Geophone (musical instrument) Geophone (musical instrument) The geophone is a percussion instrument, invented by the French composer Olivier Messiaen for use in his large composition for piano and orchestra entitled "Des canyons aux étoiles…" ("From the canyons to the stars…"). It consists of a drum filled with thousands of small lead pellets, and is played by swirling it around slowly so that the noise of the pellets resembles the sound of dry shifting earth. Messiaen commissioned a Parisian instrument maker to construct one to his design, and he carried this instrument worldwide to early performances of the piece (which was given its first
Faye Flam in the Special Projects category of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association's 2011 Keystone Press Awards for her article "Faulting the Forensics". Flam has been nominated for a Pulitzer prize for work in "The Philadelphia Inquirer". Flam's "Planet of the Apes" series drew criticism from Creationists. In an interview with "Discover" magazine, Flam indicated that the most intense criticism of her work came from coverage of climate change. Faye Flam Faye Flam (born c. 1964) is an American journalist. She has written for "Science Magazine" and wrote two weekly columns for "The Philadelphia Inquirer", including one on sex and one on evolution.