress: Why Biology Is Full of Repeating Cycles · How Simple Rules Create Complex Life

Complexity

Chaos, emergence and order without a plan.

In progress: What Is Chaos Theory? · Why Simple Rules Create Complex Patterns · What Is the Butterfly Effect? · What Is a Quasicrystal?

Popular questions

The Numbers Inside

A CUE series: the measurable numbers behind everyday things.

The Numbers Inside The Numbers Inside Music Why rhythm, harmony and pitch are built on mathematical relationships. The Numbers Inside The Numbers Inside DNA Four letters, 64 words, 20 building blocks: how life encodes information.

Next in the series: The Numbers Inside Time · The Numbers Inside Color · The Numbers Inside the Calendar · The Numbers Inside Nature · The Numbers Inside Memory · The Numbers Inside Light

New in Science

Information Why Time Has an Arrow Most laws of physics run just as well backwards. So why does time only go one way? Mind What Is Confirmation Bias? Why we notice what fits, and forget what does not. Mind What Is Synchronicity? Jung’s “meaningful coincidence”, and what probability says about it. Mind Why the Human Brain Is Built to Find Patterns How we detect repetition, faces, sequences and meaning, sometimes where there is none. Mind Why You Start Seeing the Same Number Everywhere Selective attention, memory and the frequency illusion. Body Your Body Runs on More Than One Clock Circadian, ultradian and infradian rhythms, and what sets them.

Coming soon

  • Pattern Recognition
  • Circadian Rhythms
  • Lunar Research
  • Human Behavior
  • Decision Making

How we write Curiosity is not certainty

  • Science helps us understand which patterns are measurable.
  • History helps us understand which patterns humans have cared about.
  • CUE explores what those patterns might mean in everyday life, and labels that as its own view.