Guru10-spreads

#SCIENCE #FOOD #TECHNOLOGY #ART #POLITICS #MIND #MEDIA #HEALTH #SCEPTICISM
ISSN 2048-2590
ISSUE 10•
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013
MARKS
THE SPOT
A LESSON ABOUT
MACBETH YOU
DIDN’T LEARN AT
SCHOOL
PLUS...
HOW REAL MEN DANCE
FROM PUNK TO PYTHAGORAS
THE SECRET WORLD OF FOOD FLAVOURS

THE GURU TEAM
Stuart Farrimond Editor / Science Guru
realdoctorstu.com @realdoctorstu
Jon Crowe Deputy Editor/ Molecular Guru
@crowe_jon
Ben Veal Media Guru
benvealpr.com @benvealpr
J. N. Lloyd Photographer
jnlloyd@gmail.com
Ian Wildsmith Design Guru
ian@gurumagazine.org
FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
Anina Mumm
transcriptsc.com @aninja_m
Matt Linsdell Fitness Guru
smart-fit.ca @smartfitmatt
Daryl Ilbury Sceptic Guru
www.darylilbury.com @darylilbury
Artem Cheprasov
Leila Wildsmith Guru Opinions
www.writingonthewall0612.blogspot.co.uk
Kim Lacey Mind Guru
kimberlylacey.com @kimlacey
James Lloyd Physics Guru
thesoftanonymous.com @jbb_lloyd
Toby Brown
Ross Harper @refharper
Simon Makin
Natasha Agabalyan Food Guru
thescienceinformant.com @SciencInformant
Abigail James
aflyinmyprimordialsoup.wordpress.com @_abigailjames
John Ankers
Kathryn Lougheed
germzoo.blogspot.co.uk
Benjamin Chabot-Hanowell
@JohnnyAnkers
Berit Brogaard Guest Contributor
Kristian Marlow Guest Contributor
2013/01–02 ARRIVALS
LOUNGE
GURU 10 • February/March 2013 • ISSN 2048-2590
© 2012 Guru Magazine Ltd.
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Cover images: (X marks the spot) Flickr • disparkys
Follow Guru on Twitter • Like Guru on Facebook
I
think there’s a little bit in all
of us that dreams of being the
best. For some of us it will
be the fantasy of our cooking
prowess being recognized by a
Michelin Star; for others, it will
be the penning of a novel that
sells more than J.K. Rowling.
For me, being a world-famous
surgeon was high up the list. This
ambition was dashed five years
ago when I was diagnosed with a
brain tumour.
Surgeons twice needed to chop
chunks out of my grey matter,
ultimately forcing me to hang
up my stethoscope for good. The
upside of surviving the tumour
has its downsides: I am told I
am now less socially inhibited
– speaking my mind too freely,
and often being landing in hot
water as a result. Brain damage
rarely has a good outcome, but
that’s not always the case: in this
issue we read the story of ‘Jason’,
a beer-swilling womaniser who
was transformed into an artist
and mathematics prodigy after
serious head injury.
Inspiration can also be found
through Fitness Guru Matt
Linsdell’s account of overcoming
sporting injury and James Lloyd’s
guide to dancing. Sceptic Guru
Daryl Ilbury offers a crash course
in dinner-party Latin, and our
Food Guru Natasha Abagalyan
explains how processed food
gets infused with our favourite
flavours.
Read, enjoy – and be inspired.
…
Want to make Guru Magazine
better? Join the Readers’ panel,
complete a survey, and tell us
what you think. We’re offering a
new iPad and some great prizes
for those who do. Find out more
here.
:
Dr. Stu
Your digital sciencelifestyle
magazine.
By you and for you.
Next issue released: 1st April 2013.
Guru is intended to be used for educational
and entertainment purposes only.
Please consult a qualified medical professional
if you have any personal health concerns.
Previous Page: (texture #70) Flickr • Asja., Next Page: (melting snow) Flickr • basic_sounds

CONTENTS
#HUMAN BODY Page 8
5 REASONS NOT TO PREPARE FOR A
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
The zombies are coming! The undead have
infected movies, video games and even politics.
South African journalist Anina Mumm comes up
with five good reasons not to get a shotgun – just
yet.
#FITNESS Page 12
TALES FROM THE WATER COOLER:
GETTING THROUGH BACK PAIN
To look at him, you’d consider Fitness Guru and
personal trainer Matt Linsdell to be the pinnacle
of health, with a physique people would pay good
money for. Yet a hidden pain hampers his joie de
vivre. He shares his hurt in the hope that we can
avoid such pain ourselves.
#ASKAGURU Page 15
Every Friday we open up the digital gates to
reader’s questions – both weird and wonderful.
We endeavour to find the best answers and
feature them on our website. Here’s a selection of
some of the best from the last two months.
#HUMAN BODY Page 18
LATIN, AND THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THE
SUPER SCEPTIC
It’s never too late to learn new things. If your Latin
knowledge is nil, then take a look at Sceptic Guru
Daryl Ilbury’s crash course. It won’t just impress
your friends: it could also help you win any
argument!
#GURU OPINIONS Page 22
OF CAPITAL IMPORTANCE
Why can’t kids spell? Leila Wildsmith wags her
teacher’s finger at the media. It worries her
because if we don’t understand language, we
don’t really understand ourselves.
#MIND Page 24
OUT, DAMNED SPOT! THE MACBETH EFFECT
A soak in the bath can wash away all manner of
stresses. But a guilty conscience? Mind Guru Kim
Lacey reports on how – subconsciously – regret
makes us compelled to wash – remarkably, even
after just playing video games.
#LIFE Page 28
STRIKE A POSE
Michael Jackson liked to ‘Shake his Body’ and
Billy Idol would ’Dance on his Own’. Lady Gaga
says ‘Just Dance’. Few men can La Bomba like
Ricky Martin, but Guru’s resident groovster James
Lloyd explains how a guy’s dance floor grind can
wow the women.
#NEWS Page 32
REPORTING THE NEWS YOU PROBABLY
MISSED…
Guru’s writers give a roundup of some interesting
and quirky developments that didn’t make it into
the popular press.
#GUREVIEWS Page 36
SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE: THE GAME
A mobile app that explains your subconscious –
from playing a game? Sounds like it could be fun,
but Kim Lacey isn’t impressed…
#FOOD Page 37
THE CHEMISTRY OF WEIRD-TASTING FOOD
In between the bread and milk, supermarket
shelves are becoming populated by some very
weird foods. Food Guru Natasha Agabalyan finds
out what goes into making her banoffee pieflavoured
yoghurt.
#GENETICS Page 41
THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT: CONSUMER
GENETICS IS HERE
It’s a safe bet a Tarot card reader won’t give you
a reliable prediction of the future – but ‘buy your
own’ genetic testing promises to be a crystal ball
for your health. Abigail James asks whether you
really want to know.
#HEALTH Page 43
YOUR GUTS FOR GLORY
We all want to do something for humanity – but
poo-ing into a pot? Simon Makin puts a peg on
his nose…
#TECHNOLOGY Page 46
WANT TO BUILD THE PERFECT
SMARTPHONE?
Dropped calls, frozen screens, disappearing
contacts: it can make you want to throw your
smartphone in the bath. Doctor John Ankers
looks to alternative sources for inspiration to solve
mobile frustrations.
#MIND Page 49
ALICE IN WONDERLAND SYNDROME:
WHEN REALITY GOES DOWN THE RABBIT-
HOLE
Kat Lougheed had an odd childhood: reality
would distort and twist, making her feel the size
of a hobbit. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is truly
bizarre – but helps us understand the mind of an
anorexic.
#LIFE Page 52
LAST MINUTE SHOPPERS ARE NICER
PEOPLE
Hoping to get something special for Valentines?
Benjamin Chabot-Hanowell recommends that you
shouldn’t give your beloved too much advance
warning of what you want - or those roses might
turn out to be a bunch of chrysanthemums.
#LIFE Page 56
HEAD-BEATING TRANSFORMS TEENAGE
SLOB INTO CREATIVE VIRTUOSO
Guest writers Kristian Marlow and Dr Brogaard
tell the real-life story of Jason, who underwent a
miraculous change after a brutal mugging.
#DEPARTURE LOUNGE Page 61
#THE GURU STORY SO FAR... Page 62
#THE EVOLUTION OF CUTLERY Page 63

#HUMAN BODY
5 REASONS NOT TO
PREPARE FOR A ZOMBIE
APOCALYPSE
ANINA MUMM
5 REASONS NOT TO PREPARE FOR A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Once, not too long ago, a zombie
apocalypse was just a daydream. Now
though, the living dead are all the rage,
with zombie-fever having spawned
dozens of movies, video games and
books. But some people are taking it
a little too far. Anina Mumm explains
why we should cast out all fear of the
shuffling dead. At least for the time
being…
Gun sales in America are booming as Patriots
everywhere empty their favourite zombie
cartridges at life-size zombie targets – all in
practice for their bloody zombie doom. For inspiration,
they watch The Walking Dead, and
then flip the channel to Discovery’s Zombie
Apocalypse to learn more about how to shoot
‘em in the head.
This time we can’t just laugh and say “Only in
America!”People worldwide are taking this zombie
thing just a little too seriously. Australian
Prime Minister, Julie Gillard, even namechecked
zombies as a cause of the impending
apocalypse (in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way).
So should we be worried? In short: no. A basic
biology lesson should convince you that life is
for the living:
The circulatory system
If zombies are dead, they don’t have a heartbeat.
Without a pulse, blood cannot be pumped
around the body.
Blood transports oxygen, blood cells, glucose,
minerals and hormones to where they are
needed in the body. Even zombies, who must
retain some of their former biology, can’t survive
without such things. The blood system ties
together all the other systems, and so without
it nothing in the body would work. In other
words, this article could really end here. But, for
argument’s sake, let’s pretend…
The immune system
Zombies have pale, smelly and oozy skin. This
is because they are dead and dead things rot.
Rotting happens when bacteria, maggots and
all sorts of other bugs start to infest and feed
on the body. One of the reasons this doesn’t
happen to your lively self is because you have
an immune system.
So if zombies had this vital system they would
not rot at all, and so would lose that winning,
wormy smile. Instead, they would lack the
white blood cells needed to fight infection.
So save your bullets, because their own decay
should finish them off before you can say “Ew,
get it off me!”
The digestive system
According to the internet, and psychiatristcum-zombie-expert
Dr Steven Scholzman,
the most feasible way to kill and then re-animate
a person is through a viral infection.
Some say such a virus would cause the hypo-
PAGE 9 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: Image courtesy Jay Caboz Copyright 2012, (He Sees Me) Flickr • My name is Randy,
(How to Survive a Zombie Attack, by Acey Duecy) Flickr • Hryck.

Image courtesy Jay Caboz Copyright 2012
5 REASONS NOT TO PREPARE FOR A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
thalamus, the part of the brain that controls basic
bodily functions, to develop a zombie’s taste
for humans through the primal urge of hunger.
Your ‘primal brain’ also controls your appetite,
of course, but somehow when you become undead
your brain would drive you to cannibalism.
Really? Even if you were vegetarian?
They also say this virus would change the zombie’s
DNA so that it would no longer need energy
from food. When you eat food, enzymes,
acids and bacteria in your gut break it down into
smaller pieces that, with the help of hormones
like insulin, are absorbed by the body and used
for energy. A very large number of genes control
this complicated process of turning meat into
movement, thoughts and, yes, even farts.
Is it really likely then that a zombie-virus could
rewrite the human recipe contained in DNA to
such an extent that it would develop an entirely
new way of getting energy without food, gut
bacteria or metabolic hormones? I’ll let you answer
that.
The musculoskeletal system
Speaking of meat and movement,the jerky advances
of the un-dead must be powered by their
muscles. Even if zombie muscles could get en-
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 10
ergy from that amazingly unlikely new DNA
recipe, they still wouldn’t work.
Muscles need very specific amounts of minerals
like calcium, potassium, phosphates and sodium
chloride (that’s table salt to you and me).
You should get these from your normal diet
and they control how your intricate muscle
fibres contract and relax to give you balance
and movement. What’s more, without oxygen
(from the blood) muscles would stiffen as rigor
mortis sets in. If the zombies don’t eat ... and
they don’t pop vitamin pills ... and their blood
doesn’t flow ... how could they stagger so?
Temperature and pH
Some say that a zombie’s body temperature is
higher than a human’s. It just so happens that
every protein in the human body, including
hormones, enzymes (proteins that make the
chemical reactions in our body happen as they
should) and antibodies (molecules used by the
immune system to attack microbes and other
alien invaders), work perfectly at 37 degrees
Celsius. At lower temperatures (which arise, say,
in the case of death) proteins can work, but very
slowly. At higher temperatures, they become
distorted and stop working. So unless this virus
5 REASONS NOT TO PREPARE FOR A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
can cause proteins to work at different temperatures,
zombies won’t, unfortunately, end up in
your cross-hair.
The acidity of the body (its pH) also affects how
well proteins can function. Death has this uncanny
way of totally disrupting the body’s acid
balance, which is normally kept in check by the
respiratory and urinary systems. In other
words, when you stop breathing and peeing to
get rid of carbon dioxide and waste, your body’s
pH changes and your proteins malfunction.
The Real Zombie Virus
It might be worth a mention that a zombie
virus in itself is not altogether far-fetched. Viruses
can definitely mutate DNA and can be
spread through biting. What is far-fetched is
the idea that a virus could recode DNA to such
an extent that a corpse could survive rotting,
convert to cannibalism, get energy without eating,
move without minerals and function at a
different temperature and pH.
To put it simply, zombie biology just wouldn’t
work, so you really can stop preparing for that
apocalypse. Wrap your head in aluminium foil
instead - because the aliens are coming...
Extra reading:
• A Harvard Psychiatrist Explains Zombie
Neurobiology
• Psychiatrist Steven Schlozman analyzes
what makes the undead tick
• From Voodoo to Viruses: The Evolution
of the Zombie in Twentieth Century
Popular Culture
• The Undead Report
• Zombie Biology
And a few serious journal articles:
• Munz, P., Hudea, I., Imad, J. and
Smith?, R.J. (2009) ‘When Zombies
Attack!: Mathematical Modelling Of
An Outbreak Of Zombie Infection’,
Infectious Disease Modelling Research
Progress, pp. 133-150.
• Ragan, S.M. (2005) ‘Etiology of Remoero-Fulci
Disease: The Case for Prions’,
J. Zom. Sci., vol. 6, pp. 1519-1523.
• Smith, R. (2009) ‘A report on the zombie
outbreak of 2009: how mathematics
can save us (no, really)’, CMAJ, vol.
181, no. 12, pp. E297-E300.
• Stanley, D. (2012) ‘The nurses’ role
in the prevention of Solanum infection:
dealing with a zombie epidemic’,
J. Clin. Nurs., vol. 21, no. 11-12, pp.
1606-13.
Anina Mumm is a biochemist/journalist by training. She runs Transcript, a science
communication company specialising in writing, editing, infographics, social media and
photos. She is also an executive member of the South African Science Journalists’
Association. In her spare time she dabbles in data journalism and nurtures her
addictions to food, the gym, social media and the colour purple. Anina fights ignorance
on twitter as @aninja_m.
PAGE 11 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Model of a Virus) Flickr • eviltomthai

