Derren Brown's Blog, page 95

Human Evolution Recapped in Kids' Brain Growth

Image: Top row, a comparative map of cortical differences between the average adult macaque and human; middle row, a comparison between the infant and adult human brain; bottom, a comparison of human developmental and evolutionary changes.

"For a quick summary of the last 25 million years in human brain evolution, just watch how our brains change between infancy and adulthood. Over its first few decades, the human cerebral cortex — the brain's wrinkled outer tissue — evolves in ways that...

Derren Brown's Artworks At The Saatchi Gallery In October

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Derren Brown will be exhibiting limited edition artworks at the Saatchi Gallery this Autumn as part

of the new Art of Giving charity art exhibition. Art of Giving will be showing three works: Rufus Wainwright, Judi Dench and Clint Eastwood.

The Art of Giving exhibition is organised to raise money for a series of charities including: The Red Cross Disaster Fund, Crisis, CHASE, Help a London Child, Independent Age, Elsa Trust, GAWPT and Water Aid. Works by well‐known artists such as Gavin Turk a...

Automatic origami: "programmable matter" can fold itself

"Watch your backs, professional origamists: researchers are working on a sheet of material that can fold itself. The sheets of material, called "programmable matter" by their inventors, use electric pulses to stimulate themselves into various folded shapes.

So far, one sheet can fold itself into a little boat or an airplane, but the creators envision wide-ranging applications for their programmable matter, from shelving to measuring utensils to a modern Swiss Army knife.

The programmable...

Superconductor breakthrough could power new advances

"The first batch of a new range of powerful superconductors which could revolutionise the production of machines like hospital MRI scanners and protect the national grid has been developed by scientists.

Engineers at the University of Cambridge used new techniques to manufacture high-temperature superconducting materials, producing samples that can carry record quantities of electrical current for their type and size. The breakthrough has improved the effectiveness of yttrium barium copper...

Life on Earth gets wiped out every 27 million years, say boffins

"Much of life on Earth gets regularly wiped out every 27 million years, according to boffins. It had been thought that this was caused by a dark star named "Nemesis", but apparently that was wrong. The next globo-extinction event is due in about 16 million years' time.

According to Bambach, there's no doubt at all that every 27 million years-odd, huge numbers of species suddenly become extinct. He says this is confirmed by "two modern, greatly improved paleontological datasets of fossil...

Honda ASIMO Robot Demonstration

This is a demonstration of the Honda ASIMO robot's features, including running, balancing, kicking a ball and climbing stairs. Quite amazing.

With 2000′s ASIMO model Honda added features that enable ASIMO to interact better with humans. These features fall under 5 categories:

1. Recognition of moving objects

2. Recognition of postures and gestures

3. Environment recognition

4. Distinguishing sounds

5. Facial recognition

Read more at Wikipedia (Thanks Tracey)

Terahertz Detectors Could See Through Your Clothes From a Mile Away

"Someone may soon be able to tell what types material are in your pockets from tens, and possibly thousands, of feet away.

Using terahertz remote sensing, detectors could see through walls, clothing and packaging materials and immediately identify the unique terahertz waves of the materials contained inside, such as explosives or drugs.

Until now, detecting terahertz waves — the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave light — hasn't been possible from distances...

Earth is much younger than previously thought

"Researchers have calculated that the planet could have taken far longer to form following the birth of the solar system 4.567 billion years ago than scientists have previously believed. By comparing chemical isotopes from the Earth's mantle with those from meteorites, geologists at the University of Cambridge claim the planet reached its current size around 4.467 billion years ago.

Scientists have in the past estimated that the Earth's development, a process known as accretion where gas...

Wild Cat Found Mimicking Monkey Calls

"In a fascinating example of vocal mimicry, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and UFAM (Federal University of Amazonas) have documented a wild cat species imitating the call of its intended victim: a small, squirrel-sized monkey known as a pied tamarin. This is the first recorded instance of a wild cat species in the Americas mimicking the calls of its prey.

The extraordinary behavior was recorded by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and UFAM in the...

It's the way they move – politicians' personalities inferred from their motion patterns

"People form impressions about the personality of politicians simply from the way they move, according to a new study. This isn't your typical body-language investigation into double-armed hand-shakes, bitten lips and fidgety fingers. Rather Markus Koppensteiner and Karl Grammer devised a new system for mathematically describing the movement patterns of forty real German politicians giving speeches in parliament. Each 16-second, silent video was converted into a stick figure by using an...