Of mind and matter: David Attenborough meets Richard Dawkins
“We paired up Britain’s most celebrated scientists to chat about the big issues: the unity of life, ethics, energy, Handel – and the joy of riding a snowmobile”
“Sir David Attenborough, 84, is a naturalist and broadcaster. He studied geology and zoology at Cambridge before joining the BBC in 1952 and presenting landmark series including Life On Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984) and, recently, Life. Richard Dawkins, 69, was educated at Oxford, later lectured there and became its first professor of the public understanding of science. An evolutionary biologist, he is the author of 10 books, including The Selfish Gene (1976), The God Delusion (2006) and The Greatest Show On Earth (2009). He is now working on a children’s book, The Magic Of Reality.
What is the one bit of science from your field that you think everyone should know?
David Attenborough: The unity of life.
Richard Dawkins: The unity of life that comes about through evolution, since we’re all descended from a single common ancestor. It’s almost too good to be true, that on one planet this extraordinary complexity of life should have come about by what is pretty much an intelligible process. And we’re the only species capable of understanding it.”
Head over to The Guardian to hear the audio interview and read the Q&A
Evolution in Action: Lizard Moving From Eggs to Live Birth
“Evolution has been caught in the act, according to scientists who are decoding how a species of Australian lizard is abandoning egg-laying in favor of live birth. Along the warm coastal lowlands of New South Wales (map), the yellow-bellied three-toed skink lays eggs to reproduce. But individuals of the same species living in the state’s higher, colder mountains are almost all giving birth to live young.
Only two other modern reptiles—another skink species and a European lizard—use both types of reproduction. (Related: “Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas—By Komodo Dragon.”) Evolutionary records shows that nearly a hundred reptile lineages have independently made the transition from egg-laying to live birth in the past, and today about 20 percent of all living snakes and lizards give birth to live young only.
But modern reptiles that have live young provide only a single snapshot on a long evolutionary time line, said study co-author James Stewart, a biologist at East Tennessee State University. The dual behavior of the yellow-bellied three-toed skink therefore offers scientists a rare opportunity. “By studying differences among populations that are in different stages of this process, you can begin to put together what looks like the transition from one [birth style] to the other.”"
Read more at National Geographic (Thanks David G)
Speed Bumps of the Future: Creepy Optical Illusion Children
“Today, West Vancouver officials will roll out a new way to keep drivers alert and slow them down: a little girl speed bump. A trompe-l’œil, the apparently 3D girl located near the École Pauline Johnson Elementary School is actually a 2D pavement painting, similar to the one shown here.”
“In what sounds like a terrifying experience, the girl’s elongated form appears to rise from the ground as cars approach, reaching 3D realism at around 100 feet, and then returning to 2D distortion once cars pass that ideal viewing distance. Its designers created the image to give drivers who travel at the street’s recommended 18 miles per hour (30 km per hour) enough time to stop before hitting Pavement Patty–acknowledging the spectacle before they continue to safely roll over her.
The illusion is part of a $15,000 safety program that will run this week, led by the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation and the public awareness group Preventable.ca. As drivers approach, the police will monitor the fake girl’s effects. Despite fears that drivers may stop suddenly or swerve into actual 3D children, David Duane of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation told CTV news that the bump was meant to bring attention to driver-caused pedestrian injuries, and that the fake girl should not cause accidents: “It’s a static image. If a driver can’t respond to this appropriately, that person shouldn’t be driving….” ”
Read more at Discover Magazine (Thanks Christopher C)
‘Mind-Reading Machine’ Turns Thought To Words
“A mind-reading machine may no longer be the stuff of science-fiction after researchers discovered a way to translate people’s thoughts into words. Using sensors attached to the speech centres of the brain, scientists converted brain signals into speech for the first time. An epileptic patient, who had part of his skull removed for another operation, was fitted with two button-sized grids of 16 tiny electrodes. The team recorded brain signals as he repeatedly read the words yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less. He then said the words back to a computer and the brain signals matched the word 76% to 90% of the time.