#FITNESS
GETTING THROUGH
BACK PAIN
TALES FROM THE WATER COOLER
MATT LINSDELL • FITNESS GURU
Chronic pain can be a terrible, distressing
affliction. Is there ever a time
when you need to eschew evidencebased
treatments in favour of alternative
relief, or rely on the adage that
time is a great healer? Fitness Guru
Matt Linsdell reflects on his own agonising
lessons.
In 2008 I developed tremendous back pain. The
pain travelled down my left leg and restricted my
normal daily activities. After several months, it
had begun to diminish when, one day, I was out
running and it appeared again. In fact, the pain
came on so strongly it felt as if I had been shot
with an arrow.
My girlfriend forced me to take a bath with
eucalyptus-scented Epsom salts. For the record,
there is no scientific evidence that Epsom salts
do anything other than make the bath water
salty. And now I hate the smell of eucalyptus.
Despite my girlfriend’s loving efforts, the pain
persisted and so I finally went to a walk-in clinic.
The attending doctor referred me to an orthopaedic
surgeon – setting the wheels of the
Canadian healthcare system in motion. Full of
jokes, the surgeon examined me thoroughly. He
explained that one of the inter-vertebral discs
low down in my back had bulged and cracked,
and now its juicy centre (known as the ‘nucleus’)
was compressing the nerve root in my
spine – hence the pain down my leg. Not really
a laughing matter.
I was destined for the Vancouver Spine Clinic.
However, before the surgical consultation finished,
the jovial surgeon lowered his voice and
his face took on a very serious expression:
“Matthew, if your symptoms become worse – if
you have any loss of control of your bladder –
then you must go to the emergency room immediately.
It is possible that the nerve in your
back could become irreparably damaged. If that
happens you will never have control of your
bowels again and you will never have an erection
again.” Things got real for me right then.
It became clear that this injury, although common,
was more than a mere inconvenience – for
me or my girlfriend.
Pain? Wait until the surgeons get
hold of you
Several consultations and a CT scan later, I was
offered both surgery and a ‘nerve root block’ – a
GETTING THROUGH BACK PAIN
steroid injection into the nerve that is causing
the pain. Neither was a prospect I fancied: you
don’t really want to mess around with sharp
objects when the spinal cord is involved. I opted
for the less risky nerve root block first. To
make sure the needle goes into the right spot,
the docs use X-ray imaging. Which is comforting
to know.
It hurt. Only for a few seconds – but during
those seconds it felt like a fire hose was under
the skin of my back leg. And the hose was
turned on full blast. I endured it, but my symptoms
persisted.
Back to normal: the long road
Months later I went for the surgery – a procedure
called a discectomy (basically cutting out
a bit of the broken vertebral disc). My recovery
after the operation was slow and I still experienced
some pain down the back of my left leg
– although thankfully less than previously. 18
months had passed from the time of my first
symptoms to the day of the operation – and I
learnt that when a nerve is aggravated continuously
for this long it becomes hyper–sensitive.
So even though the pressure on the spinal nerve
had been relieved, it continued to send pain signals.
In my case I had low-level ongoing pain. I
was lucky. For some people the pain is continuous
and extreme. My sister’s ex-boyfriend was
one of the unlucky ones. Tragically, he committed
suicide because he couldn’t bear the agony.
What I want to stress is that some injuries to
nerves, if dealt with in a rapid manner, can have
much better outcomes. Through my experience
as a personal trainer, I know people who have
had the same injury as me, with the same surgical
intervention, and their recovery was complete.
This may have because they only waited
weeks, rather than months, before seeking
help. Maybe they are just the lucky ones.
Avoid the quacks
‘Non-Specific’ Lower Back Pain is a catch-all
term used by medics for this very common malady.
Doctors all over the world see people with
it every day and often it resolves naturally: the
pain restricts what you can do, you take it easy,
and so it goes away. The symptoms commonly
occur when the pain is from over-stressed muscles,
rather than nerves. Because these problems
are so common, and often get better over
time, they offer ripe pickings for quackery and
odd therapies.
PAGE 13 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: (X-ray) Flickr • planetc1

GETTING THROUGH BACK PAIN
Confusion arises when muscular back pain is
‘treated’ and then gets better. Most people will
attribute their recovery to their treatment –
whatever it was. This leads many victims to the
‘logical fallacy’ Post Hoc Ergo Proctor Hoc – translated
‘After therefore because of’. (Check out
Sceptic Guru’s (Daryl Ilbury) excellent guide to
logical fallacies on page 18).
When you are in pain you feel desperate. I know.
You are prepared to try anything – and if you
try something and notice a lessening of your
pain, you sing the praises of the treatment and
declare it to be a cure. Everyone is susceptible
to this tendency because this is a part of human
nature. All manner of quack nostrums have
arisen because of this – with sensible-sounding
claims of being able to cure back pain.
I’ll stay humble: maybe your treatment did help,
but maybe it didn’t. Time tends to heal most issues.
And time is what passes after we swallow a
pill, have a massage, get our backs cracked, stick
dozens of little needles in our skin or rub stinky
balms all over our body. All these ‘treatments’
have something in common: the passage of
time.
I was fortunate to make a good recovery, but my
pain lingers like a drill sergeant. If I do everything
by the book, it won’t bother me. As soon
as I stop following the advice given at the Spine
Clinic, the pain flares up like that in-your-face
shout-fest popularized by American war movies.
It should be noted that not all shooting lower
back (or ‘sciatic nerve pain’) requires surgery.
But by sharing my story I hope to impart some
knowledge to all Guru readers about a condition
that is very common. This article is a recollection
of experiences, not medical advice.
My hope is for you to think critically about
whatever course of action you take. Is your chosen
remedy likely to be a placebo, or is there
evidence to support that it works? Did you get
better because of the treatment or did enough
time pass that it went away on its own? Is your
condition serious enough to merit a trip to an
orthopaedic surgeon or will a few days of kicking
back with a TV remote fix you up? Let my
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 14
story ring in your ears next time you feel a stifling
pain in your back. I sought out evidencebased
medical science. I didn’t want just to feel
better – I wanted to be fixed. And if I had to do
it all over I would do the same again, only sooner.
And I’d skip that nerve root block. Damn
that hurt.
THE ‘RED FLAGS’
There are several warning signs
that may mean back pain is caused
by a serious condition. Immediate
medical help should be sought if you
experience:
• a fever of 38ºC (100.4ºF) or
above
• unexplained weight loss
• swelling of the back
• constant back pain that does
not ease after lying down
• pain in your chest or high up
in your back
• pain down your legs and below
the knees
• pain caused by a recent trauma
or injury to your back
• loss of bladder control
• inability to pass urine
• loss of bowel control
• numbness around your genitals,
buttocks or back passage
• pain that is worse at night
(From NHS Back Pain advice)
Matthew Linsdell has a degree in Environmental Science and is a certified personal
trainer. He calls himself an evidence-based trainer, as training is a field littered with
well-disguised pseudoscience. He owns a small exercise facility in Ottawa, Ontario
where the emphasis is on teaching the biology behind the exercise – you find can out
more at smart-fit.ca
ASK A
GURU
Ever had one of those questions that really bugs
you? Us too! Well here’s some most excellent news:
every Friday our team of Gurus will be accepting
your questions about (pretty much) anything –
health, nutrition, psychology, space… or life!
To ask a question, simply post it on our Facebook
wall or tweet it to @GuruMag with the
hashtag #AskAGuru on any Friday. We also
accept questions via email.
If a man has gender reassignment surgery will
he suffer ‘phantom limb’ type feelings?
Sent via twitter
Phantom limb syndrome is the sensation of a body
part being present even after it has been amputated.
A most peculiar condition, the amputee can find the
absent limb feeling very real and even as if it can be
moved and manipulated. It’s a surprisingly common
syndrome and can be extremely painful for many: an
amputated hand may feel as if it is clenched and the
fingernails are digging into the palm.
The reasons for phantom limb sensations are unclear
but they are thought to be due to the way the brain is
‘hard-wired’ for all its body parts: a region within the
parietal brain lobe (the top of the head) has a ‘map’
for receiving sensations from different body regions.
When a body part is removed, this – now redundant –
brain segment ‘creates’ an image of the missing body
part from other bodily sensations. It isn’t imagined
– the feelings are just as real as when the body was
whole.
Answered by Dr Stu (Science Guru)
Our diverse team of writers and Gurus will research
and find you the answer. If we can’t, then we’ll
hunt down an expert who can. It might take us
a few days to find the answer, but we will do our
best!
See the full list of questions answered so far on our
website. Here’s a selection of some of the best:
Gender reassignment
involves (obviously)
the removal of body
parts. For men, the
penis (although not
a ‘limb’) seems to be
vulnerable to the same
problem as for arms,
hands, legs and feet.
60% of transsexual
men experience
phantom ‘limb’ feelings
for the absent genitalia
after surgery. And not
just men are affected:
women commonly feel
‘phantom’ breasts after
a mastectomy.
PAGE 15 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Male/Female) Flickr • © O de Andrade

