Reno Reporter

Physics has inspired many scientists over the years, and now a group of science-minded musicians can be added to that list.

Last month, a quartet of musicians known as The String Theory Quartet, who attended the University of Nevada, Reno, came together to examine the impact heat would have on their music, according to a school news release.

“I was pretty good at music, but I was also really good at science and physics,” according to the quartet’s cellist Johnny Lenz.

The group was also part of Reno's last month's fine arts celebration, Artown on the Quad.

“Every single material on Earth has a rate of thermal expansion and contraction, including our strings," said Lenz, who studied the resonance of fine wires at UNR. "As they get longer, the tension decreases in the strings, and they go flat. In the case of my cello, it goes way flat.”

The band consists of a former alumna who is now a professor, a current instructor and two alumni who are also brothers.

“The idea behind string theory, and it’s been a long time since I’ve gone to school here, but it’s unification," said Lenz. "You’re trying to unify the different quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, relativity, you’re trying to unify all that so that it makes sense. And that’s one of the reasons we thought it’d be good for a quartet, is we’re trying to unify and blend the different forces of the musical family and the string instrument family.”