Rocket science or rock n' roll? New York neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux doesn't have to choose.

Scientists might not seem obvious candidates for rock glamour, but LeDoux, set to play in Manhattan's city's legendary venue Kenny's Castaways, says the two disciplines go well together.

"I've been impressed with how effective music is as a communication tool," said LeDoux. "A song might convey the gist of a scientific principle that would stimulate someone's interest to pick up a book."

It's a thought shared by other talented scientists following in the tradition set by famed 19th-century Russian chemist-composer Alexander Borodin.

Earlier this year LeDoux organised an inaugural Rock-It Science music festival in New York that he hopes will become an annual event.

Music before science

For LeDoux (59) music was part of his life long before science.

He toyed with guitars in childhood and in college formed a band with the appropriately brainy name Cerebellum and the Madullas — although he had still not devoted himself to science.

"It was definitely premonition," he said. "I remembered the name from high school biology."

By 2006, LeDoux was an accomplished scientist and amateur guitarist, teaming up with New York University biology professor Tyler Volk, a lab assistant, and others from academia to form a folk rock band.

They called themselves the Amygdaloids — a reference to the amygdala, the part of the brain controlling emotions.

A first album, 'Heavy Mental', features titles like 'Mind Body Problem' and 'An Emotional Brain'.

Now the Amygdaloids are finishing up a CD called 'Brainstorm', with Grammy-winning rock/folk singer Rosanne Cash on backup vocals, blending indie, folk and rock tunes.

The band is also preparing to play on 24 September at Kenny's Castaways — a venue famous for hosting Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Patti Smith, and the Ramones.

Popularising science

Harvard University evolutionary geneticist Pardis Sabeti (38) says rock 'n roll is a way to popularise science.

She regularly performs solo and with her alternative rock band, Thousand Days, which appears in venues around the country. Her songs include 'Turkana Boy', about the 1.5 million-year-old skeleton of a 12-year-old boy found in the Odalvi Gorge.

"I am often asked to speak to young students about science," she said. "I guess the music makes it so the students can relate to me, seeing that I am a lot like them, and then they see how much I love my job."

Music is science

Meanwhile, Columbia University neurologist David Sulzer — stage name David Soldier — goes a step further by using science to explore the intricacies of sound itself.

"Music is scientific," Sulzer (52) said. "It's based on rhythms and overtones, which are math ratios."

He pointed out that technological developments were often closely related to tunes. Hydraulics, for example, were initially developed for the organ.

"The technology of the violin, which goes back to the Renaissance, is still one of the technological marvels, even now," he said. "So really, you can't divorce science from music."

Sulzer, who is known only as Soldier in music circles, taught himself violin, guitar and banjo in his teens and quickly developed a passion for composition and performance.

In college, he studied composition with jazz musician Roscoe Mitchell in exchange for working on Mitchell's farm in Michigan.

Then while pursuing a masters in botany and horticulture at the University of Florida, Sulzer played guitar alongside the legendary Bo Diddley, one of the pioneers of rock 'n roll.

Sulzer moved to New York City in the early 1980s, where he performed on guitar and violin with approximately 100 different bands within a year.

"It was a very hard life," he said, recalling his many music gigs which, combined with lab work and side jobs as a bartender, had him working 100 hours a week.

But even when he joined Columbia's biology PhD program and studied neuroscience, the musical experiments continued.

At the zoo

In 2000, Sulzer created the Thai Elephant Orchestra, a musical ensemble made up of elephants, with conservationist Richard Lair, co-founder of the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre.

"I wanted to see if animals could learn to play music," he said.

Sulzer designed several customized instruments — including a large xylophone — for the elephants at a local metal shop in Northern Thailand.

The orchestra is releasing its third CD, 'Water Music', at the end of the year.

Nor has he forgotten human musicians.

Aside from performing banjo and guitar with punk group The Kropotkins, Sulzer is working on an experiment at Columbia University tracking brainwaves to produce musical pitches.