(More Presents!) Flickr • MissMessie, (Sausages) Flickr • Paul Keller
ASK A GURU
Why does my atheist brother-in-law complain when
his son refuses to believe in Father Christmas?
Asked by @Christomill via twitter
I have given this much thought because there are
three ways of approaching the issue of challenging
personal beliefs: by tip-toeing daintily through the
tulips, bashing through the obstruction with a frontend
loader, or – my personal favourite – obliterating
the tulips with the front-end loader. I’m going to have
to take the first route, because ideally as a science
journalist I’d need to interview all parties before
throwing any light on the matter; and besides, there
are some sensitive issues at stake here.
Firstly, I have to assume that your atheist brotherin-law
doesn’t believe in Father Christmas either.
That makes sense because the character doesn’t exist
outside of folklore, and even then, in such apparently
diverse forms as to render reports of him untenable
as proof. Besides, in order to deliver as many presents
as needed in a single night (even to only the good
children), would require Father Christmas (and his
reindeer) to do some interesting things with the laws
Answered by Daryl Ilbury (Sceptic Guru)
What is Sausage Skin Made of?
Asked by Heather Young
Oh boy. Those of you who are squeamish and want
to ensure you continue to enjoy sausages better look
away now as there are two answers – and one of them
isn’t pretty.
Sausage skins are also known as ‘casings’. It used to
be the case that all sausage skins were made from the
intestines of animals – cows, pigs, sheep, and so on.
Yep, the stuff that digests food and makes faeces – the
intestines – are used to encase the ground meat you so
thoroughly enjoy.
However, it’s not that simple. Your intestines, and
those of the mammals you most likely eat, are made of
four layers. Sausage casings are made from the second
layer from the inside, called the submucosa. Somewhat
reassuringly, this tough layer has never been in contact
with the animal’s poo. During processing, the other
layers are stripped off and the submucosa is then
cleaned and used for the sausage casings.
Answered by Artem Cheprasov
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 16
of physics (see The Physics of Santa)
Secondly, I also have to assume that because the son
has been brought up in a home where at least one
the parents is an atheist, he has been encouraged to
employ critical reasoning. He has therefore come to
the logical conclusion that Father Christmas doesn’t
exist. This means that – unlike his peers who have
been encouraged to believe in nonsense – he won’t
grow up to believe in horoscopes and homeopathy.
The logical answer to your question is therefore
simple… it’s love (altogether now, 1…2…3…”aaaah!”)
I can imagine that your brother-in-law doesn’t want
to risk his son being prejudiced by his peers (and
their judgemental
parents) by running
around and telling
everyone that Father
Christmas doesn’t
exist.
Now, for those of you about to vomit at the thought
of all of this, don’t despair. New technological
developments have allowed the development of
artificial casings.
These artificial
casings can either be
made from natural
substances, like the
hide of a cow, or from
cotton. Finally, truly
artificial casings can
be made from plastic.
Only one question
remains: how long
will this ‘tasty’
information keep
you from eating
your next juicy
submucosal sausage?
I have noticed that some products (such as Soy Milk)
state a warning that it should be consumed within 4
days after being opened. How accurate is this?
Asked by Julio Vazquez via Facebook
‘Best before’ and ‘use by’ dates are used on different
types of food. ‘Use by’ dates relate to perishable foods,
which can ‘go off’ easily (like dairy products and meat).
The ‘use by’ date indicates the latest date on which the
food is definitely safe to eat (if stored correctly, that is:
don’t expect milk to be any good on its use by date if
it’s been left out of the fridge all day).
‘Best before’ dates are used for foods with a longer life
than perishable goods – things like cookies and cakes.
This date indicates how long you can expect the food
to remain at its best quality. Such foods are typically
still safe to eat after their best before date, but may
just not be quite so pleasing on the palate. Not good
unless you like stale-tasting muffins.
Turning to things like soya milk, it’s generally best to
heed the advice given on the packaging. Some things
– like milk – may look and smell fine, even well after
their use-by date, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t
become contaminated with some lurking bug or other
since you opened it. As a UK Food Safety expert
Answered by Jon Crowe (Molecular Guru)
explains “It’s tempting just to give your food a sniff
to see if you think it’s gone off, but food bugs like E.
coli and salmonella don’t cause food to smell ‘off’ even
when they may have grown to dangerous levels.” So
food could look and smell fine but still be harmful.
In short, ‘use by’ dates aren’t just produced as a result
of guesswork, but
rather as the result of
careful testing. You
can read more about
the science behind
‘use by’ dates here.
Incidentally, US soya
milk manufacturers
state that their
products remain
fresh for between
7 and 10 days, as
reported here.
There’s plenty more where they came from.
Here are some corkers:
• Could you make someone love you by dosing them with
‘love’ hormones?
• How true to real life forensics is CSI?
• Why can’t women read maps? Why can’t men shop?
• Do pets get mental health disorders?
• Why don’t babies lose their voice from screaming?
ASK A GURU
• Is Sheldon Cooper or Leslie Winkle from TV’s The Big Bang
Theory right?
PAGE 17 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Fridge) Flickr • Ollie Crafoord

#SCEPTICISM
LATIN, AND THE MODUS
OPERANDI OF THE
SUPER SCEPTIC
HOW TO WIN ARGUMENTS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
DARYL ILBURY • SCEPTIC GURU
RIGHT:
A tablet with
a 5th century
Latin inscription
located in the
Colosseum in
Rome.
LATIN, AND THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THE SUPER SCEPTIC
English is rapidly becoming the lingua
franca of scientific communication,
allowing scientists the world over to
share their ideas and discoveries. But
English is not the only language to
empower scientists, and give voice
to scientific reason. It’s ironic that
one of the most powerful tools for
debunking both pseudoscience and
those superstitions rooted in archaic
thinking is itself thousands of years
old. So what is this language? Our
Sceptic Guru, Daryl Ilbury, has the
answer: it’s Latin.
Don’t laugh and roll your eyes. It’s easy to
dismiss Latin as a ‘dead’ language, particularly
given that it’s no longer the official language
of any country. However, not only is it still
used, but it also remains the bedrock of several
cornerstones of modern civilisation – most
notably law and medicine. And for this reason
it evokes strength and authority.
It’s also impressive. Whip out the odd Latin
phrase in polite discourse, especially with a
dash of restrained ceremony, and it has the
same impact as George Clooney announcing
at a ladies’ book club that he also has a PhD
in astrophysics: discussion suddenly stops and
everyone pauses to ponder what’s just been
said, invariably with at least an eyebrow cocked.
So here are some handy Latin phrases to
keep tucked into your sceptic tool belt, and
explanations of how to use them in situations
drenched in superstition and pseudoscience:
The dinner party scenario: ‘How I
got pregnant…’
You’re at a dinner party and a woman claims
that she is finally pregnant after months of
trying, and it’s all because – on the advice of
an aunt – she and her husband made love
with a potato under the bed. After everyone
has smiled and nodded, you lean forward and
say wistfully: “Aaah – the classic post hoc ergo
propter hoc fallacy”. When everyone looks at you
with raised eyebrows you explain – with mild
surprise that they obviously didn’t get it – it
means ‘after this therefore because of this’.
This is a commonly-used line of reasoning
employed by peddlers of pseudoscience and
superstitions, which basically goes like this: if
B follows A then A must have caused B. This
is ridiculous because it assumes coincidence
is causation. Example: after successive games
without scoring, a footballer dons a new pair of
underpants when getting into his kit, and later
scores a goal. Ergo, the new pair of underpants
must have been responsible.
PAGE 19 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: (People) Flickr • Ed Yourdon, (Tablet) Wikimedia • Wknight94, (Pregnant Woman) Flickr • mahalie

(Crystal Ball) Flickr • garryknight
LATIN, AND THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THE SUPER SCEPTIC
The argument erupts
After hearing your explanation for the above
pregnancy, the women in the room angrily
snap, “What do you know? You’re stupid!” To
this you raise a finger and say, “I see now you’re
resorting to an ad hominem argument”. This
means ‘to the man’ and refers to the act of saying
something is wrong based purely on a – usually
irrelevant – judgment of that person. This tactic
is generally employed by people who cannot
provide evidence to support their argument,
so resort instead to attacking the person with
whom they are arguing – because they are an
atheist, or because they support Manchester
City, for example.
The office scenario: ‘Check out my
magic crystal…’
To some degree, this is the flip side of the
women’s outburst. Someone in the office
shows you a crystal they believe contains magic
powers, and they rub it every day because,
according to them, it will bring them good luck.
They ‘know’ this to be so because the crystal
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 20
was given to them by a friend of theirs who
has traveled extensively throughout the world
and is therefore very wise. Latin has a handy
warning for moments such as this: nullius in
verba – take nobody’s word for it. It is the motto
of the Royal Society, and is explained thus: “It
is an expression of the determination of Fellows
to withstand the domination of authority and
to verify all statements by an appeal to facts
determined by experiment.”
At the gym
A friend shows you their new ‘Quantum
Electro-Therapy’ bracelet that supposedly
aligns the ‘geomagnetic arterial essences’ in
their body. After finally composing yourself and
wiping away the tears, you explain it’s a load of
pseudoscientific rubbish. Clearly upset, they
challenge you by saying: “How can you say that?
I see a lot of people wearing them.” That’s when
you slowly shake your head, smile and say, “Oh
Bob, you’re a victim of the ad populum fallacy.
The belief that something being popular is a
reason for accepting it as true.”
In the doctor’s waiting room
A friend says they’ve decided to seek the
help of a homeopath because “they’ve tried
everything” that their doctor has prescribed,
apparently without success. The Latin phrase
for this ridiculous leap of logic is a non sequitur,
meaning ‘does not follow’. Just because one
doctor hasn’t successfully diagnosed or treated
an ailment doesn’t mean that a homeopath will.
At church
You hear of someone who is denying their child
medical attention because they believe some
form of divine intervention will cure them.
Their belief is based solely on faith, but the
scientist in you knows this will place the health
of the child at risk. You slowly shake your head,
and say sadly, “Credo quia absurdum” (“I believe
because it is absurd”). This is the seemingly
paradoxical justification employed by those
who believe that reason and faith are hostile to
each other and that faith is superior at arriving
at particular truths.
So make a note of these phrases. Maybe even
keep them in your mobile phone. And when the
occasion arises (and if there’s one thing we know
for sure it’s that superstition and pseudoscience
remain ever popular) you’ll know what to do.
LATIN, AND THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THE SUPER SCEPTIC
Bitten by the Latin bug?
Keen to impress your friends and family
with your newfound linguistic skills?
Then try these:
Argumentum ad lapidem
When someone simply dismisses your
argument as being absurd, without
providing any evidence thereof.
Example: “Evolution? What a load
of rubbish!”
Argumentum ad baculum
When someone threatens you in order
to change your belief.
Contra principia negantem
non est disputandum
A last resort. It means ‘against one who
denies the principles, there can be no
debate’. It should be directed at someone
who rejects all logical principles of
science. It is therefore fruitless to enter
into any kind of discussion with them.
Argumentum ad nauseum
When someone says the same thing
over and over again in an attempt
to establish it as true, as opposed to
providing proof thereof.
Homo homini lupus est
Which means ‘man is a wolf
to his fellow man’. To be used
sagaciously when witness to the
horrors man often inflicts upon
others, often in the name of some
authority – for example, should
some cult leader encourage his
followers to do something that
could result in their injury or
demise.
Daryl Ilbury is a multi-award winning broadcaster and op-ed columnist based in
South Africa. He has a passion for science that has burned since he was a child. You can
see an archive of his work on his website www.darylilbury.com or follow him on
Twitter at @darylilbury.
PAGE 21 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU

URU OPINIONS
Of Capital Importance: why can’t
people write properly anymore?
As an English teacher, one of my pet-hates is
the use of lower case letters instead of capitals.
In 30 of my pupils’ books, I will see an average
of 29 that are missing capital letters – at
the start of sentences, for the date – even for
a child’s own name. It seems as if they are not
familiar with the concept of capital letters at all.
In a world that is increasingly doing away with
capitalisation, can we really blame them? Is culture,
and specifically the media, responsible for
this increasing illiteracy?
In previous years, the decrease in ‘correct’ (or
standard) spellings and grammar was blamed
on the increased use of texting and Instant
Messaging. A relaxed style of communicating,
prompted by limited text message length (historically
160 characters) seemed to encourage
a more informal style of language. However,
today’s smart phones (which many of us now
own) have no such message length restriction
and will automatically correct both spellings
and grammar, ensuring that punctuation marks
(especially capital letters), are in the right places.
Perhaps instead of blaming mobile phones, we
should look to the powerful force of the media,
who seem to be doing away with capital letters
with abandon.
The British television channel ITV is one such
culprit: they have recently overhauled their
brand identity, replacing their familiar capitalised
logo with a lower case, curvy alternative.
The channel describes its new logo as “a warm,
bold design based on a formalised version of
human handwriting”. This flowing, curvy, new
design may well be based on handwriting , but
as the name of a brand (and acronym), it ought
to be capitalised. (You can read about the decision
behind the rebrand here).
Branding that tries to replicate handwriting,
and does away with linguistic conventions,
raises the interesting question of language and
influence. Just like the age-old question of the
chicken and the egg, linguists have argued for
a long time over which is more influential: language
or culture? The words we use may very
well shape how we see the world.
One fascinating point of view is that the words
we choose to represent certain things directly
affect our perceptions. Known as ‘Linguistic
Determinism’, it is considered the root of the
argument for Political Correctness, in which
language (along with attitudes, beliefs and policies),
is amended to minimise offence in relation
to gender, age, race, sexuality, belief etc.
For example, masculine labels such as ‘fireman’
or ‘actress’ are replaced by the gender neutral
‘firefighter’ and ‘actor’.
The interdependent relationship between language
and cultural thought has long been debated,
but Lera Borododitsky writes in her article
‘Lost in Translation’:
“All this new research shows us that the
languages we speak not only reflect or express
our thoughts, but also shape the very
thoughts we wish to express. The structures
that exist in our languages profoundly shape
how we construct reality… If people learn another
language, they inadvertently also learn
a new way of looking at the world.”
(You can read the article in full here.)
Whilst language in general may shape how we
construct reality, does the misuse of capitals really
affect our thinking that much? Although
students’ writing is not technically ‘correct’
without capital letters, I can still understand it.
If our culture is doing away with capital letters,
perhaps now is it time for us to shed them too?
Facebook and Twitter are two further examples
of the interesting link between cultural shifts
and language. Despite being proper nouns, neither
use a capital to represent their name as it
appears in company logos. Again, we can ask:
does this reflect a shift in modern culture to
omit capitals, or does the omission of capitals
on such popular sites encourage others to do
the same?
Many say that language really does reflect the
changes that are occurring in culture already.
We see this in the addition of new words popularised
by TV programmes, such as ’Amazeballs’
and ’Bridezilla’, to online dictionaries (read
GURU OPINIONS
about this here).
Perhaps the bigger issue is not the use or misuse
of standard spellings and grammar, but the
messages that are conveyed by inaccurate use.
Yes, writing can still be understood without
capital letters (I could have written this entire
article without capitals; then again, my computer
would make every effort to correct them
for me), but what subconscious messages would
I have conveyed about myself, or the magazine?
That I wasn’t well educated?
On a deeper level, inaccurate punctuation can
lead us to construct an opinion, not just about
a person’s literacy skills, but about their beliefs
and values. If I didn’t use capitals, you might
think me lazy, or that I didn’t care about my
article or the magazine. You might not think
much of the editorial staff who allowed this lack
of capitalisation. At worst, you might doubt the
validity of what we have to say.
I doubt you would have thought me ‘cool’ or
‘forward-thinking’.
In such a public, professional setting as a digital
magazine, there is an expectation that the language
used is formal.
To follow this line of thought to one extreme,
could we perhaps say that there is a direct correlation
between the lack of capitalisation of
proper nouns and the lack of respect in our
society today? If I do not use correct grammar,
my students may very well see me in a different
light. When I go to see doctor Jones instead of
Doctor Jones when I am ill, will I still trust his
or her judgment? If I don’t use a capital letter
for your name, will you still feel that I value and
respect you?
Perhaps most importantly the language we
use – and specifically the lack of capitals – affects
our thoughts about other people and our
thoughts about ourselves. If I see myself (and
represent myself) as ’i’ and not ‘I’, then I may
not appreciate my own significance and importance.
Instead, I undermine my own worth and
encourage others to do the same.
Perhaps our use of capitals really is of capital
importance.
Leila Wildsmith is an English teacher in a secondary
school and, in her spare time, loves writing and reading
a wide variety of different books. She occasionally blogs
about writing at www.writingonthewall0612.blogspot.co.uk
and intensely dislikes misplaced apostrophe’s.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 22 PAGE 23 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Eye chart) Flickr • deege@fermentarium.com

