Swine flu may be inspiring fear worldwide , but for Stephan Zielinski of San Francisco , California , it inspired a song . The genes underlying swine flu inspired one amateur musician to compose music based on it . The virus has the classification H1N1 because it includes two key viral proteins , hemagglutinin ( H ) and neuraminidase ( N ) . Zielinski took the genetic sequence of a variant of hemagglutinin and created a computer algorithm to turn it into music . Zielinski , 41 , is not a biochemist or a professional musician -- he 's a writer , photographer , computer programmer , and blogger who creates music in his spare time . But he 's fascinated that , even though biologists can map the genome of the virus and predict what the hemagglutinin protein looks like , the human body still can not distinguish it as the `` bad guy '' -- at least , not until there 's a vaccine . Listen to the song . `` Although the map is there and you can even make a song out of it , we ca n't explain it to these itty bitty little cells in body , '' he said . Using computer programs he created himself , as well as a commercial product , Zielinski composed his song by assigning instruments and musical notes to various properties of the protein . Zielinski took the various categories of amino acids , the building blocks of the protein , and assigned each a different instrument -- piano , organ , low synthesizer , percussion . The melody was created by assigning notes to specific amino acids . Each beat of the song also corresponds to one of numerous amino acids . The work was done entirely with a computer and took about six hours Tuesday , he said . Learn more about swine flu » . He first learned of the sequence through an immunologist friend at the Mayo Clinic , he said . Zielinski saw it as a form of highly organized information that a human did not design . `` The only way I could look at that and make sense of it , since I 'm not a biochemist , was , well , I could try translating it into another very organized form of information that people do , and then see if I could hear anything . And the answer , of course , turned out to be no . '' But even if the mystery of the virus did not reveal itself in musical form , the result is a curiously melodic , innovative , somewhat soothing work . Dr. Jay Steinberg , infectious disease specialist at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta , Georgia , called it `` nice ambient music '' that 's reminiscent of Brian Eno . Less methodical swine flu songs are also emerging on YouTube . User `` CelicaAaron '' parodies the Jonas Brothers ' song `` Lovebug , '' crooning , `` I ca n't get your snout out of my mouth / I 'm sick to my stomach all the time . '' A short spoken-word effort by user `` Micfri '' warns , `` You know who has swine flu ? Pigs ! ''
Stephan Zielinski composed a song based on a swine flu gene . He created an algorithm that assigns instruments and notes to amino acids . YouTube users are also posting swine flu songs .