The technology could eventually make it possible to read people’s thoughts. Professor Bradley Greger, a bioengineer at The University of Utah, said his team were beside themselves with excitement when the technology worked. “It was just one of the moments when everything came together,” he said. “We have been able to decode spoken words using only signals from the brain with a device that has promise for long-term use in paralysed patients who cannot now speak. “I would call it ‘brain reading’ and we hope that in two or three years it will be available for use for paralysed patients.” Prof Greger is confident his team will soon be able to build a voice box that repeats the words a person thinks.”
Read more at Yahoo News (Thanks Gareth E)
HERO – answers to a few questions
Lots of questions have come up about Hero so I thought I’d try and answer some of those I have come across. Thank you for all your comments and I’m pleased the show struck a chord.
You don’t say ‘no actors or stooges are used in this show’ – Was Matt an actor?
I didn’t give that old disclaimer because the show’s chock-full of actors, and quite openly so. I haven’t said that whenever actors are openly used: it wouldn’t make any sense and to qualify it would be convoluted and verbose. So instead we explain who Matt is and that he has no idea these things are going on or that he’s being filmed etc. These things cannot be lies, as aside from the repugnance of using ‘fake’ participants and how on earth you’d secure the silence of those who knew them in real life, it is a huge legal no-no. Every word of voice-over script and picture is analysed by the C4 lawyer to make sure there is no misleading the viewer. A magic trick is different: there is licence to deceive, and a sense of theatre, but even that nowadays is tricky. Its a moot point if you can even say ’This is an ordinary pack of cards’ any more on UK TV if it isn’t. But in something like this, which is not presented as a trick, to pretend Matt was real, or ignorant of the process when he wasn’t, is simply not an option. Even if I wanted it to be, which I don’t. I have NEVER used a ‘stooge’ (someone playing along and pretending to be fooled etc) in 10 years of TV work, despite the protestations of people who are convinced there’s no other method to be employed.
Adam: On another note, how did Matt get away with not paying for taxi, and just a handshake?
A few people have asked this: I thought it was clear that we had sent the cab. And his life is being changed – some things like this didn’t seem worth spending a lot of time explaining through in detail. The cabbie played it to Matt as if he had just been booked, pre-paid and didn’t ask for any money at the end. Matt, with the idea in his head of breaking into a policeman’s house, took the bait of a free ride and went with it.
Graham: My Gf, a big non believer (but yet believes random psychics and mediums) found it hard to believe the sleeping but walking around stages…. and stormed out. Could that be explained ? was it part hypnosis?
Ah, now if she had seen Enigma she’d have seen me do this every night on stage. It depends on how you define hypnosis, but yes, you can call it that. It’s really not a big deal if you understand the process and can be creative with it. As I said in the show, one feature of Matt’s personality one - an important one for me – is that he is suggestible. He wakes up, confused and responsive, hearing my voice in his room telling him he’s dreaming and still asleep. As long as the person is suggestible and already responsive to me (a fan, or an audience member at a stage show), it’s a very easy way of doing it. If he had come down more awake I would have shifted his state in the garden. I didn’t know for sure how he would react that first night, but we spoke to Liv the next morning and he had had no memory of the event. The second night was then even easier as he had learnt from the first night.
Chris: why in the ‘croc’ sequence was it raining your side and not Matt’s? Also, when his phone was stolen, and seeing he works in insurance, would he not have had to contact the real police to get a reference number for an insurance claim? And, really, he wore GStar pretty much every day for a month!
The brief, light shower that happened that night was a bit of a pain but ultimately looked so odd that we liked it for this dreamy sequence. It’s raining on both of us but I’m backlit and he’s not, so it’s much harder to see the rain on Matt. Rather than edit it out, or re-film anything, we thought it looked weird in a good way and left it. Matt’s phone was handed back to him after the petrol station sequence as if it had been found – obviously we couldn’t leave him without it or have him going to the real police. We were going to include this to answer precisely that question but when you’re trying to fit so much in you have to leave out what doesn’t directly tell the story. Equally, the ‘inspiring’ talk with the van driver was much longer – maybe 10 minutes or so – but that’s not something you can sit through on TV. Things get edited down. As for his clothing, yes, he wore what he wore. It was amusing to us too. He dresses much cooler than me so I can’t comment.
