The Science Of SuperPowers
May 8, 2016
SCIENCE AND PSEUDOSCIENCE For A better Tomorrow DESIGNED AND EDITED BY ALY SULTAN
Inside this Issue: The Ice Man: The Amazing Dutchman who Feels No Cold The Camera: He Only Needs to Take a Look Hypnosis: Science or Pseudoscience The Calculator: Whats Two-Hundred Thirty Seven Divided By…He Already Got It Invincible girl: No Pain, No Chromosone 6 ESP: The Heart of Pseudoscience
Dowsing: Finding Water with Rod and the Occult
Special Features: Games, Videos, and more!
Natural SuperPowers
Authors: Aly Sultan, asultan@aucegypt.edu Karim Rizkallah, karimfarouk@aucegypt.gedu Karim Hammamy karimhammamy@aucegypt.edu 1
The Science Of SuperPowers
May 8, 2016
THE ICE MAN The Amazing Dutchman Who Feels No Cold
Another natural superpower ability which is bearing the utmost temperature degrees and by being more specific, climbing mountain Everest with wearing nothing but a short. That was done by the amazing Dutchman Wim Hof who had endured the cold weather and the lowest temperature degrees ever by performing meditation techniques and breathing exercises.
Fun Fact! Almost three quarters of the worlds fresh water is trapped in Glaciers. Think about it, all the lakes and rivers of the world account for less of the worlds fresh water than untapped glaciers.
According to David Hambling's article "Weatherwatch: Extremely Cool Iceman keeps his inner fire burning at -27 degrees," Hof performs a precise yoga skill called "Tummo" which enhances his abilities to bear any kind of temperature whether it is hot or cold and to be able to survive all kinds of weather conditions.
"Weatherwatch: Extremely Cool Iceman keeps his inner fire burning at -27 degrees,� David Humbling.
Another reason for Hof to use this kind of method is to gain positive influence on the immune system, positive influence on the mind and body, Improvement of blood circulation, Improvement of concentration and focus and Greater self-confidence and conscious development. After achieving the success in climbing mountains and bearing cold weather, Hof became a motivational speaker and encouraged people to do the exercises that he had done to gain the same benefits as he did and become healthier in
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their lives. As what he does according to science is accurately correct because he uses his body to overcome any kinds of temperature and he tested this method and it became true and that is the reason that others may try do that as well but after long training and hard work.
In 2011 researchers looking at the immune system accompanied Hof, with volunteers trained in his techniques, on a mountain challenge. The volunteers hiked in shorts in temperatures as low as -27C, took snow baths and swam in freezing water. All the volunteers successfully completed the challenge.
Watch Hof’s incredible story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaMjhwFE1Zw Article By Karim Rizkallah Reference Hambling, David. "Weatherwatch: Extremely Cool Iceman Keeps His Inner Fire Burning at -27C." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2015. Web. 08 May 2016.
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THE CAMERA He Only Needs to Take a Look Stephen Wiltshire a Londoner born to Indian parents was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Now that isn’t what makes him unique though because Mr Wiltshire possess some fantastic capabilities, he can draw nearly anything from memory no matter how detailed. Initially, Wiltshire struggled as a mute, his teachers at Queensmill School took notice of this and forced him to speak by taking away his beloved art supplies. This act was met with much resistants on behalf of Wiltshire and he started to produced sounds of disgruntlement. Eventually he uttered his first word “paper” in request of his art supplies. He then began speaking normally at the age of 9. His drawings usually contained depictions of animals and cars, however as he grew older he began drawing famous London architectural landmarks, In Rome Wiltshire’s infallibility was eventually he progressed to apparent when he managed to draw drawing fantastical cityscapes. the exact number of columns of the To the delight of his teachers pantheon. Now that may not seem Wiltshire began using his art to too impressive, however, given that communicate with the outside the pantheon is just one building of world. several thousand being capable of remembering something as minute as Now Merely overcoming part of the number of columns is gives him a his disability should warrant definitive edge against most people Wiltshire superhero status, however, there’s more to it. drawing panoramas. Wiltshire’s memory was impeccable, no amount of detail was too much. In addition, that his memory was also infallible, a winning combination. When Wiltshire needs to draw something is to merely look at it once. This superpower has allowed him to draw entire cities after brief helicopter rides. His panoramas began with London architectural scenes, he then drew a 19 foot long panorama of a 305 square miles slice of New York city after viewing the city once in a 20 minutes helicopter ride. In may 2005 Wiltshire produced his largest piece, a 10m long panorama of Tokyo’s skyline in 7 days, again via the same formula, a helicopter ride and then multiple drawing sessions. His talent has taken him to Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai and Jerusalem. In Rome his infallibility was apparent when he managed to draw the exact number of columns of the pantheon. Now that may not seem too impressive, however, given that the pantheon is just one building of several thousand being capable of remembering something as minute as the number of columns is gives him a definitive edge against most people drawing panoramas.