#MIND
OUT, DAMNED SPOT!
THE MACBETH EFFECT IS ALIVE AND WELL
KIM LACEY • MIND GURU
We went through childhood with the
words ‘Wash your hands!’ ringing
in our ears before every mealtime.
But why would a grown adult find
themselves reaching for cleansing
products after playing a video game?
It’s called the ‘MacBeth Effect’. Mind
Guru Kim Lacey finds out more...
Alright, get ready to have your mind stretched.
(I am the ‘Mind Guru’ after all!) Dig into
your memories of Shakespeare, recall the
play MacBeth, and imagine yourself as Lady
MacBeth for a minute. (Never seen it? Watch a
fun condensed animated version here.) I want
you to focus on that famous scene in which the
guilt-ridden Queen Consort obsessively washes
her hands, trying to rid them of imagined blood.
She was hoping to rid herself of mental anguish
– but how could hand-washing help her?
Surprising though it may seem, morally
objectionable actions can be ‘washed away’:
in a 2006 article published in Science, Chen-
Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist proved it. If
you think about it, moral cleansing is pretty
common. Religions, for example, often couple
physical and mental cleansing in regular rituals
(think baptism). But Zhong and Liljenquist set
out to prove a tangible connection between
these two types of cleansing. As a result, they
coined term ‘The MacBeth Effect’.
To test their theory, they asked participants
to think of something ethical or unethical
they had previously taken part in, while also
bringing to mind any emotions they felt.
Switching gears, the researchers then had
the volunteers complete six fill-in-the-blank
prompts. (There’s a small one on page 27 for
you to try out.) Of these six prompts, some
could
OUT, DAMNED SPOT!
be completed to form cleansing-related words.
What they found was fascinating: participants
who thought of an unethical action were more
likely to complete the blanks with cleaning
terms. Those who originally imagined an ethical
action usually filled in the blank with other
random words that sounded right to them.
But it gets more interesting. They also tried a
similar experiment using an assortment of
cleaning products and other everyday items
instead of fill-in-the-blank prompts. This time,
Zhong and Liljenquist asked participants to
handwrite a given story – of which some were
ethical and others were not. After the writing
session, the participants were asked to select
an item from an assortment given to them.
Those that copied the unethical stories chose
cleaning products (like toothpaste
or antibacterial wipes)
instead of random
objects (like candy
bars or Post-It
notes). Zhong
and Liljenquist
concluded that
seeking physical
cleansing does
actually ease the
mind’s worry over moral
infractions.
PAGE 25 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: (Washing Hands) Flickr • SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, (bloody hand) Flickr • Jo Naylor

(Virtual Route Clearance) Flickr • The U.S. Army
OUT, DAMNED SPOT!
Videogaming guilt
Shift your focus just a bit and think about how
playing videogames might alleviate the stress
after a trying day. It’s a common reason to pick
up the joypad: the US Army has enlisted the use
of videogame consoles to help soldiers become
desensitized to violence – or to simply let them
blow off steam. But why does playing a violent
game – one in which you would ‘kill’ someone –
actually make you feel better? A recent study by
Mario Gallwitzer and André Melzer, published
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 26
in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
took ‘The MacBeth Effect’ one step further to
find out the answer.
Here’s the scenario: you’re trying to unwind
after a tough day. Instead of kicking back with
a book (which is my favorite!), you decide to
relax by playing a first-person shooter (FPS),
the type of video game that takes place from
your perspective so it appears like you’re the
one performing the action. So there you are,
ready to strike from behind a digital bush, and
BOOM! You successfully vaporise your target—
another human character.
OK, stop right there. How do you feel?
Energised? Morally conflicted? Not affected?
Though you may not realize it, your response
to that question has something to do with the
amount of time you spend gaming. Frequent
gamers would be more likely to say ‘not
affected’, while infrequent gamers (like myself)
would likely choose ‘morally conflicted’.
Gallwitzer and Melzer’s study drew on research
that showed how gamers who played on a
regular basis were more likely to automatically
distance themselves from the characters and
actions in the game than those who didn’t
play video games often. They predicted that
infrequent gamers were more likely to use
hygiene products after playing because of the
‘moral distress’ they endured. And they were
right.
For someone like myself, who’s not much of a
gamer, Gallwitzer and Melzer’s study represents
a key finding. Just as with the original ‘The
MacBeth Effect’ experiment, they show that
those who experience moral distress virtually
(from a video game) are more likely to select
cleaning products when given a choice. By
contrast, regular gamers don’t feel any moral
distress, so don’t feel the need to reach for the
cleansing products. (Does this mean gamers smell
worse? - Ed)
Glancing round my house, I know it’s time for
a good spring clean. I’ve not done anything
immoral lately, so I’m pretty confident it’s the
actual dirt that is prompting me to reach for
the vacuum cleaner. That said, next time I’m
out shopping I may just psychoanalyse the
products in someone else’s cart. And see if they
look guilty…
References
• Gollwitzer, M. and A. Melzer. (2012).
Macbeth and the joystick: Evidence
for moral cleansing after playing a
violent video game. Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology, 48:
1356–1360
ADVERTISMENT
OUT, DAMNED SPOT!
HERE’S A MINI-QUIZ: GIVE
IT A GO YOURSELF.
Make words by picking letters to fill
in the gaps.
W _ _ H
SH_ _ER
S _ _ P
Are you naughty or nice?
Wash? Wish?
Shower? Shaker?
Soap? Step?
• Zhong, C. and K. Liljenquist. (2006).
Washing away your sins: Threatened
morality and physical cleansing. Science,
313: 1451-1452
With a PhD from Detroit’s Wayne State University, Kim Lacey from Detroit, USA
knows a thing or two about memory studies, digital media and digital humanities. She
also has a serious addiction to combo plates at restaurants. You can read about Kim at
kimberlylacey.com or follow her on Twitter at @kimlacey.
PAGE 27 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU

#LIFE
STRIKE A POSE
HOW MEN SHOULD REALLY DANCE
JAMES LLOYD • PHYSICS GURU
RIGHT:
Examples of an
avatar created
for the rating
purposes.
This Valentine’s Day, romance will be
on the minds of many men around
the world. But how should a man go
about wooing that special girl or guy
of his dreams? Well, get your glad
rags out guys: according to research
published last year, an impressive
display of dancing may be one way to
win someone’s heart, as James Lloyd
explains...
It’s a common scenario. You’re at a wedding
reception, the speeches are over, and a DJ
starts doing his thing in the corner of the room,
obscured by a wall of tacky disco lights.
Before long, the complimentary champagne
begins to work its magic on the revellers.
A mildly inebriated Auntie Valerie is the first
to wander onto the dance floor, deciding that
a slightly dented reputation is a small price to
pay for having a good time. Uncle Bob is next
to follow, loosening his tie and rolling up his
sleeves the minute he hears the opening blasts
of ‘Y.M.C.A.’.
Meanwhile, the best man – let’s call him Dave
– has his eye on one of the bridesmaids, Emily.
STRIKE A POSE
Hugging his warm pint of Heineken, Dave looks
longingly at Emily as she glides across the dance
floor like a swan on roller skates. Feeling ever
more tipsy, he puts down his beer and shuffles
towards her.
Suddenly, ‘Y.M.C.A.’ gives way to the moody
drum and bass intro of ‘Billie Jean’. Dave spots
his chance. Moving deftly through the throng
of dancers, he positions himself opposite
Emily and begins to engage in a mating ritual
worthy of any bird of paradise. Completely
oblivious to the onlooking crowd, Dave bends
his torso from side to side like a man possessed,
simultaneously shaking his head to the beat
whilst performing an elaborate twisting routine
with his right knee.
The ritual seems to have worked: 30 minutes
later both he and Emily are locked in a romantic
embrace, gently swaying to ‘Lady in Red’ amidst
a sea of teary-eyed couples.
Dave’s secret? He’s familiar with a recent article
in Biology Letters, which shows that certain
dance moves are more likely than others to
ignite the passions of a woman.
Nick Neave and colleagues at Northumbria
University and the University of Göttingen
used motion-capture technology to record
PAGE 29 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: (Dancing) Flickr • dicktay2000

Next Page: (Grass) Flickr • Titanas, (Wolf Spider) Wikimedia • Orest, (Manakin Bird) Wikimedia • chdwckvnstrsslhm, (Seahorse) Wikimedia • richard ling
(Dancing By A Wall) Flickr • garryknight, (Ballroom Dancing) Flickr • mark sebastian
STRIKE A POSE
the movements of 19 men dancing to a basic
drum beat. Each dancer was then mapped
onto a computer-generated avatar, and 37
heterosexual women were asked to rate the
avatars on their dancing prowess.
By correlating the women’s ratings with the
avatars’ movements, the scientists were able to
come up with a recipe for successful boogieing.
The three factors that contributed most strongly
to a high dance score were ‘neck internal/
external rotation variability’ (head shaking),
‘trunk adduction/abduction variability’
(sideways bending) and ‘right knee internal/
external rotation speed’ (twisting speed).
These movements, claims the study, may
provide signals of a man’s suitability as a sexual
partner by indicating his physical strength,
health, fitness, and/or genetic quality.
According to Neave and his colleagues, dance
in humans is “a set of intentional, rhythmic,
culturally influenced, non-verbal body movements
that are considered to be an important aspect of
sexuality and courtship attraction”. This links us
to wolf spiders, manakin birds, and seahorses
(amongst other animals), all of whom perform
courtship displays to entice members of the
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 30
opposite sex (see sidebox: ‘Nature’s movers and
shakers’).
So, men, if you’re looking to woo on the dance
floor, then you can’t do much better than
shaking your body like the proverbial Polaroid
picture. And don’t forget to twist those knees
like there’s no tomorrow…*
*NB: Guru does not accept any responsibility for minor injuries,
deflated egos, or red-faced humiliation suffered as a result of
this article. Dancing is to be undertaken solely at the reader’s
discretion.
Further reading:
• Neave, N., et al. (2011). Male dance
moves that catch a woman’s eye.
Biology Letters, 7: 221-224.
NATURE’S MOVERS AND
SHAKERS
Wolf Spider
To entice sexy-looking females, the male wolf spider uses a strange kind
of semaphore dance. He enthusiastically waves his feelers – or ‘palps’ –
in an elaborate fashion, rather like a 1990s raver pulling shapes at the
Haçienda. This impressive dance routine requires so much energy that
the spider’s heartbeat triples while he’s performing.
If she likes what she sees, the female spider will tap her legs to encourage
the eight-legged lothario. Then, if successful, the dance will finish with a
mating session, in which the male spider uses his palps to pump sperm
into his besotted lover.
White’s seahorse
In one of nature’s most elegant courtship displays, White’s seahorses –
unique to the Australian coast – carry out a sublime ballet worthy of Anna
Pavlova herself.
Before mating, the two lifelong partners entwine their tails, circling one
another and mirroring each other’s movements. Once this intimate pas de
deux is complete, the female deposits her eggs into the pouch of the male
seahorse, who lovingly carries them until the tiny baby seahorses are ready
to emerge fully-formed. Awwww.
STRIKE A POSE
Humans aren’t the only creatures to shake their
booty in an effort to woo potential mates. Here
are some of the animal kingdom’s best dancers.
Beyoncé, eat your heart out…
Manakin Bird
The small manakin birds that live in the American tropics are well known for
their spectacular courtship rituals. Some use their wing feathers to make
buzzing and snapping noises; some fly around in circles; whilst others waggle
their bottoms in the female’s face. But nothing compares to the sight of a
manakin moonwalking backwards along a branch. That’s right... a bird doing
a moonwalk. Backwards.
If the female manakin isn’t impressed by that, then she clearly isn’t familiar
with the works of Michael Jackson.
James Lloyd studied physics at university and recently finished a climate science
PhD. He’s now swapped semiconductors for semicolons, writing about science and blogging
at The Soft Anonymous. James enjoys music making, hill walking and trying to
find the perfect flapjack. Find him on Twitter @jbb_lloyd.
PAGE 31 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU

