Derren Brown's Blog, page 48

Science Of Attraction – 4 Episodes Available Now!

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We've set up a new section under 'TV Show Discussion' for you all to comment on the new Science of attraction series and individual episodes.

Head over to our Science of Attraction Page to leave your comments.

Imax 3d: Cave of Forgotten Dreams

There's a cave in France where no humans have been in 26,000 years. The walls are full of fantastic, perfectly-preserved paintings of animals, ending in a chamber full of monsters 1312-feet underground, where CO2 and radon gas concentrations provoke hallucinations.

It's called the the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, a really weird and mysterious place. The walls contain hundreds of animals—like the typical Paleolithic horses and bisons—but some of them are not supposed to be there, like lions, panthers, rhinos and hyenas.

A few are not even supposed to exist, like weird butterflyish animals or chimerical figures half bison half woman. These may be linked to the hallucinations. The trip is such that some archeologists think that it had a ritual nature, with people transcending into a new state as they descended into the final room.

In fact, the paintings themselves are of such sophistication—some even have three-dimensional relief—that is hard to believe they were made back then. However, radiocarbon dating shows that these paintings are indeed prehistoric: A group was made around 27,000-26,000 years ago and the other at 32,000-30,000 years ago.

Via Gizmodo

Derren's Next TV show: Faith Healer

So far all we can say is:

A brand new 90 minute special from the incomparable psychological illusionist Derren Brown in which the star turns his attention to the controversial world of faith-healing.

He will lay bare the tricks and techniques employed by the American Bible belts', self-proclaimed, faith-healers who boast the ability to perform wonders.

In one of the most audacious stunts he has ever attempted, Derren finds a member of the public who he will train to be a faith healer, before going out to the American bible belt and seeing if he can manage to put on a genuine faith healing show and get away with it.

As soon as we have a air date confirmed we will let you all know.

Documentary: Mystical Brain

This short documentary reveals the exploratory work of a team from the University of Montreal who seek to understand the states of grace experienced by mystics and those who meditate. Filmmaker Isabelle Raynauld offers up scientific research that suggests that mystical ecstasy is a transformative experience and could contribute to people's psychic and physical health, treat depression and speed up the healing process when combined with conventional medicine.

In French with English subtitles.

Homeopathy is witchcraft, say doctors

Hundreds of members of the BMA have passed a motion denouncing the use of the alternative medicine, saying taxpayers should not foot the bill for remedies with no scientific basis to support them.

The BMA has previously expressed scepticism about homoeopathy, arguing that the rationing body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence should examine the evidence base and make a definitive ruling about the use of the remedies in the NHS.

Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee in England told the conference: "Homeopathy is witchcraft. It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street [in London] there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS"

Full Story: Telegraph

Bizarre claims of "quantum imprinting" causes a scientific stir

A STORM of scepticism has greeted experimental results emerging from the lab of a Nobel laureate which, if confirmed, would shake the foundations of several fields of science. "If the results are correct," says theoretical chemist Jeff Reimers of the University of Sydney, Australia, "these would be the most significant experiments performed in the past 90 years, demanding re-evaluation of the whole conceptual framework of modern chemistry."

Luc Montagnier, who shared the Nobel prize for medicine in 2008 for his part in establishing that HIV causes AIDS, says he has evidence that DNA can send spooky electromagnetic imprints of itself into distant cells and fluids. If that wasn't heretical enough, he also suggests that enzymes can mistake the ghostly imprints for real DNA, and faithfully copy them to produce the real thing. In effect this would amount to a kind of quantum teleportationMovie Camera of the DNA.

Many researchers contacted for comment by New Scientist reacted with disbelief. Gary Schuster, who studies DNA conductance effects at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, compared it to "pathological science". Jacqueline Barton, who does similar work at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was equally sceptical. "There aren't a lot of data given, and I don't buy the explanation," she says. One blogger has suggested Montagnier should be awarded an IgNobel prize.

Yet the results can't be dismissed out of hand. "The experimental methods used appear comprehensive," says Reimers. So what have Montagnier and his team actually found?

