| |
Past Shows
November 20, 2004
 Listen to a Real Audio stream of the entire program (available Saturday, two hours after broadcast).
Download a low bandwidth MP3 of the entire program (available Saturday, two hours after broadcast).
 Real Player is required to listen to RealAudio files. Other media players can play the MP3 or Ogg audio files.
Download the RealPlayer plug-in for your browser.
 CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in a new window.
Reading Minds
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg files.
(what's ogg?)
MRI of a human brain
|
What would it mean to be able to listen in on other's thoughts? This idea has been a science fiction staple, but recent advances in imaging and neuropsychology are starting to make it look as if it might soon be possible. Researchers are using FMRI, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, to take movies of the brain in action. From this,they get a new picture of how the brain works, and potentially even what we're thinking.
Dr Daniel Langleben, researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, has been using the technology to explore the neurology of lying. He thinks it may be possible to use FMRI as a reliable lie detector.
Dr. Daniel Schacter, professor and chair of Psychology at Harvard University, has been studying false memory. He's found that he can take images of the brain as he puts people through simple memory tests, and he can distinguish between memories that are real, and memories that are mistaken.
Dr. Marcel Just, director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University, has been studying what happens in the brain as people understand words and sentences. Remarkably, he's found that he can distinguish, in specific circumstances, what categories of objects people are thinking about, and he may be able eventually to pick out particular objects.
While this is all happening in rigorously controlled circumstances in the laboratory, it sounds alot like mind-reading. If we do figure out how to read minds, it will be important to monitor how the technology is used. Richard Glen Boier, co-director and legal counsel for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics in Davis, California, is concerned that governments or intelligence agencies may not be able to resist the temptation to have direct access to our thoughts.
Related Links
Running on Water
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg files.
(what's ogg?)
Basilisk lizard running on water |
Animals have come up with all kinds of ways to cross water. Swimming, or crawling on the bottom are two of the more common. What’s much rarer is moving on the water’s surface. But that’s exactly how the Basilisk Lizard from Central America does it. It stands up on its hind legs and literally runs across the top of streams and lakes. Tonia Hsieh, a graduate student at Harvard University has worked out how they perform this feat.
Related Links
Born to Run
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg
files.
(what's ogg?)
Born to run? |
The common theory about humans' ability to run is that it is simply a bi-product of bi-pedalism, our ability to walk upright on two legs. But, Dr. Dennis Bramble and his colleague Dr. Daniel Lieberman have published a new study that suggests running is more than just a bi-product. They've looked at the human body and say there are important features, like our long legs and springy tendons, that have no real impact on walking, but make for excellent running. Their conclusion is that running might have been the key to evolution from our ape-like ancestors.
Related Links
Ultrasonic Gophers
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg
files.
(what's ogg?)
Gophers |
Gophers are a pretty loud bunch. When they get up on their hind legs and start screaming, their calls travel far and wide, alerting the rest of the colony to looming dangers. But when David Wilson, a gradute student with the University of Manitoba's Zoology Department, studied these alarm calls as part of his graduate work, he noticed that sometimes the gophers looked like they were calling out, only he couldn't hear anything but a whisper. He discovered that the gophers can switch to ultrasonic alarm-calls when a predator is near but still hasn't noticed the gophers. The predators can't hear the ultrasonic calls and it allows the gophers to slip away unnoticed.
Related Links
Last week
|
|
