Language Log links to that Science News piece about my work, with a lot of interesting commentary. An old college friend saw it and let me know -- it's amazing what a small world it is sometimes! The post is by Mark Liberman, who expresses great interest in the possibility of selection in association with language evolution.
Liberman also raises the possibility of selection on music appreciation:
But my remark in passing about adaptation for music was not just a random joke — music is certainly the most obvious human activity where sub-semitone frequency discrimination of single tones is useful.
A graduate student raised that issue after my talk this spring, and it is a very interesting one. I don't have a lot else to say right now, because the work is still underway.