Full details of the experiments are not yet available, but the basic set-up is as follows. Two adjacent but physically separate test tubes were placed within a copper coil and subjected to a very weak extremely low frequency electromagnetic field of 7 hertz. The apparatus was isolated from Earth's natural magnetic field to stop it interfering with the experiment. One tube contained a fragment of DNA around 100 bases long; the second tube contained pure water.

After 16 to 18 hours, both samples were independently subjected to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a method routinely used to amplify traces of DNA by using enzymes to make many copies of the original material. The gene fragment was apparently recovered from both tubes, even though one should have contained just water.

Were waiting for some proper peer review before we make our minds up.

Full article at New Scientist – requires log in.

(Thanks Jakie)

Bank left unlocked as it leaves security to God

MUMBAI: The United Commercial (UCO) Bank has opened the country's first lockless branch at Shani Shinganapur in Maharashtra, even as the Centre has made hi-tech security mandatory for all nationalized and private sector banks. Shani Shinganapur is a small village in Ahmednagar district whose presiding deity is Lord Shani. More than 5,000 devotees visit the temple every day, while on weekends the number crosses the 1 lakh mark.

"We took note of the general belief and faith of the people. Ever since the most revered temple came into existence several years ago, the village has not witnessed a single crime. In fact, all houses in the entire village have no doors. We took the risk and started the lockless bank a week ago," a senior bank official said.

Read the full at India Times

Change Awareness

"First, watch the video. Then come back and read the rest of this description. J.W. Suchow and G.A. Alvarez studied how motion affected awareness of color change in their research on change blindness. Try it yourself! Keep your eyes fixed on the small white mark in the center."

"At first, the ring is stationary and it's easy to tell that the dots are changing. A few seconds later, the ring begins to rotate and the dots suddenly appear to stop changing.

But play the movie again, this time looking directly at one of the dots and following it as the ring rotates. You will see that, in fact, the dots had been changing the whole time, even during the rotation—you just didn't notice it. This failure to detect that moving objects are changing is silencing.

The findings were published in the journal Current Biology"

Via Neatorama (Thanks Christopher C)

You Might Already Know This …

"They should have seen it coming.

In recent weeks, editors at a respected psychology journal have been taking heat from fellow scientists for deciding to accept a research report that claims to show the existence of extrasensory perception.

The report, to be published this year in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is not likely to change many minds. And the scientific critiques of the research methods and data analysis of its author, Daryl J. Bem (and the peer reviewers who urged that his paper be accepted), are not winning over many hearts.

Yet the episode has inflamed one of the longest-running debates in science. For decades, some statisticians have argued that the standard technique used to analyze data in much of social science and medicine overstates many study findings — often by a lot. As a result, these experts say, the literature is littered with positive findings that do not pan out: "effective" therapies that are no better than a placebo; slight biases that do not affect behavior; brain-imaging correlations that are meaningless.

By incorporating statistical techniques that are now widely used in other sciences — genetics, economic modeling, even wildlife monitoring — social scientists can correct for such problems, saving themselves (and, ahem, science reporters) time, effort and embarrassment.

"I was delighted that this ESP paper was accepted in a mainstream science journal, because it brought this whole subject up again," said James Berger, a statistician at Duke University. "I was on a mini-crusade about this 20 years ago and realized that I could devote my entire life to it and never make a dent in the problem.""

Read more at NYTimes (Thanks Christopher C)

Further links provided by Stefan L:

Wired

The Paper in Question (PDF)

Thought controlled computers – now available

Apparently the revolution that was touch screens on mobile phones was not enough for some hardware developers. The device maker PLX Devices is now offering a headset called XWave that "can sense and detect human brainwaves, interpret them and connect it to everyday technology," according to promotional material on their website.

"The human brain is the most powerful, complex thing in the universe, and for the first time, we're able to harness its amazing power and connect it to everyday technology," Lowchareonkul said. "With the development of 3rd party apps, the potential for innovation is limitless."

Thus far, PLX is only offering apps that interact with the XWave for Apple mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The device itself looks like an ordinary headset for telephone operators, and its website claims that XWave is perfectly safe because it only "listens" to brainwaves and "does not transmit or send any signals."

Full story at Tech Talk