(Synchrotron Radiation) Flickr • CLS Research Office
February/March 2013
MAKING PEACE:
IRAN AND ISRAEL
SHUN CONFLICT TO
WORK TOGETHER
Author:
Toby Brown
Links:
BBC News
Sesame.co.jo
RIGHT:
Synchrotron radiation reflecting
from a terbium single crystal.
POLITICS
Just as Ali Baba called out the words ‘open
sesame’ to unseal the cave of treasures in
Arabian Nights, Middle Eastern scientists are
hoping to evoke the same spirit of opening
doors by naming their collaborative particle
accelerator project SESAME.
In a region better known for violent conflict,
countries including Iran, Turkey, Egypt and
even Israel, are coming together to back the
construction of a machine similar to the
Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland – a
synchrotron light-source, and the first of its
kind in the Middle East.
Set for completion in 2015, SESAME
(Synchrotron light for Experimental Science
and Applications in the Middle East) will
be built in Jordan and will act somewhat
like a giant microscope. Electrons are to be
accelerated to near the speed of light around
a circular chamber by powerful magnets,
releasing an energy called ‘synchrotron
radiation’, which is then diverted into
‘beamlines’. These beamlines can be tweaked
to the specific needs of the research being
conducted, with applications ranging from
the study of viruses to the development of
new materials.
The SESAME venture is aimed at fostering
scientific excellence and economic
development, using physics to bridge cultural
and social rifts. Perhaps the most surprising
aspect of SESAME is the cooperation
between Iran and Israel, whose relationship
has become increasingly strained recently.
Officials from each country are putting aside
accounts of industrial sabotage and calls for
each other’s destruction, choosing to set
an example by securing continued funding
instead.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 32
www.gurumagazine.org
Observers from Western Europe and the US
are overseeing the project to ensure that the
national scientific interests of each member
state are properly represented. Work
conducted at the institute must be made
available to all, with no allowance given
for classified or military research so as not
to exacerbate the already volatile political
situation.
Maintaining relations between the Arab,
Iranian and Israeli backers presents the
project’s organisers with a serious diplomatic
challenge. The recent heightening of tensions
between Tel Aviv and Tehran makes the
task even more difficult, but the council’s
members are hopeful that these usually
hostile countries may find common ground
in the goal of scientific advancement.
Prof. Eliezer Rabinovici, a physicist at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is
optimistic that peace will prevail: “We are
having a rough period now – a very rough
period – and it may become even rougher.
But I think that as scientists, we have to
look at the long range, and in the long range
we see no conflict of interest between the
people of Iran and the people of Israel.”
1960S DRUG THAT
HELPS US REMEMBER
THE GOOD TIMES
Author:
Ross Harper
Links:
Beyond extinction: erasing
human fear responses
and preventing the return
of fear
RIGHT:
An 80mg capsule of Propranolol
MIND
Anyone who saw the 1997 blockbuster, Men
In Black, will be aware that one day – thanks
to a pen torch and some strategically-placed
sunglasses – troubling memories will be a
thing of the past. Well we may not be there
yet, but if Merel Kindt and her colleagues
are correct, we’re not that far off. The results
from their Amsterdam University labs
showed that taking the old-fashioned blood
pressure medicine, propranolol, can fully
erase fear memories.
Sixty volunteers were trained to associate a
spider picture with fear by giving them small
electric shocks. These volunteers demonstrated
that their brains had learned to make
the association by showing an exaggerated
startle response whenever they were subsequently
shown a spider photo. However,
Kindt showed that, when individuals took
propranolol and were then shown the spider
picture days later, their expression of fear
was completely abolished – unlike those
who did not receive the tablet, whose startle
response remained unchanged.
This new memory-wiping technique is based
on the principle of memory reconsolidation:
when we remember something, the invoked
memory is retrieved from its long-term
storage location (in a part of the brain called
the neocortex) – at which point it becomes
vulnerable to disruption. (It’s a bit like retrieving
a file from a filing cabinet. Once
the file is removed, the papers stored in the
file could get jumbled up in a way that’s not
possible while the file is safely stored away.)
The memory is then ‘restabilized’ by being
stored back into the neocortex – where it
becomes resistant to change once again. It is
thought that this process may underlie our
ability to strengthen and weaken individual
memories based on new experiences.
STRIKE A POSE
In her experiment, Kindt managed to block
restabilization of the fear memory, causing
it to be lost forever: once retrieved from
the ‘filing cabinet’ of our neocortex, the
memory ‘file’ was basically shredded by the
propranolol before it could be safely re-filed.
Unfortunately for the sci-fi fans among us,
taking propranolol did not cause individuals
completely to forget the whole experience
of being tested: they expected to receive a
shock when presented with the picture of
a spider, but didn’t seem to care anymore.
This highlights a limitation of the memorywiping
technique – the drug seemed only to
target the fear-memory link, and nothing
else.
While it may seem positively ‘James Bond’
that memories can be selectively erased,
the idea of blocking restabilization is not a
new one. Countless experiments carried out
on animals have produced similar results.
But Kindt’s work is special because she has
shown that taking a drug, which is already
well established in the medical community,
can selectively erase fear memories in humans.
This could prove to be a landmark
discovery in the treatment of psychological
trauma (in particular, post-traumatic stress
disorder) and could even be extended to
therapies for drug addiction.
So what next? Well, as with all new treatments,
rigorous testing will have to be carried
out: history is littered with the empty
packets of innovative new medicines, which
never made it through clinical trials. Indeed,
three years after the initial experiment, we
are still waiting for any key developments.
So, for now, psychologists and neuroscientists
sit with crossed fingers – the hope being
that the treatment of unpleasant memories
will soon be readily achievable through
a simple process of ‘therapeutic forgetting’.
PAGE 33 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Capsule) Wikimedia • Parhamr

(E-Volve) Flickr • Keoni Cabral
HARNESSING THE
HIDDEN POWER OF
YOUR BRAIN
Author:
Simon Makin
THE THINKING
ROBOT: YOUR NEW
BEST FRIEND?
Author:
Simon Makin
Location of Primary
Visual Cortex.
BRAIN
Being able to watch your brain’s activity
while you work might help you to control
your thinking and boost performance,
according to a new study from researchers
at the Wellcome Trust Centre for
Neuroimaging at University College
London (UCL).
The approach, known as neurofeedback,
involves letting people watch what their
brains are doing on a screen – as it’s actually
happening. The team at UCL monitored
brain activity using a technology called
functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) to show volunteers the location of
activity in their brains as they imagined
images. During this ‘training’, volunteers
were asked to try to change how they
thought to increase activity in the back of
their brain – the visual cortex, where visual
BIOTECH
Scientists at the University of Waterloo,
Canada, led by Professor Chris Eliasmith,
have built the most sophisticated simulation
of a working brain ever constructed.
Although much smaller than the human
brain itself, consisting of only 2.5 million
brain cells (compared to 100 billion) and
many fewer than some previous simulations
– it displays an impressive range of
different behaviours. The artificial brain can
recognise images, remember sequences, and
even complete the kind of complex task you
might find in an IQ test.
The supercomputer program, called SPAUN
(Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified
Network), uses a 28 x 28 pixel digital camera
‘eye’ to gather input from its surroundings
and then gives its responses with a
robot arm. For instance, when shown the
sequence 1 2 3 - 5 6 7 - 3 4 ?, together with
an instruction, SPAUN will scrawl the digit
‘5’ on a piece of paper.
Unlike IBM’s Watson supercomputer,
which was built in 2011 to do one thing
(play Jeopardy!) and do it well, but made
information is processed.
After a training session, the subjects were
given the job of spotting subtle changes
in the contrast of a picture – that is,
tiny differences in colour intensity and
brightness. Those who had been able to
control their brain activity during the initial
training – by successfully learning how to
increase visual cortex activity – were better
able to detect the subtle changes in the task.
The scientists hope the technique could be
used to benefit people with impaired brain
function, such as people who have had a
stroke, and often have difficulty seeing even
though their eyes aren’t damaged.
Who knows, maybe one day ‘neurofeedback’
might be a technique we could all use to
boost our mental abilities. Well, here’s
hoping…
no attempt
to copy how
the brain
w o r k s ,
S P A U N
replicates
actual brain
cell activity
and wiring.
More importantly,
though, it turns this
activity into behaviour. This is in contrast
to larger, more detailed brain models,
such as the Blue Brain Project, which produce
detailed simulations of neural activity,
but don’t necessarily do anything.
SPAUN has two software systems that
work in harmony: a ‘working memory’
system that is modelled on the ‘higher’
thinking part of the brain (called the
prefrontal cortex – where we make our
decisions), and an ‘action selection’ system,
which is based on other parts of the brain
called the basal ganglia and thalamus (more
primitive, instinctual regions). The ‘action
Toby Brown describes himself as an aspiring
writer and purveyor of science and is currently
studying for a Masters in Astrophysics at Liverpool
University.
selection’ system routes data to the part of
the ‘working memory’ system appropriate
for the task, which then stores that data, and
performs the necessary ‘thinking’ functions.
All this is accomplished by software running
on a supercomputer, but, as it stands,
is still very limited compared to a real brain:
SPAUN can only tackle eight predefined
tasks, and is far slower than the real thing,
taking around two hours of computing time
to simulate one second of brain activity. It
does however demonstrate a range of cognitive
skills and even makes some of the same
mistakes we do, such as remembering the
first and last items in a list better than the
others (known to psychologists as primacy
and recency). The team also looked at the
Ross Harper recently graduated from Cambridge
University having studied Biological Natural Sciences. He
spent the last year running his somewhat unconventional
advertising business, BuyMyFace.com, and is now
trying his hand at app development with his new company,
Wriggle Ltd. Ross is living proof that you can take the
boy out of the lab, but you can’t take the lab out of the
boy - no matter what crazy scheme he’s currently working
on, he makes sure to devote a bit of time to keeping with
the latest in science news. Feel free to say ‘hi’ to Ross on
Twitter (@refharper).
ADVERTISMENT
STRIKE A POSE
effects of ‘killing off’ neurons to simulate
ageing, and have seen patterns of decline
similar to what happens in old age.
Crucially though, SPAUN lacks adaptivity
– the ability to learn new tasks. This is
a shortcoming the team hopes to tackle in
future. Even so, there’s no reason to presume
that building on this simulation will
at some point produce the more elusive
qualities of living brains, such as awareness
or intentions: SPAUN doesn’t do any of its
impressive tricks because it wants to – it is
explicitly programmed and fed instructions,
like any other computer system. So without
free will, there’s probably not much need to
worry about a future version taking control
of our missile defence systems just yet…
Simon Makin is an ex-post-doc researcher in
auditory perception turned journalist.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 34 PAGE 35 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Robots) Flickr • ricardodiaz11

#STUFF
GUREVIEWS
SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE: THE GAME
Developer: GameTogether
Content Developed by: In-Mind Foundation
Price: Free (Android), £0.69 (iTunes)
Rating:
I had high hopes for Social Knowledge. It
promises to be the perfect app for me as I’m
a sucker for quizzes and fun challenges. The
app combines a daily quiz, psychology and
‘fun’ whilst on the go. Available for iPhone and
Android, Social Knowledge is a lightweight app
that asks one psychology-themed question
per day. Your selected response is recorded
and the correct answer is given the next day.
Users can then click on the ‘Why?’ button to
see a summary of the psychology research that
verifies the answer.
Social Knowledge should please the psychologyinclined,
but ultimately I found it didn’t fully
satisfy. The ‘daily question’ is more of a ‘daily
statement’ and is pitched in a limited ‘true or
false’ format. Multiple choice answers are pretty
The GuReview
rating system
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 36
typical of quiz apps, so there’s nothing to really
quibble about here. However, the let-down is
that the statements are only mildly interesting.
Take this example: “If people are persuaded by
a message, they probably paid attention to the
message.”
With only one statement available per day,
sadly this app didn’t hold my attention. Social
K would be far more engaging if at least a few
questions came with immediate answers –
rather than having to wait 24 hours. This sort
of instant feedback might prompt me to open
the app regularly. That said, it’s not all bad
news: discovering the research that backs up
the correct answer is genuinely interesting.
In-Mind’s commitment to research and the
inclusion of a full list of the relevant research
is to be applauded. However, without a bank of
questions or even an archive, I can’t see this app
being a good use of time. Overall, it is a great
idea but it doesn’t do enough as it stands to
make for a truly engaging experience.
With a PhD from Detroit’s Wayne State University, Kim Lacey from Detroit, USA
knows a thing or two about memory studies, digital media and digital humanities. She
also has a serious addiction to combo plates at restaurants. You can read about Kim at
kimberlylacey.com or follow her on Twitter at @kimlacey.
WACK NOT GREAT MIDDLING
VERY NOT BAD
iPad, iPhone and Android app
WICKED IN A GOOD WAY
#FOOD
THE CHEMISTRY OF
WEIRD–TASTING FOOD!
NATASHA AGABALYAN • FOOD GURU