Fun Fact!
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Wiltshire achieved superstar status with his work breaking auction records in Bermuda National Gallery. In 2011 his memory-panorama of New York was used to decorate John F Kennedy International Airport as part of a global advertising campaign by a Swiss bank. 
 Wiltshire could have remained a mute, highly talented autistic individual with limited expression had his teachers not noticed his potential. This is clear evidence that everyone of us has the ability to excel, even those of us who may look initially impaired. Most of us may never be as good as Wilshire, however, that should not prevent us from excelling.
Click the link to watch Wiltshire draw an incredible image all from memory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8YXZTlwTAU
Article By Aly Sultan
References "BBC News | HEALTH | Unlocking the Brain's Potential." BBC News. BBC, 2001. Web. 08 May 2016.
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HYPNOSIS Science Or Pseudoscience? Hypnosis is one of many controversial topics that causes confusion to people if it's Science or Pseudoscience and of course, the true answer will be determined according to that it's based on facts. Hypnosis is the induction of a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction. Its use in therapy, typically to recover suppressed memories or to allow modification of behavior According to Andrew Dobson's article "Is Hypnosis Science? Or Pseudoscience" the claims that are made that allow the hypnosis to use scientific methods are not true as the lack supporting evidence or plausibility, and they lack a description of how Hypnosis might create this claim and It also can't tested. By just listening to the illusionist and concentrating on all the senses of your body that allows you to be sedated because you just want to be in that state which makes Hypnosis unreal in terms of Science. Maybe, Hypnosis can be measurable as it leads to certain steps in changing in the activity of the brain and how it is lead to being hypnotized. However, no one really knows how this process is really done according to these kinds of illusions as According to recent they aren't supported scientific research, the by authentic facts and placebo effect has been a is presented as a noticeable contributing scientific claim, but in factor in causing fact it is not. hypnosis.
Fun Fact!
Article By Karim Rizkalla Reference Dobson, Andrew. "Is Hypnosis Science?" Mind Fit Hypnosis. Web. <http://www.mindfithypnosis.com/is-hypnosisscience>.
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THE CALCULATOR Whats two hundred and thirty seven byâ&#x20AC;Ś He Already Got it. One natural superpower we all wish we had during finals is an infallible powerful memory which Daniel Temmet happens to have. Also Temmet has the ability to solve the most unimaginably difficult equations in seconds, so brains and memory, a spectacular combination! Temmet is also described as a "Savant" meaning that he demonstrates abilities that far exceed that of a normal In 2001, Scott Flansburg person. According to Dr was selected by the Guinness book of world Allan Snyder, the humans record as the worlds of the world can gain a fastest human calculator. savant's extraordinary ability, but intense training is needed. Temmet on the He won the award again other hand naturally has extraordinary capabilities at his immediate disposal. in 2003. Temmet can remember so nearly everythin he experiences, so much so that he picked up numerous languages such as French, German, Spanish, etc.. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so good, he can even create dhis own language.
Fun Fact!
Additionally, one of the most unbelievable things that Temmet has done was breaking the record for recalling Pi, the mathematical constant, to the furthest decimal point. Temmet claims that he doesn't count the digits, he sees it as a film that rolls infront
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of him as a visual concept and that he should mention each and single scene that is presented infront of him. Finally, he succeeded in mentioning as many decimal points as he can for five hours infront of an adjudicator and all the digits turned out to be correct. Temmet managed to recount a spectacular 22,514 decimal places. The greatest thing about Temmet is that he uses this ability in good science and his objective is that he would benefit as much people as he can. He set up his own business at his home by writing email courses in language learning for private costumers as he prefers to not interact with anybody personally and he even provides verb structures for his made up language â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mantiâ&#x20AC;?