Ben: There was one moment when I thought you had gone a little senile, when you laid him across the train track,
Needless to say, this was all very controlled, unbeknownst to Matt, so there was no way he would have been hurt. What was important is that the fear was real to him.
Matt: i dont care what anyone says if you see smoke coming under a door you would not just sit there, you would at least try and get the attention of others in the room
Nope, this is a classic experiment. Have a Google for Bystander Experiment. The more people there, the less likely you are to take action. The research was triggered by a famous – (if now misrepresented case) – where lots of witnesses saw a woman raped and murdered in several stages and did nothing. Awful.
Penny: I watch all of your stuff on tv as i think your a total genius and would love to be involved so i sent off for an application form to take part in future shows and the reply back is just a trailer for Hero….. help?
There has been a fake Facebook page posing as mine asking people to apply for future shows, but it has nothing to do with us. As with Hero, I make announcements here or on the Blog. (Or sometimes they’re done in papers without my name on and you don’t know you’re applying for my show…)
Andrew: just 2 things don’t quite add up. 1. If he was a bystander that never put himself forward for anything, why would he apply for a game show? and 2. Flight simulator graphics are not very good, it would be impossible to not notice your not flying a real plane…
Bystander behaviour is to do with how we behave in emergencies. Most people fall into the same pattern, regardless of what we do in the rest of life. As for the flight simulator, you’re wrong in this case. This is the latest in professional training sims and utterly convincing (particularly at the dusk setting which is why we timed the flight at dusk). They’re based at Southampton and if you want to pay about 20k an hour you should have a go. Don’t confuse them with noisy fairground sims.
Brett: He got on the plane it was bright sunshine…he landed it in pitch dark even though it was a short flight. Surely he would have thought that was a little strange?
It wasn’t as dark through the sim ‘window’ as it looked on TV. It was all around dusk, and the plane was in the air for quite a while before he would have entered the cockpit. You’ll see when we get off the plane with Matt in a wheelchair that it’s getting dark.
Ian: I was particularly struck by two movie references. When you talked to Matt in his garden and gave him the countdown, he goes to a golf course the next day… this is very similar to a scene from ‘Donnie Darko’ except that the main character actually wakes up on a golf course after being given his countdown while in a dream-like state. The second was of course ‘Fight Club’ in which Tyler Durden pretends to hold up a convenience store employee in order to shock him into pursuing what he really wants to do with his life. Were those parts of ‘Hero’ inspired by these movies?
And then some. The Game, even Watchmen were in there. All big inspirations – especially Fight Club and (for one core speech) Watchmen. Iain and I who devised the show were all very chuffed when Matt came into the garden in a hoodie… pure Donnie.
B: I’m an Airline Pilot for a living and can say the timing between landing that aircraft and getting to the simulator hall where those simulators are base is a long stretch. The cabin crew in the shots had time to change clothes, as did Derron. The sim cued up etc. I just can’t buy into it…would require the guy to be tranqualised no hypnotised due to the length of journey and disruption… other irregularities. A lot of them in the simulator.
Not sure what you mean. That wasn’t live - plenty of time elapsed between the two, with Matt soundly asleep. We were waiting for quite a while in fact for the sim to be fully ready, following problems that day. As for how long he can be hypnotised, the longest I’ve kept someone under was 13 hours on and off a plane to Marrakech for a previous show. Perfectly doable. Matt was looked after in shifts by me, Iain and a paremedic who stayed with us at all times. Both Matt and the Marrakech guy were taken off to the loo at one point, and woke up just a little and for long enough to do that, and then straight back to sleep with no awareness of having done that. They key is to get someone who sleeps deeply at night. Once in the sim he was talked down authentically by a real air traffic controller, and gained in confidence as he went along, although it all took a lot longer than the few minutes that section was shrunk down to in the show. So you’re seeing an edited version in the sim, so yes, it doesn’t reflect real time.