Previous Page: (hazmat mold) Flickr • x-ray delta one, (Cheese) Flickr • Patrick Hoesly
THE CHEMISTRY OF WEIRD–TASTING FOOD!
Today’s supermarkets offer us every
item we could possibly need. But take
a closer look. In amongst the stacked
shelves you’ll notice some seriously
weird-flavoured foods in between
the veg, meat and bread. Where do
these flavours come from and should
we be worried? Food Guru Natasha
Agabalyan finds out. Banoffee pie
yoghurt anyone?
It seems the food industry is changing – and
weird and wonderful tastes are the future.
There’s even charcoal-topped cheesecake
– made in response to we consumers, who
are apparently looking to broaden our taste
horizons. There’s more than a little Willy Wonka
and the Chocolate Factory in all of this – but
there’s plenty of intriguing food-science that
makes it possible.
“Mommy – I want to be a flavourist
when I grow up!”
Few people realise that most food producers
don’t actually conceive the flavours of their
foods. Instead, they employ the services of
a flavour company and its specially trained
chemists: flavourists.
A specialist chemist who uses tools and methods
similar to perfumers, a flavourist tweaks and
THE BASICS OF
FLAVOUR-MAKING:
Replicating a flavour is something of an art
form. Our friends the flavourists would say
that a flavour has three key components:
• A character item, which makes a large
contribution to the flavour as it smells or
tastes of the required flavour.
• A contributory item, which enhances the
main flavour even if, on its own, it doesn’t
actually have the flavour we’re after.
• A differential item, which is not essential
but can add some character reminiscent
of the target flavour.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 38
modifies the taste and smell of food. Much of
the training is done on-the-job, so an up-andcoming
flavourist may have fairly little formal
education. The profession only came about once
home refrigeration became affordable. It soon
became important to the food industry to make
foods which stayed flavourful even after being
preserved for long periods.
Today, the tools of the trade are often artificiallycreated
flavours. Cheaper and more economical
than herbs and fruit extracts, many of these
concoctions are truly bizarre.
The alchemist’s guide to flavour
creation
How do scientists discover how to make these
synthetic flavours? The best place to start is
their naturally-occurring cousins. Chemists
start out by analysing the natural oil, juice or
extract to discover all the chemical compounds
it contains. Armed with the list of taste bud
tickling chemicals, the chemists then try to
reassemble the natural product in the lab.
Those of you still haunted by the memory
of school chemistry classes may remember
a process called distillation – which involves
various bits of glassware, rubber tubing and the
trusty school Bunsen burner. Chemicals all boil
at different temperatures (water boils at 100°C,
while alcohol boils at a lower temperature of
78°C). And because the boiling points of major
chemical are well known, the lab workers can
use them as clues to figure out the identity of
chemicals present in a mixture.
Scientists can also look at the chemicals in
more high-tech ways – one popular technique is
‘spectroscopy’, which exploits the way different
chemicals behave when bombarded with
infrared and ultraviolet light to help identify
them. The mixture of chemicals in a natural oil or
juice can even be analysed using a more visuallyappealing
technique called ‘chromatography’.
(Going back to school science classes, you may
have used a type of chromatograph to separate
out all the colours that make up the ink of a pen;
other kinds of chromatography work according
to a similar principle.)
Using these various tests, an astounding
number of different chemicals have been found
in flavours that we would otherwise have
thought to be simple: apple contains 29 and the
satisfying taste of coffee relies on nearly 100
different chemicals!
Now you might think all chemists would have
to do is recombine these chemicals to create
the perfect flavour. Sadly, though, it seems
nature is a lot more complicated: no one has
yet been able to recombine the 29 chemicals in
apple flavour in the same way nature has. It’s
uncertain why man cannot recreate apple, but
imperfect testing that misses some essential
flavour components is probably the reason.
My favourite flavour secrets
Meat flavoured crisps
Despite having subjected friends to endless
rants on how revolting the concept of meatflavoured
crisps (or potato chips, if you prefer)
are, I am clearly in the minority: sales of meatflavoured
crisps have overtaken many other
more ‘savoury’ flavours.
So what’s behind meat-flavoured snacks? The
chemicals giving meat its main ‘roast’ flavour
are created when the meat is cooked – thanks to
a chemical reaction called the Maillard reaction.
Meats are protein-rich – and proteins are made
of strings of chemicals called amino acids.
When these amino acids react with sugar in the
presence of heat a chemical called gylcosylamine
is formed, and this reacts further to form the
flavour-giving chemicals. When you know what
these chemicals are, you can simply add them to
a food to give it that familiar roast meat flavour.
(See sidebox.)
Cherry flavoured Yoghurt
Love cherries but hate cherry-flavoured
products? Me too! I’ve never understood why
artificial cherry flavour in particular seems to
taste nothing like real cherries.
THE FLAVOURISTS
RECIPE BOOK: CHERRY
The first synthetic formula for cherry flavour was published
in 1917 and was supposed to contain an array of different
chemicals:
• Ethyl acetate – a type of chemical called an ester, which
has a fruity smell (also found in nail varnish removers)
• Ethyl benzoate – a colourless liquid and an ester that has
a minty kind of smell
• Oil of persicot – extracted from the kernels of apricots
and similar fruits
• Benzoic acid – a type of chemical called a carboxylic
acid that is also used as a preservative (E210 on
ingredient packets).
• Glycerine – a sweet-tasting liquid, also used in lowcalorie
foods
• Alcohol
Today, the main chemical in cherry
flavouring is bensaldehyde, a
chemical that emits a
Modern
cherry flavours
imitate the taste of
pleasant almond
odour.
maraschino cherries – the bright red cherries
that have been preserved and sweetened. (You
normally see them atop an iced cake or gracing a
cocktail.) Maraschino cherries are best because
the natural flavour of most cherries is very
weak, and when this flavour is ‘amplified’ it just
doesn’t taste nice.
THE FLAVOURISTS RECIPE BOOK: PORK
2-methyl-3-furanthiol
is the character item
and gives the food
the required meaty
impact.
O
For a meaty pork flavour, here’s the winning chemical combination. Mix the
ingredients until the desired taste is achieved.
Butyl-2-decanoate
is the differential
item and makes the
flavour taste ‘fattier’.
SH
CH 3
THE CHEMISTRY OF WEIRD–TASTING FOOD!
Pyridinemethanol is
the contributory item
and adds some pork
flavour.
N OH
O
O
Ingredients available from
your local flavourist lab.
PAGE 39 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Cherry) Wikimedia • Benjamint444/Fir0002

(Orange Slices) Flickr • Nina Matthews Photography, (Lemon) Flickr • *clairity*
THE CHEMISTRY OF WEIRD–TASTING FOOD!
Citrus with a twist
Did you know that the chemicals that give us
the flavour of lemons and oranges are exactly
the same, chemically speaking? The main
component of both is called limonene; the
only difference between ‘orange’ and ‘lemon’ is
a very subtle difference in the structure of the
limonene molecule.
The ‘orange’ and ‘lemon’ versions of limonene
are made from exactly the same atoms, which
are joined to each other in the same order. The
difference is that the two molecules are mirror
images of one another. (It’s a bit like a pair of
hands: our left and right hands are mirror
images of one another, and if you try to put
your left hand on top of your right, they don’t
match.)
This subtle difference is enough for the taste
receptors on our tongues to recognize one
of the mirror images of limonene as ‘orange’
flavour, and the other as ‘lemon’. Quite a feat!
So next time you’re munching your way through
a bag of crisps, or chewing on some fruity gum,
spare a thought for the army of flavourists
who’ve worked wonders with chemistry to
tantalise your tastebuds!
Natasha Agabalyan is on her way to becoming a Doctor of Cell Biology in Brighton,
UK. In between drinking far too much coffee and blogging at The Science Informant,
she has a love of finding out interesting tit-bits from all aspects of life. You can follow her
on twitter at @SciencInformant.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 40
The ability of our bodies to
distinguish between chemicals
that are seemingly identical
can have its down-sides,
though. Thalidomide, the
infamous drug that was used
during the late 1950s and
early 1960s to relieve morning
sickness, exists as two mirrorimage
forms, like limonene.
While one of the mirror images
acts as a sedative, the other
causes devastating sideeffects
– most often, missing or
truncated limbs. When these
side-effects were discovered,
thalidomide was quickly
withdrawn from use.
There’s a silver lining to
this cloud, though. While
thalidomide can be seriously
damaging to healthy cells, its
growth-limiting effects are now
being explored as a potential
way to treat both cancerous
tumours and leprosy.
#GENETICS
THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT,
THE FUTURE’S GENOMIC
WELCOME TO THE AGE OF CONSUMER GENETICS
ABIGAIL JAMES

#HEALTH
YOUR GUTS FOR
GLORY
DOO-DOO-ING YOUR BIT TO HELP
SIMON MAKIN
Did you know that most of the cells
inside you aren’t human? There are
roughly ten times as many microbes
in your gut as there are cells in your
body – and these include several
hundred different species of bacteria.
They are just part of the trillions
of micro-organisms known as the
human microbiome that we have
living on and inside us.
The exact make-up of these microbial
communities differs between different body
areas and from person to person. They change
over a lifetime, and over the centuries. The last
100 years have seen a rapid change in the
industrialised world, presumably due to diet,
antibiotics, and sterilisation.
Many of these tiny passengers do important
jobs, such as bolstering our immune systems or
helping our digestion. (See ‘In sickness and in
health’ in Issue 9 to find out more.) We don’t yet
fully understand how our microbiome relates to
health or disease – we just know that it does.
The composition of our microbiome has been
linked to conditions such as irritable bowel
syndrome, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and even
depression. Although specific organisms have
been implicated in some conditions, often it’s
the overall diversity that matters – just like any
ecosystem.
Now, two new ’citizen science’ projects are
YOUR GUTS FOR GLORY
getting the public involved in the study of the
human microbiome to help us understand how
diet and lifestyle might be influencing these
personal ecosystems – and affecting our health
as a result.
The first of these projects, known as ‘American
Gut’, is being run by researchers at the
University of Colorado, US, and collaborators at
many other institutions, in association with
the Human Food Project. The project has been
encouraging thousands of Americans to get
involved, either by paying fees to submit their
own samples for analysis, by simply making
a financial donation, or by examining data
from the project, which will be made publicly
available.
Many conditions linked to the microbiome are
more common in Western populations. With
this in mind, the researchers plan to compare the
inhabitants of American intestines with those
of people living more traditional existences in
places like Namibia and Peru.
The project builds on previous efforts, such as
the Human Microbiome Project, but is the
first to look at this issue on such a large scale.
The Human Microbiome Project recruited a few
hundred volunteers, whereas this one hopes to
enlist 10,000 people - and their household pets.
Participants can also send samples from their
dogs or cats to help scientists understand the
relationship between our own microbes and
those of our furry companions.
A similar – but smaller – project, UBiome, aims
to gather samples from as many people as it can
from all over the world.
Both projects are now possible thanks to the
rapid drop in the cost of DNA sequencing.
This, together with computational advances,
will allow the researchers to analyse microbial
genomes far more cheaply than was previously
possible.
Participants in both projects will receive a
personal analysis, listing the critters living
inside them and showing how they compare to
others. You can see how many people signed up
for American Gut here, or UBiome here.
Simon Makin is an ex-post-doc researcher in auditory perception turned journalist.
PAGE 45 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: (Stool) Flickr • bradhoc, (Toilet) Flickr • kodomut

#TECHNOLOGY
WANT TO BUILD THE
PERFECT SMARTPHONE?
TAKE A LESSON FROM YOUR CELLS
JOHN ANKERS
WANT TO BUILD THE PERFECT SMARTPHONE?
The race for gadget supremacy never
stops: Apple, Samsung and HTC have
all launched new smartphones in recent
months. But could the next generation
of this evolving technology
find inspiration in a not-so-unlikely
place? John Ankers finds out.
Today’s smartphones could do better. Yes, they
send texts; make video calls; talk to satellites;
take, edit and share your pictures; play games
and music... one even makes a whipping noise
if you waggle it a bit. And some of them can
even make phone calls, too. But surely there’s
so much more that could be crammed in?
Smartphones are still evolving. They’re getting
smaller, lighter and more streamlined. At the
same time we’re always wanting more – ‘more
connectivity!’, ‘more integration!’, ‘more features!’
We want apps that talk to other apps;
Facebook statuses that automatically log GPS
positions; whips that crack by themselves. May-
be we’re spoilt – or perhaps this is all part of
the evolution: people expect more because the
technology promises so much.
Yet increasing the ‘smartness’ of your next
phone will probably require a balance between
reliability and functionality. A microchip’s capacity
will only stretch so far: apps must share
the phone’s limited resources. In order for you
to multitask, so must your phone. Intriguingly,
smartphone developers could learn a thing or
two by taking a look inside a mammalian cell.
The human cell is multifaceted enough to put
any smartphone to shame. The secret, as new
research investigates, lies in learning how to
multitask. The circuitry inside your cells is very
different from what you’d expect in the average
phone: microchips and computer code are replaced
by networks of genes and proteins that
work together to transfer information and carry
out app-like tasks.
Your cellular circuitry has evolved over millions
of years to co-ordinate life’s essential processes.
PAGE 47 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: (Circuit Board) Flickr • BotheredByBees, (Sea of Phones) Wikimedia • saschapohflepp