Watch his TED Talk by clicking the link below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzd7ReqiQnE Article By Karim Rizkallah
References
Johnson, Richard. "A Genius Explains." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2005. Web. 08 May 2016.
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INVINCIBLE GIRL No Pain, No Chromosome 6. â&#x20AC;Š Humans normally have 46 chromosomes in each cell, divided into 23 pairs. In hence, there exist two copies of chromosome 6, one copy inherited from each parent, form one of the pairs. Chromosome 6 spans about 171 million DNA building blocks (base pairs) and represents between 5.5 and 6 percent of the total DNA in cells. Chromosome 6 likely contains 1,000 to 1,100 genes that provide instructions for making proteins. These proteins perform a variety of different roles in the body. A chromosome 6 deletion is a rare disorder in which some of the genetic material that makes up one of the body's 46 chromosomes specifically chromosome 6 in this case is missing. Chromosome 6 deletions usually lead to bad health conditions such as: Eye problems Speech delay due to hearing loss Bad heart conditions Developmental delay Olivia F. was diagnosed to have a chromosome 6 deletion. Tough it is estimated that there are about 100 people in the world with the chromosome 6 deletion of the type that Olivia has, doctors believe that she may be the only person in the world to exhibit all three symptoms of not feeling hunger, fatigue or pain. Olivia F. the girl who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel pain, hunger, or sleepiness: She can stay awake for three nights. Olivia stopped taking naps during the day when she was nine months old, a time when most children still need lots of sleep
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She doesn't ever feel hungry and needs to be forced by her mother to eat. An incredibly picky eater, she survived on butter sandwiches for an entire year. She was involved in a car accident in which she was run over by a car and dragged for 10 car lengths. This left her with a tire mark on her chest, and no skin on her toe and hip. But the 7 year old didn't even flinch, having gotten up right after the car stopped and walked to her mother as if nothing had happened. Click on the following link to learn more about Olivia, her life story, and the science behind her condition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPlfPO_sOLE To put it in a nutshell, the consequences of chromosome 6 deletions are randomly determined by oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genetic fortune or misfortune. In rare cases, it may lead to abilities such as in Oliviaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case. However, thought it may sound cool not to feel pain, hunger, and being able not to sleep for a long time, such abilities may lead one to damage his own organism without noticing as there is no pain signals delivered to the brain. In hence, this leaves us with the open question: is a chromosome 6 deletion a blessing or a curse? Article By Karim Hammamy
References: US National Library of Medicine , chromosome 6, 3 May 2016: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/chromosome/6#conditions 6 p Deletions: http://www.rarechromo.org/information/Chromosome%20%206/6p%20deletions%20QFN.pdf What are some examples of people who possess extraordinary human abilities?: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-examples-of-people-who-possess-extraordinary-human-abilities
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ESP Extra-sensory perception: the heart of pseudoscience Telepathy is a form of extra-sensory perception in which information is transmitted from a person to another by other means than the normal human sensory channels.
Clairvoyance is the superpower ability of gaining information about an object, a location, or a person using a form of non-physical energy. Clairvoyance includes an ability to communicate with dead people, to predict future events, or to know about things that one didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t actually see happen or hear about. Precognition is a category of clairvoyance. It is the ability to see future events through extra-sensory perception. Jean Dixon is the well renown for having this ability. Remote viewing, regarded as a pseudoscience, is a supposed paranormal ability by which a person can gather information about a distant unseen target using extra-sensory perception or mind sensation.w Telekinesis is the super ability of moving object using only the mind without any physical interference between the person and the moved object. Uri Geller is one of the most famous people known to develop this ability nowadays.