Keren: can you tell me when its going to be repeated as i missed it due to work and am desperate to see it.
Bless you, thank you. It’s on 4OD, which you can access through the C4 website. I have no idea when it’ll be on TV again. Maybe E4?
Claire: I wasnt conviced a guy like ‘Matt’ would actually enter the police officer’s ‘home’ – and not wonder about an alarm system.
He may have done, I don’t know. But at some level his unconscious would have felt it was the ‘right’ thing to do, as you’ll remember I had laid it all in during the night with the crocodile. So I was counting on it feeling somehow right to him. This was about the level of influence that I could have: always leaving it to him to make the decisions, but planting the idea to nudge him in that direction or making an idea appealing. If people don’t understand why he did these things, then they have missed that point.
Jon: the way Matt found himself getting into the ‘situations’ and how he got out of them was very contrived and controlled. And because we didn’t get to see them, we naturally doubt them.
Sure. Of course, a large part of what I do is magic tricks, so some people are going to be suspicious. In my mind there’s a huge difference between performing a trick and doing something like Hero, but that might just be me. A trick is supposed to be a trick, and something like Hero has to be real or else it’s pointless. The situations are of course set up, as openly described in the show, and secretly filmed, but Matt had no idea and could make what choices he liked. I was able to steer him in a loose direction and massage his thinking towards certain ideas, but that was all: they had to be his decisions. The amount of work in securing his well-being without him knowing (the constant checks with work and home and foreseeing every eventuality) would have made a documentary in itself. The lengths we went to to preserve Matt’s experience and make it totally genuine for him were massive. At another level, the technical side was fantastic: the tiny cameras hidden in buttons and so on we needed to film and cover everything the aeroplane, for example, were numerous and extraordinary, as was the airport’s involvement in making the check-in normal for everyone, even though the plane wasn’t really flying to Jersey as it said on the departure board. It was far more involved than, say, the Heist, and some people thought that was all fake too. There’s only so much we can explain without the show slowing down: it’s supposed after all to be entertainment. We could have explained more detail in places, but ultimately you have to find a balance that most people are happy with in the crammed time you have. Again though, it’s simply not an option to have him play along or use an actor, fake the show and then mislead UK TV viewers into thinking it was real.
Mark: You gotta dig deep to understand this and most of Derren’s work. He makes it happen, but ‘how?’ is what you keep asking until you understand how… and without thinking “it was setup” or “the person was a stooge” as thinking any of those two things is wrong. Well you could say ‘setup’ is partially correct if you think in terms of Derren made it all happen (which means there was a setup behind it but not that kind of setup that says Derren just told him what to do.)
Yes, I’d say that was about right and nicely put. Matt’s journey had to be absolutely real, but obviously I’m tinkering in all areas where he isn’t aware to make sure it happens to plan as much as is possible. That’s very different from it being a big hoax or fake. Some can’t or won’t see that, and it’s fine.
How is Matt now?
Excellent. He’s sorting a mortgage and looking at career options. And I’m sure he’d tell you he’s a changed man – certainly in the time I’ve known him he’s transformed and those around him have very movingly attested to this. He was understandably disappointed to have some people simply, joylessly, refuse to believe any of such a powerful personal journey, but the response has been so overwhelmingly positive, and obviously his work colleagues and everyone around him are very excited and he’s buzzing.
As you may know, this has been my favourite show to work on – most ambitious, most involved, most demanding and by far the most joyful. I consider it my fondest and best, and it was a privilege to be part of it and to get to know Matt.
I hope this answers enough questions. I’m sure not all of them, but thank you for posting.
best – dx
HERO morning after
Morning all. Hope you enjoyed last night if you watched the show. I’m travelling home from a night at the Premier Inn at Leeds Bradford airport, where we were royally looked after throughout our wrap party in the affiliated Beefeater until godknowswhen by the wonderful Christian and Claire who should have been home in bed.
