Tennessee

Secret to violins appears heaven-sent

The secret of a Stradivarius violin’s heavenly sound may actually have celestial origins.

For centuries, experts have debated whether special varnishes or wood treatments were the secret to the instruments’ rich resonance, which some consider superior to contemporary violins.

Now a tree-ring dating expert at the University of Tennessee and a climatologist at Columbia University offer a new theory — the wood developed special acoustic properties as it was growing because of an extended period of long winters and cool summers.

Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer at Tennessee and Dr. Lloyd Burckle at Columbia suggest a “Little Ice Age” that gripped Europe from the mid-1400s until the mid-1800s slowed tree growth and yielded uncommonly dense Alpine spruce for Antonio Stradivari and other famous 17th century Italian violinmakers.

Above, Grissino-Mayer shows a sample of such a tree, dating to 1763, in his office in Knoxville.

Boston

Eleven deaths linked to Northeast storm

Residents of the Northeast climbed through snowdrifts and navigated icy streets and sidewalks Sunday as they dug out from a weekend Nor’easter that dumped more than 2 feet of snow in places.

The powerful storm that started plowing up the coast on Friday began losing strength Sunday. At least 11 deaths were linked to the storm around the Northeast.

National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Foley said the storm’s center was about 100 miles east of Portsmouth, N.H., Sunday night, moving slowly out to sea.

The storm was blamed for one traffic death in Pennsylvania, one in Connecticut, one in upstate New York and two each in New Jersey, Vermont and Virginia. A 25-year-old man died in Rhode Island when the inner tube he was riding on, towed behind a truck, hit a utility pole. A New Jersey man collapsed outside his home while shoveling snow and later died, the hospital said.