(Circuit Board) Flickr • Mrs. Gemstone
BELOW:
A burnt out
circuit board.
WANT TO BUILD THE PERFECT SMARTPHONE?
But in research published in PLoS Computational
Biology1, Jeffrey Wong and colleagues found
that, surprisingly, trying to do everything at
once isn’t always the best option.
The team from Duke University, North Carolina,
investigated the wiring of one cellular circuit
– the E2-Factor (E2F) network. This network of
proteins and genes is the program for controlling
how our cells grow and proliferate – and
when they must die. The team asked a simple
question: what happens when you increase the
demand on E2F’s wiring? After all, unreasonable
demands on your phone might cause it to
crash (normally just as you’ve finished writing
a text message). So how do our cells’ cirucuitry
fare when pushed to the limit?
Wong and colleagues built a precise computer
simulation of E2F’s wiring, using algebra in
place of genes and proteins. (Similar techniques
are used to accurately predict everything from
air traffic to climate change to volcanic ash
clouds. They’ve been used in biology for almost
100 years.) The model was used to simulate the
cellular equivalent of an app overload - starting
a pair of tasks at the same time to pull E2F in
opposite directions. The virtual proteins might
have dealt with this by attempting the two
tasks simultaneously. But the team found that
this didn’t happen. As the strain or ‘tension’ in
the network increased, it would become less ‘robust’
and more liable to break or crash – with
disastrous consequences for the cell.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 48
Instead, the team found that the E2F network
copes by hopping between competing tasks – or
even by duplicating part of its wiring temporarily
to cope with the tug-o-war. And these findings
reflect real life: the real E2F network does
dynamically change as cells grow, divide, and
ultimately die.
Dr Wong believes E2F (and other circuits in
our cells) evolved to minimise the tension in
our cells’ wiring. He suggests that multitasking
in this way is an “evolutionary feasible” way of
“reusing a common set of components... to accomplish
multiple biological goals.”
Of course, today’s smartphones also juggle
tasks, giving priority to important apps and
keeping others ‘frozen’ or running in the background.
And yet there are still problems: internet
forums are plagued with complaints, customer
service hotlines glow in fury. Phones are
unreliable: sometimes they just crash. You see,
today’s smartphone developers have a problem:
demands keep changing. Tearing their hair out
behind easels and blueprints, developers are
forced to second-guess us, the fickle consumers.
Is it really possible to design a phone for everyone
– the teenage tweeter, the young professional,
and the ageless cynic who doesn’t care
about Angry Birds but would quite like to finish
a phone call without the battery running out?
The evolving cell discovered – as phone developers
are now realising – that there is often a balance
between functionality and reliability. Even
so, our cells still manage to co-ordinate and control
hundreds of processes – even while communicating
with their surroundings and defending
themselves against attack from the viruses in
the world around them. Given the similarities,
perhaps the truly smart smartphone developer
will be keeping an eye on cell biology research.
They might just save themselves millions of
years’ worth of trial and error.
References:
• Wong, J. V., Li, B. & You, L. (2012)
Tension and robustness in multitasking
cellular networks.
Doctor John Ankers is a researcher at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Integrative
Biology. He’s normally found in a dark room looking at the inner workings
of cancer cells. Or sleeping. He won the BSCB Science Writing Prize in 2011 and
currently writes freelance for the MRC’s Biomedical Picture of the Day. He blogs
at toomanylivewires and you can follow him on Twitter @JohnnyAnkers.
#MIND
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
SYNDROME
WHEN REALITY GOES DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE
KAT LOUGHEED

Previous Page: (Large Order Of Toast) Flickr • JD Hancock
ALICE IN WONDERLAND SYNDROME
They say it is what’s inside that
counts. Yet how we view ourselves
always seems linked to what we
see in the mirror. Close your eyes
and the ‘inner you’ navigating your
imagination probably looks a lot like
the outer version everyone else sees
(if perhaps a bit better-looking). But
very odd things start to happen when
the normal link between these two
versions of ‘you’ gets broken. Take
a journey with me down the rabbithole…
As a child, I occasionally experienced the
unsettling sensation that my limbs had grown
to a size approaching that of a small planet. I
now know that this wasn’t the onset of insanity,
or the beginnings of my metamorphosis into a
superhero, but a condition known as Alice in
Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS). For a sufferer
like me, AIWS may mean you perceive your
body to be ballooning, shrinking, or distorting
in shape. A truly bizarre condition, the cause
is often unknown although it has been linked
to some viral infections including influenza.
It is also sometimes experienced by epileptics
or during a migraine – making it tempting to
speculate that migraine-sufferer Lewis Carroll
found inspiration for his fantastical stories
from this condition. Of course, his laudanum
habit may also have helped.
The Alice in Wonderland Brain
What goes on in the brain of an AIWS sufferer
to make them believe they are shape-shifting
is a bit of a riddle – but one that Kathleen
Brumm and her colleagues from San Diego
State University have tried to solve. They used
magnetic resonance imaging on a 12-year-old
boy with viral-onset AIWS to watch what goes
on in the brain (a technique called functional
MRI). During an AIWS episode they saw some
unusual activity in the regions of the brain
involved with making sense of what we see and
for processing the sensations we feel. The boy’s
brain seemed to be misfiring and incorrectly
processing information arriving from his eyes,
which made him think that objects around him
were much smaller than they were in reality.
When AIWS is triggered from an infection
(as with my episode) it seems likely that the
virus inflames such brain areas, and effectively
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 50
messing around with the normal firing patterns.
But fully understanding a rarely-diagnosed
condition isn’t an easy task, especially when
the number of people who suffer AIWS (in the
absence of other conditions) is vanishingly
small. I grew out of my AIWS, but a few can
be stuck with this sometimes debilitating
condition forever.
Voodoo dolls and phantom limbs
It turns out that Kathleen Brumm’s study is just
one of many where a specific area of the brain
– called the parietal lobe – has been linked to
problems with the mind’s construction of body
image. Building our inner perception of our
outer self relies on our brain building a complete
point-for-point map of our body (see image).
Like a giant voodoo doll, the physical body
transmits information from different body
parts to this map, which acts as a switchboard,
piecing together physical sensations to form our
personal experience of the world. However, the
brain map on the inside doesn’t always match
up with the body on thr outside, which can lead
to us perceiving ourselves differently from how
we actually are.
LEFT:
The location
of the parietal
lobe.
LEFT:
A rough layout
of how the brain
maps out the
body’s surface
sensations
located inside the
parietal lobe.
One of the leading names in this field of body
image research is Vilayanur Ramachandran
from the University of California. His work
revolutionised our understanding of phantom
limbs – the phenomenon that causes amputees
to continue to feel the presence of an arm
or leg long after it has been removed. As a
member of his laboratory explained, “Our
brain has to dynamically update our internal
representation of our body, but this doesn’t
happen instantaneously.” It seems that, in its
effort to make sense of a sudden loss of sensory
information, an amputee’s brain effectively
‘borrows’ signals and sensations from other
parts of the body to trick itself into believing
the limb is still present.
But what happens when it is the inner map
that is ‘missing a limb’? Body Integrity
Identity Disorder is a rare condition in which
purportedly sane people find the presence of a
healthy limb so intrusive that they express the
desire for it to be chopped off – often seeking
an amputation. In these cases, the brain’s sense
of body ownership appears to not include the
offending body part.
Even more distressing, a disorder known as
Cotard’s syndrome takes this feeling of ‘not
belonging’ to its extreme: a person becomes
so disconnected with the outer version of
themselves that they believe themselves to be
dead, or decaying, or sometimes immortal –
despite all evidence to the contrary.
A link to anorexia?
While such disorders have been linked to
changes in normal brain activity (as Kathleen
Brumm’s work found), cause and effect can
be difficult to tease apart. What comes first
— the changes in the brain or the delusional
behaviour? Eating disorders are one case in
point:
Workers in Vilayanur Ramachandran’s
laboratory have proposed that similar brain
‘errors’ could partially explain eating disorders
such as anorexia nervosa. Author of the study
Laura Case has considered the following
conundrum: people with anorexia feel large,
ALICE IN WONDERLAND SYNDROME
but why can’t they look in a mirror and use the
accurate visual image of themselves to correct
their distorted sensations? Her theory is that
anorexics have difficulty incorporating sensory
information into a correct body image. If true,
this explanation adds an extra dimension to the
well-known psychological issues that occur in
such disorders.
‘Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s
the great puzzle!’ says Alice.
In the words of Francis Crick, co-discoverer of
the structure of DNA:
“You, your joys and your sorrows, your
memories and your ambitions, your sense of
personal identity and free will, are in fact no
more than the behavior of a vast assembly of
nerve cells and their associated molecules. As
Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have phrased it,
‘You’re nothing but a pack of neurons.’”
Each of us faces the ‘great puzzle’ of who we are
and how we see ourselves. Thanks to the work
of people like Brumm and Ramachandran, we
now possess some, but not all, of the pieces.
References:
• Brumm K. et al. Functional MRI of
a child with Alice in Wonderland
syndrome during an episode of
micropsia. J AAPOS. 2010;14(4):
317–322.
• Ramachandran VS. et al.
Synaesthesia in phantom limbs
induced with mirrors. Proc Biol Sci.
1996;263(1369):377-86.
• Case LK., et al. Diminished sizeweight
illusion in anorexia nervosa:
evidence for visuo-proprioceptive
integration deficit. Exp Brain Res.
2012;217(1):79-87.
• Ramachandran, VS. Consciousness
and body image: lessons from
phantom limbs, Capgras syndrome
and pain asymbolia. Philos Trans R
Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1998; 353(1377):
1851–1859.
Kathryn Lougheed is a research scientist at Imperial College London, working
on the lung disease tuberculosis. She has an unhealthy interest in bacteria, blogging
about research of the single-celled variety at germzoo.blogspot.co.uk in addition
to running a popular science website for kids at ilovebacteria.com, answering
such important questions as ‘Why do papercuts hurt so much?’
PAGE 51 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU

#LIFE
SPONTANEOUS GENEROSITY
(AND CALCULATED
STINGINESS)
WHY LAST-MINUTE SHOPPERS ARE NICER PEOPLE
BENJAMIN CHABOT-HANOWELL
SPONTANEOUS GENEROSITY (AND CALCULATED STINGINESS)
In the Game of Thrones, Ned Stark
warns us to brace ourselves because
winter is coming. In our Earthly
realm, however, it’s less about bracing
ourselves from the White Walkers of
Westeros and more for the onslaught
of needing to continually buy stuff.
December brought Christmas and
this month it is Valentine’s Day. Some
cope with the onslaught by shopping
early. Procrastinators, however—well,
they procrastinate. These last-minute
shoppers may be spending more
on gifts than the early birds: recent
research published in the prestigious
Nature hints at one possible reason
for this phenomenon…
By monitoring individual’s behavior in a variety
of money-orientated situations, psychology
researchers have observed that people are more
generous when they make decisions quickly –
and more stingy when they take their time. One
conclusion is that kindness and co-operation
are intuitive to humans, and that we become
selfish only when we calculate and think too
much.
How to get what you want
Based on such results, we could employ some
rather devious tactics. Should we consider
buying gifts earlier, whilst encouraging family
members to put it off so that we get more
expensive gifts?
The evidence that last-minute shoppers
spend more stretches back many years and is
controversial. In 1993, marketing researcher
Anthony Miyazaki found no link between the
amount spent on Christmas gifts and time
pressure. However, his experiments were flawed:
for each individual he observed, Miyazaki only
recorded one day out of what might have been
many days of holiday shopping. More recently,
former Internet company Meebo sampled
shopping and personality data from over 2,000
users. They found that last-minute shoppers
were 45 percent more likely than regular
shoppers to purchase luxury gift items and 27
percent more likely to plan on spending more
during the holiday season this year than last
PAGE 53 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
Previous Page: (Gift) Flickr • Vincent_AF, (Tons of money) Flickr • pfala