Like to think I stayed in the room that Lenny Henry uses when he’s passing through.
I’ve yet to see the final show and hope to catch it tonight. Bumbled through the live links and only had one moment of my life flashing before my eyes when I briefly completely forgot what to say. Not sure if it registered.
Making ‘Hero’ (as all the cool kids call it) was such a joy. Matt is sensational, and I understand his Facebook friends quotient rocketed during the show once his full name was mentioned. We’ve become good friends too. He and Liv are a very lovely couple.
The challenge for us was fitting everything into a seventy-minute show. The changes were manifold and there was much more story to tell. What you see is obviously very trimmed and edited and squashed into the time allotment. Reading the flurry on Twitter last night there was clearly a small percentage people who just refused to accept any of it, which is shame but of course completely inevitable. Some insisted Matt and Liv had to be actors. It’s impossible to please everyone, but I can certainly assure anyone questioning that sort of thing that I don’t use actors in that way, and it would be stupid to do so, as I’d have to find, kill or silence all their friends, families and acquaintances too.
It has been a real joy making the show. So often TV can be a cynical and joyless business, and to do something that feels worthwhile is a rare treat. And to go to such lengths for one person is so exciting. I was and am so proud of Matt, and meant what I said to him at the end.
It has been very heartwarming reading your responses to the show, particularly from people who have taken something personal from it, which was of course the hope behind the project. I chose Matt because he represents all of us. As many of you have asked how he is, he’ll be the first to tell you he’s a happy, changed man and currently sorting out a new place and career options. I spoke to him right after the show and he loved it. And he got over his fear of flying too, just in case anyone thought I had made it a thousand times worse…
Hero at 30,000 feet – Now on 4OD
For the next 30 days the show will be available on 4oD:
Click Here
Hero at 30,000 Feet – Tonight at 10pm CH4
Hero at 30,000 Feet is on tonight at 10pm on Channel 4.
Those of you wanting to chat about the show during and after please use the following page: http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/tv-shows/hero-30000-feet/, where we will be trying to approve your comments as quickly as possible.
#DerrenBrownHero is being used for discussion on Twitter.
As Derren reports on Twitter he’s now on location:
“Very excited. Am with the plane getting ready for live links.”
Enjoy the show!
IQ2 Interview: Ben Goldacre on science in the media
“Science is value free. So is a gun.” Here, science writer Ben Goldacre describes the problems with science coverage in the mainstream media. Too often it’s used towards political and social ends, exemplified most clearly in schizophrenic reporting of the cervical cancer vaccine. Ben Goldacre is interviewed by Jack Klaff for Intelligence Squared (IQ2). The full hour-long video is available on the IQ2 website at http://www.intelligencesquared.com/talks/ben-goldacre-on-science-in-the-media
Vending machines test mental agility
“Britvic has installed vending machines across the UK which dispenses free drinks to those who can prove their intelligence via a series of tests
The “smart” vending machines, which promote a brand of flavoured spring water called Juicy Drench, have touch-screens programmed with games that test mental agility. The idea is to reinforce the message that our brains perform best when they are hydrated.
Although presumably that means that you need to have drunk a Juicy Drench before playing in order to then win a free drink.
Most of the tests — which you can try out online — are a matter of simple maths, spot the difference, or spatial awareness. The vending machines will be installed in UK cities including London, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham this month
This is the latest in a series of vending machine innovations. Last month Wired.co.uk reported on a German publishing company Hamburger Automatenverlag (Hamburg Automatic Publishing) that adapted old cigarette vending machines to sell books instead of cigarettes at various locations in Hamburg.
Meanwhile in June, Unilever announced the launch of vending machines which reward consumers that smile, through the use of face-reading technology, and a Japanese vending machine company began trialling machines that can read the user’s age and gender.”
Read more at Wired (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
