There is no question that the human voice is a remarkable musical instrument, but few singing styles hit that point home as well as overtone singing — commonly known as throat singing —does. And it’s incredible to hear and watch multiple pitches coming out of a single mouth.

Why were so many people shot in Chicago last weekend? Does today's earthquake in Japan mean another Fukushima meltdown? And why does Winnipeg want to fine people $100 for singing in public? These are the questions we address in this week's edition of What's Ruining Our Cities.

As virtually every American citizen knows all too well, belting out the National Anthem can be a rather precarious proposition. Here's what the experts have to say about "The Star Spangled Banner" and why it's such a challenging piece, even for professionals.

Hugh Jackman is famous both for performing in musicals and portraying the superhero Wolverine—but what happens when he sings about playing Wolverine?

To make public speaking easier, don't calm down, scientists say. Instead, get excited.

Mice have just been added to a pretty selective group. Like humans and some birds, they can learn songs. At least, that's according to a new article published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Of course your smartphone (or tablet) can handle Karaoke, but you don't want to have to hold a screen while you're rocking out and driving the neighbors insane; you want a microphone, to add to the ridiculous fantasy that you're worth listening to. Enter the AppToyz AppSing, complete with scorpion-like phone holder.

Professor Chyi-Yeu Lin of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology has experimented with robot heads before (here's a few of them), and now his team has built a robot that can read music and emote according to the song's lyrics. Too bad this head looks like the Bride of Johnny Cab.

Floating singing lips are creepy but seeing a robotic head with dark soul sucking eyes (that double as cameras) try to sing might be just as bad. Especially when she's horribly shrieky and a little too realistic.

Dr. Timothy Elbert Wise is not only a joint-programme leader of both the Popular Music and Recording and Popular Musicology degrees at the University of Salford, UK, but is also one of the world's foremost authorities on the history and physiology of yodelling.

What if I told you that you could be a singer if you just spoke into an app. Seriously, that's all you have to do with Songify. The app autotunes your voice and stitches it against a song. YOU SOUND AWESOME.

Everyone remembers the classic shoot-em-up lobby scene from The Matrix. Bullets flying, people flying, it was awesome.

If you're not familiar with the UK talent show The X Factor, think of it as American Idol with adorable British accents. And also contestants—like Gamu Nhengu here—who never miss note, thanks to glorious Auto-Tuning. Hit it, Gamu!

I'm sure USC's Speech Articulation group gained all manner of important phonological insight from these videos of an opera singer and a beatboxer doing their respective things in an MRI machine. Here's the insight I gained: tongues are gross.

Have a flight heading into George Bush airport in Houston? You might want to make some adjustments now that management has set up karaoke booths to entertain (?) weary travelers.

Two things set this Sega Hitokara karaoke machine apart from the rest: it's connected to a cloud-based database of 43,000 songs via cellphone and it's got a whirling, light-up mirrored disco ball. Ohboyyes. Granted you'd have to be a fan of both karaoke (you strange person) and cheezy disco lighting, but what the…