Why we believe
Excellent talk by Andy Thomson on the biological and psychological origins of religion.
Can you tell if someone is lying
You wouldn’t know it from the claims of companies like No Lie MRI, but we’re a long way off being able to use brain scans to detect reliably whether a person is lying or not. Nonetheless, cognitive psychologists are busy beavering away in the background, testing the ways that brain activity varies when people lie compared with when they tell the truth. One such study has just been published, claiming to be the first to investigate deception in the context of face recognition.
Sujeeta Bhatt and colleagues scanned the brains of 18 participants undergoing a simple task designed to simulate a police line-up. The researchers compared brain activity across three conditions: when the participants pointed out truthfully which face from three they’d seen earlier; when they lied and pointed to a new face rather than the one they’d seen earlier; and finally a condition where all the faces were new but the participants lied and pretended to have seen one of them before.
No single brain area was active when the participants lied compared with when they told the truth. However, a network of frontal and parietal regions were more active in the lying conditions. This network included the dorso- and ventro- lateral prefrontal cortices, the superior frontal gyri, and the anterior cingulate gyrus, all of which are found at the front of the brain. These areas are known to be involved in working memory, response selection and error monitoring. In the parietal lobe, the precuneus - an area known to be involved in visual imagery- also showed increased activity during lying.
Doctors criticise ‘gay treatment’
Plans to promote medical treatment for homosexuality at a religious conference have been criticised by doctors. The event will hear from prominent American psychologist Dr Joseph Nicolosi who said he had helped many people to become heterosexual.
But the Royal College of Psychiatrists said there was no supporting evidence and such treatment could be damaging. The two-day conference being held in central London has been organised by the church group Anglican Mainstream.
Dr Nicolosi said he had been helping people to “increase their heterosexual potential” for 25 years, and put his success rate among men at about two out of three.
BBC (Thanks Kelly)
Professor Regan’s Medicine Cabinet
Professor Regan goes behind the pharmacy counter to find out if the millions we spend every year on products from cold remedies to herbal medicines are worth it.
Drawing on her own experience both as a doctor and as a breast cancer patient, Professor Regan discovers the real secret behind branded painkillers, reveals if homeopathy is a complete waste of money, investigates the ultimate cure for the common cold and tries out a test that could save your life.
As a doctor who has delivered hundreds of babies, Professor Regan knows a bit about pain relief. She knows that both generic and branded painkillers often contain exactly the same drugs – aspirin, paracetamol or ibuprofen. So she is amazed when an investigation into the power of branded drugs reveals they may really have an edge over the generic.
Professor Regan also turns her eye on alternative remedies, from homeopathy to herbal medicines. She designs her very own successful sleep remedy, gets to the truth behind homeopathic medicine, and uncovers which herbal remedies have clinical evidence that really stands up. Along the way, she discovers just how powerful the placebo effect can be.
iPlayer (Thanks Katherine)
What to do if Sylvia Browne comes to town
Perhaps one of the most shameless “spirit guides” is the infamous Sylvia Browne. Like all professional mediums, she makes a living on the grief, pain and desperation of people who are usually blissfully ignorant of cold reading. However she got a little more than she bargained for when she visited Canada and had to deal with the Skeptics and Secularists of Atlantic Canada.
“The really frightening part was when she got into giving people medical advice … referring to specific medications that folks should “ask their doctor for.” One woman was told not to worry about her mammograms, that all she needed was more oil in her diet. That, I can’t really make a joke about. That’s crossing the line from entertaining, to exploitative, into potentially causing serious harm. That’s when I started to regret paying for a ticket.“
James Randi Foundation (Thanks Katie)
First two nights, Hastings
The first night was terrific: the show went well and the audience were delightful: warm and very enthusiastic. All 1066 of them (the capacity of the Hastings theatre… See what they did?) sprung to their feet and were brilliant throughout, despite me confusing my own crew by getting a couple of bits round the wrong way. Tonight’s show was much fun, marred only by a couple of props that decided to do their own thing or fall apart.
Spent yesterday afternoon in the delightful Cafe des Artes, a gorgeous art gallery and cafe in Hastings which turned out to be run as part of a major Autistic trust. Some of the staff are autistic, and clearly the job is designed to be of great assistance to them, as part of a planned programme designed by the trust. I got talking to one of the women who runs it: a lovely lady called Lisa who used to be a magician’s assistant at the circus in a female magic act. There are very few magiciennes nowadays, and even fewer during her circus years. So she’s a magician’s-assistant-turned-careworker. An excellent lady.
I did a tiny on-film thing for their latest awareness project, which I’m sure will be on YouTube at some point. And clearly the programme works well: I spoke after the show to a delightful chap called Anthony who had a job at the cafe as part of living and working with with his own autism. Quite fascinating, and lovely to come across the project.
Today was spent visiting some great friends who live in an ex-church in Folkestone. After months of working exceptionally hard, it was amazing to sit in the sun, with wonderful people, play with their toddler Scarlett and eat a splendid lunch. Brilliantly, she made chocolate crucifixes for pudding. Get that.
A really lovely start to the tour. The wonderful weather helps as we weave around the coastline. Thank you Hastings, you’ve kicked us off royally and forgiven a few minor glitches.
Bournemouth next.
X
Tweenbots – experiment in human & robot interaction
Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”
Tweenbots (Thanks Ehansen and welcome!)
Simulated brain closer to thought
A detailed simulation of a small region of a brain built molecule by molecule has been constructed and has recreated experimental results from real brains. The “Blue Brain” has been put in a virtual body, and observing it gives the first indications of the molecular and neural basis of thought and memory.
Scaling the simulation to the human brain is only a matter of money, says the project’s head. The work was presented at the European Future Technologies meeting in Prague. The Blue Brain project launched in 2005 as the most ambitious brain simulation effort ever undertaken.
Tim Minchin interview on beliefs
Not sure how long this will stay up for – but well worth a listen – if the link breaks I’ll pull it.
