A Symphony of Science is an independently produced website where John Boswell features music/science video mashups or remixes. From the website’s About page,

Hey – I’m John Boswell, the head musician and producer behind the Symphony of Science. The goal of the project is to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public, in a novel way, through the medium of music. Science and music are two passions of mine that I aim to combine, in a way that is intended to bring a meaningful message to listeners, while simultaneously providing an enjoyable musical experience.

The project owes its existence in large measure to the wonderful work of Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steve Soter, with their production of the classic PBS Series Cosmos, as well as all the other featured figures and visuals.

…

Inspiration from The Gregory Brothers and DJ Steve Porter, coupled with my experience with remixing, composition, and auto-tune, led to experiments with remixing scientists, culminating in Carl Sagan’s “A Glorious Dawn” in Fall of 2009.

This first video’s highly positive reception provided motivation to elaborate on the theme of remixing scientists, which spawned the Symphony of Science project. The second video, “We Are All Connected”, was released in October 2009 on the heels of A Glorious Dawn with much success. Although the methods of remixing and tuning spoken word, combined with original electronic music and similarly themed footage, are unorthodox in the context of other science-themed music, the results have often been inspiring, humbling, and of course humorous.

I found this site thanks to GrrlScientist’s Dec. 1, 2010 posting on the Punctuated Equilibrium blog (one of The Guardian’s science blogs) where she features Boswell’s latest video in the series, A Wave of Reason. From the posting,

This video features noted scientists and thinkers, Carl Sagan, Bertrand Russell, Sam Harris, Michael Shermer, Lawrence Krauss, Carolyn Porco, Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynman, Phil Plait, and James Randi.

Lyrics:

Russell:

When you are studying any matter
Or considering any philosophy
Ask yourself only: what are the facts,
And what is the truth that the facts bear out

…

Dawkins:

There is a new wave of reason
Sweeping across America, Britain, Europe, Australia
South America, the Middle East and Africa
There is a new wave of reason
Where superstition had a firm hold

Here’s another Symphony of Science video, Poetry of Reality (An Anthem to Science),

The videos are available for download both from the Symphony of Science (SOS) website or from YouTube. From the SoS website,

Continuation of the videos relies on generous support from fans and followers. You can make a donation if you wish to contribute support to the project. Thanks to everybody who has donated – enjoy what you find!

I enjoyed the videos although I do think they are weighted towards a perspective which tends to ridicule philosophies that aren’t sufficiently scientific as per the likes of Richard Dawkins. It would be nice to see some scientists from outside the UK and the US represented but I suspect that has something to do with the availability of material. Boswell notes a debt to a specific PBS series, which limits the possibilities, and I imagine that he cannot afford to fly around the world to film material especially for this series.