(Pound) Flickr • Mukumbura, (Mall) Flickr • ceratosaurrr.
SPONTANEOUS GENEROSITY (AND CALCULATED STINGINESS)
year. In contrast, early bird shoppers were 34
percent more likely than regular shoppers to say
they were bargain hunters, and 30 percent more
likely to use coupons. So there’s at least some
evidence that late shoppers are willing to spend
more at crunch time.
Are we mean-spirited or just
masking the pain?
The traditional theory for why time pressure
leads to higher spending has nothing to do
with being generous. Renowned marketing
researchers like Leonard Berry and economists
like Gary Becker claimed that as we run out of
time (a limited ‘resource’ that can be ‘saved’
or ‘spent’), we become more willing to give up
other resources (like money) to fulfill our goals
– like getting a gift for paternal affine Great
Uncle Bart to help him remember you in his
will. Other marketing researchers believe that
we are willing to pay more when we are pressed
for time because we are trying to make up for
the emotional pain we will feel in the aftermath
of disappointing someone else with our lack of
planning and forethought.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 54
The tortoise and the hair: the devil
and the angel
For psychologist-economist-Nobel Laureate
and best-selling author Daniel Kahneman,
emotions and gut feelings play a central role
in our gift giving. In his recent book, Thinking,
Fast and Slow, Kahneman describes two
reasoning systems that operate on different
time scales. ‘System 1’ is fast: it is automatic,
emotional, stereotypic, and subconscious. We
use it frequently because rules of thumb, while
imperfect, aren’t too intellectually taxing, and
they often work. ‘System 2’ is slow: it is effortful,
logical, calculating, and conscious. We use it
infrequently because it takes a lot of energy and
time to think this way. Evolutionary biologists
and some economists think that we use System
2 so much because today’s problems are so
varied and complex. Under such circumstances,
methodical calculation is more costly than
more flexible – albeit flawed – rules of thumb.
Among humans, natural selection has favored
a brain that operates under System 1 when we
find ourselves in a tight spot. Yet given enough
time to think about something, we shift into
‘analytical’ System 2 thinking, which is less
cooperative – and, as a new study suggests,
more stingy.
Experts from Harvard’s Department of
Psychology wrap it up like this: when in doubt,
cooperate. Harvard researchers analyzed the
behavior of four participants in a ‘public goods’
game. The rules are that players are given a
number of money tokens at the start and
secretly choose how many to put into a public
pot. The researchers found that individuals
who took 10 seconds or less to make a decision
made contributions about 1.2 times the size
of those made by individuals taking longer
than 10 seconds to decide. More generally,
contributions decreased with each additional
second of decision time.
They also found that individuals forced to
make a decision quickly made slightly larger
contributions than individuals whose decision
time was unconstrained, who in turn made
slightly larger contributions than individuals
SPONTANEOUS GENEROSITY (AND CALCULATED STINGINESS)
whose decisions were
deliberately delayed.
An even more interesting
finding may reassure
anyone with a happy home
life: generosity came more
naturally to people who
graded their daily social
partners (e.g. their husband
or wife) as cooperative.
So what does this mean for
your gift shopping? Will
you overspend on your true
love this Valentine’s Day? If
you are worried about being
a disappointment, I might
advise that you give it some
serious thought. But then
again, your Valentine won’t
thank me for that.
References
• Berry LL (1979) The time buying
consumer. J. Retailing 55: 58-69.
• Binmore K, Samuelson L (1994)
An economist’s perspective on
the evolution of norms. J. Inst.
Theoretical Econ. 150: 45-63.
• Becker G (1965) A theory of the
allocation of time. The Economic
Journal 75: 493-517.
• Houston AI, McNamara JM, Steer MD
(2007) Do we expect natural selection
to produce rational behaviour? Phil.
Trans. R. Soc. B 29: 1531-1543.
• Hutchinson JMC, Gigerenzer G (2005)
Simple heuristics and rules of thumb:
Where psychologists and behavioural
biologists might meet. Behavioural
Processes 69: 97-124.
• Kahneman D (2011) Thinking, fast
and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux. 499 p.
• Miyazaki AD (1993) How many
shopping days until Christmas? A
preliminary investigation of time
pressures, deadlines, and planning
levels on holiday gift purchases. In:
McAlister L, Rothschild ML, editors.
Advances in Consumer Research
Volume 20. Association for Consumer
Research. pp. 331-335.
• Morgilin C, Aaker JL, Pennington
GL (2008) Time will tell: The distant
appeal of promotion and imminent
appeal of prevention. J. Consum. Res.
34: 670-681.
• Rand DG, Greene JD, Nowak MA
(2012) Spontaneous giving and
calculated greed. Nature 489: 427-
430.
• The Meebo study was originally
reported by Ki Mae Heussner for
Adweek.
Benjamin Chabot-Hanowell is an evolutionary anthropologist who studies generosity, social
inequality, aggression, warfare, and cooperation. He was a Fulbrighter to the Eastern Caribbean,
where he learned to play a mean game of dominoes. His is better known as ‘Brash Equilibrium’. His
wife calls him Babe. His daughter calls him Papa. He blogs intelligently and publishes statistical
analyses of political fact checking at www.mynof3.com and tweets impulsively
@BrashEQLibrium.
PAGE 55 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
(Hands and Gift) Flickr • asenat29

#LIFE
WHEN A BAD BOY
TURNS GOOD
A VIOLENT ATTACK TRANSFORMS TEENAGE DROPOUT INTO
BOY-WONDER
BERIT BROGAARD
• GUEST CONTRIBUTORS
KRISTIAN MARLOW
On Friday September 13, 2002, 32year
old Jason Padgett stopped by
a local bar to pick up his friend. As
he left, he noticed two patrons giving
him dirty looks. These bar thugs
advanced upon him and struck the
back of his head, bringing him to the
ground. His next memory was of being
in a Tacoma hospital. For Jason,
reality would never be the same again.
After a hasty in-and-out by the doctor, he
was diagnosed with internal bleeding and a
concussion and sent home to rest. But Jason
barely made it home before he sensed that
something was wrong – unusually freaky,
in fact. Reality was broken! Jason looked
around at a grotesque, almost eerie world:
vases and windows would seemingly shatter
spontaneously. It was as if someone had
grabbed a rock and powerfully tossed it at
reality, cutting the contours of everyday objects
into tiny pieces. As cars moved away, reality
split into geometrical patterns: light bounced
off their shiny paint, ripping open empty air to
reveal rainbows of right-angled triangles.
To Jason’s dismay, these new visions didn’t go
away. Frightened, he locked himself inside his
apartment and stayed there for three years. He
left only when his reservoir of canned beans
was running low.
Jason also saw motion differently. After
his violent attack, objects no longer moved
smoothly. Instead, he saw motion in ‘picture
frames’. He was apparently suffering from
‘motion blindness’, an exceptionally rare
condition that gives the appearance that
reality is frozen. In 1983, Josef Zihl and his
colleagues wrote of a patient (called ‘LM’) who
had sustained damage to both sides of the brain
(in an area known as the posterior temporal
cortex). LM found pouring a cup of coffee
nearly impossible “because the fluid appeared
to be frozen, like a glacier.” The frozen image
would eventually be replaced by an image of the
cup overflowing with coffee.
Jason’s condition was similar: though motion
did not appear completely frozen to him, it
did seem discontinuous. “It is as if someone
is pressing the pause button on a video very
quickly,” Jason told us. Thankfully, because his
‘picture frames’ are replaced by new images very
quickly, Jason could pour a cup of coffee as well
WHEN A BAD BOY TURNS GOOD
as we can.
In 2005, Jason decided to draw what he saw
when he looked at light bouncing off a car
window. He grabbed a pencil and created a
striking image using only straight lines. Putting
pencil to paper helped Jason deal with the new
world he had found himself in. Eventually he
returned to his job as a furniture store sales
person – and, from his first day back, started
decorating the white walls with his colorful
drawings.
Customers were curious about the peculiar
but fascinating artwork. “Who made them?”
they asked. “I did,” the skinny, autodidact artist
would reply. “They are hand-drawn. If you look
at them close up, you can see it for yourself.”
People were shocked: Who knew the dorky guy
in the furniture store could draw? Soon enough,
most locals in town were talking about the
eccentric man in the furniture store who was
drawing amazingly complex images by hand.
Jason couldn’t think about anything but
patterns all day long. But, as time went by, he
realised that, while his drawings captivated
people’s attention, most couldn’t understand
his explanations for his creations. He might as
well have spoken Russian! Try as he may, he
couldn’t explain why, but had the odd sense that
his imagery somehow related to mathematics.
In an attempt to ease his frustrations, a
mathematician friend advised him that if
he wanted to make himself understood, he
would have to learn to speak the language of
mathematics. Until then, Jason’s only interests
had been getting drunk (and getting women),
but eager to find answers, he signed up for a
trigonometry class and a couple of calculus
PAGE 57 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU
LEFT:
‘Pi’ drawn by
Jason Padgett
Previous Page: (Maths) Flickr • trindade.joao, (Eye) Flickr • dwmizell, (PI) Jason Padgett

RIGHT:
Jason in 1988.
His only
interests were
to in alcohol,
women and a
combination of
the two.
(Jason ‘88) Rick Cordova
WHEN A BAD BOY TURNS GOOD
classes at a local community college. A schooldropout,
Jason was about to embark on a truly
exciting journey.
Last time, Jason had cheated on his geometry
high school exam. Now he couldn’t get enough.
He absorbed mathematics with enthusiasm
and, after learning the basics, Jason found
himself understanding mathematics in terms
of the images he continuously saw around
him. Over time, he began to intuitively form
images for mathematical formulae in his
mind’s eye. He didn’t stop his sketching and
eventually started submitting his drawings to
competitions, achieving recognition in 2010 as
Best International Newcomer in the Art Basel
Miami Beach Competition.
We meet Jason
It was a chance encounter with New York author
and journalist Maureen Seaberg that first put
us in contact with Jason. After seeing him on
the local news in Tacoma, Maureen realised
that he had not yet met any scientists working
on conditions such as his. She knew our lab was
looking for new subjects and so recommended
that he contact us to see if we could find out
what was going on in his brain.
After completing initial interviews and
standard tests, we performed a functional
magnetic resonance imaging study (fMRI) in
collaboration with neuroscientists Simo Vanni
and Juha Silvanto from the Research Unit and
Magnetic Imaging Centre at Aalto University in
Finland. Unlike regular MRI brain scans, this
type of imaging allows us to see which areas
of the brain become active when someone
performs a particular task.
GURU • ISSUE 10 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • PAGE 58
As anyone who has had an MRI can testify,
getting inside a brain scanner is a tight squeeze:
think Tom Cruise crawling through the vents
in Mission: Impossible. Once inside a scanner,
subjects have to lie extremely still for the
brain images to come out clearly. Given these
restrictions, we weren’t able to test Jason’s
brain activity while he drew his complex images.
Instead, we chose to focus on the visions
(which we call ‘synesthetic images’) that Jason
experiences when he looks at mathematical
formulae. We worked with Jason to create one
list of formulae that caused him to experience
complex geometrical images and another list
that another list that didn’t. Inside the brain
scanner Jason was shown the formulae, one at
a time, in a random order. We then studied the
differences in his brain activity when looking at
image-inducing versus non-inducing formulae.
What we found was surprising. The popular
explanation for the emergence of special talents
after brain injury, such as artistic or musical
abilities, is that certain regions of the left brain
– responsible for the inhibition of ‘creative right
brain’ – have been damaged. This loss of the
left brain results in the hyperactivation of the
BELOW:
Jason being
tested for metal
before the fMRI
scan.
right brain, giving rise to heightened creativity.
Research has shown that most cases of special
talent involve injury to the left side of the brain,
supporting this theory. But our results showed
that, for Jason, his visual experiences weren’t
actually occurring in the right side of his brain,
but the left! Our finding means that there
needs to be a rethink in the accepted theories
for ‘acquired savant syndrome’.
Inside the prodigy’s mind
It is difficult to say what sort of brain injury took
place when Jason was mugged. When someone
is hit on one side of the head, brain damage may
occur on both sides: a forceful impact makes
the brain violently bounce back and forth inside
the skull. Also, Jason was hit and kicked many
times on both sides of the head when he had
collapsed, which may have injured many parts
of his brain.
However, our results do offer us some insight
into what happened on that fateful day. The
initial blows that rendered him unconscious
landed on the right side towards the back of
his skull; it is underneath these locations where
the regions of the visual cortex process visual
properties such as object boundary and color.
Damage here is probably what prevents him
from seeing continuous motion.
Our functional MRI study also helps to
explain why Jason has visual experiences.
We knew that the left side of the brain is
normally largely responsible for producing
visual images, which goes hand-in-hand with
Jason’s hallucinations. When Jason enrolled
in community college he suddenly had to make
sense of mathematical equations, so it is likely
that his brain turned this new learning into
complex imagery. Remarkably, these visual
images probably helped him understand tricky
new mathematical concepts.
Our study had one final surprise. Previous
WHEN A BAD BOY TURNS GOOD
research into such visual hallucinations have
consistently shown increased activity in the
region at the very back of the brain that processes
visual information – the visual cortex. So, we
expected this area to also become activated
when Jason experienced mathematical imagery
– but it didn’t. Instead several areas with
altogether different functions – thinking in
three dimensions, planning and calculating –
were stimulated. (see sidebox)
The main activity associated with the image-
generating equations in Jason was found in an
area of the temporal cortex, located on the side
of the head, and areas of the parietal cortex,
located on top of the head. The temporal cor-
tex is used when thinking and planning about
things in three dimensions. The parietal cortex
is associated with numerous functions, including
preparing for spontaneous action and every-
day mathematical activity, such as counting.
Despite these remarkable insights, we cannot
say on the basis of Jason’s brain scans why his
brain produces equation-induced geometrical
visions. We think it could be his failure to
see continuous movement that triggers his
visions: His brain may interpret fragmented,
overlapping images of moving objects as
complex geometrical patterns. All of this, of
course, will remain speculative until scanning
technology becomes more sensitive.
Jason’s assault was traumatic and devastating.
For most people, such an ordeal would change
their life for the worst. He is one of the lucky
ones – a directionless dropout transformed into
an artist and mathematical prodigy. It gives us
all hope, for further unlocking Jason’s mind
may someday show us how to turn the tragedy
of brain damage into something good.
Berit Brogaard, DMSci, PhD is Professor of Philosophy with joint appointments in
the Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and the Center for Neurodynamics at the
University of Missouri in St. Louis as well as the Network for Sensory Research at the
University of Toronto. She is Director of the St. Louis Synesthesia Lab, a research group
focused on synesthesia and savant syndrome.
Kristian Marlow, MA is a graduate student, member of the Center for
Neurodynamics and Associate Director of the lab. Like all good academics – after a
few too many glasses of wine – Berit and Kristian began writing about the fascinating
cases they’ve studied for their forthcoming book The Superhuman Mind: True
Tales of Extraordinary Mental Ability.
PAGE 59 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 • ISSUE 10 • GURU

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