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All these types of extra-sensory perception are not proved scientifically and are regarded as pseudoscience by the scientific community. Although, the existence of extrasensory perception is still a controversial issue, personally, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe in their existence, as they cannot be scientifically tested. A lot of people profit of the fact that these paranormal activities are not scientifically testable. In fact, people pretend to have extra-sensory perception relying on visual and mind tricks. In reality, all the mentioned types of extra sensory perceptions are nothing else than pseudoscience. They all have a science part related to biology (telepathy, remote viewing, clairvoyance), physics (telekinesis), or astronomy in the case of astrology, yet, their main concepts have nothing to do with science as they are not testable.
Think telekinesis is a just a joke? Listen to TEDEd, using the link below, and tell us what you think!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq9D_HkQhAA
Article By Karim Hammamy References Is ESP for Real?, January 21st 2016: http://www.hidingthetruth.com/is-esp-for-real/ The Readingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; approach to ESP and Psychic Phenomena: http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/edgarcayce.aspx?id=2496
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DOWSING Finding Water with Rods and the Occult Dowsing, or the act of using a special stick or rod (a dowsing rod) to locate various things buried underground, has existed for thousands of years. It can be used to search for anything from water to metal to the remains of the dead. It is also known by it’s colloquial name “water witching”. However, dowsing is most commonly used to find sources of water underground. It is considered as a type of divination because it is not based on any known scientific evidence or laws of nature. The person doing the dowsing, or the dowser, attempts to use magical thinking to locate things with the help of the occult. They believe that they, with assistance from the occult, have a special ability to sense emotions and emanations being released from the objects buried underground. Though French priest and dowser Alex Bouly originally coined this process “radiesthesia” in 1927, dowsing has become a kind of legend consistently questioned for it’s effectiveness and reliability. He was said to have not only located unexploded bomb shells buried after WWI but also, before digging them up, could identify whether they were German, Austrian or French. He became well-known for using dowsing in his own scientific research, as well as in the field of “map dowsing”. Map dowsers use a pendulum instead of a dowsing rod to locate oil, minerals, etc. This is often used in conjunction with a field who will then find the desired objects on the actual land. There are various theories for why dowsing could work. Dowsing usually involved pointing the two rods towards each other in a “V”, and when the dowser stands over water, the rods cross in an “X”. What causes the rods to move? Researchers have suggested everything from electromagnetic or subtle geological forces, geophysical observations, ESP, paranormal explanations, or involuntary motor behavior. Research has suggested that despite claims of accuracy and reliability, many dowsers have similar luck in finding underground water source than those without any other scientific tools. However, some of the strongest evidence that supports dowsing is from Germany, where in a series of experiments over two years, more than 500 dowsers participated in 10,000 double-blind tests to examine the accuracy of the concept of dowsing. Natural SuperPowers
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Accuracy was still low, but better than those of experiments done in other countries. Because of the variety of results from the different experiments done with dowsers, it is difficult to say whether or not dowsing actually works, and if so, why.
Watch a video about dowsing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7R8ul7vABM References Enright, J. T. "Water Dowsing: The Scheunen Experiments." Naturwissenschaften 82.8 (1995): 360-69. Web. "Dowsing (a.k.a. Water Witching, Radiesthesia)." Dowsing (a.k.a. Water Witching). Web. 08 May 2016.
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STOP! Game Time The Empty Triangle
Pattern Recognition Test - Empty Triangle Question: Which figure should be placed in the empty triangle? This puzzle works your executive functions in your frontal lobes by using your pattern recognition, hypothesis testing, and logic. Let us know how you do! ANSWER: 3
A Circle? Or is it?
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Answer YES!
Mathematica When you divide 12 by 5, the remainder is 2; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s left over after you have removed all the 5s from the 12. When you raise 4 to the fifth power (that is, 45), you multiply four by itself five times: 4x4x4x4x4, which equals 1,024.
What is the remainder when you divide 100100 by 11?
Solution: 1 2. A supposed paranormal ability by which a person can gather information about a distant unseen target using extra-sensory perception or mind sensation.
3. A type of divination employed to locate ground water and buried metals without the use of scientific apparatus.
6. A form of extra-sensory perception in which information is transmitted from a person to another by other means than the normal human sensory channels.
Down
1. The ability to see future events through extra-sensory perception.
4. The super ability of moving object using only the mind without any physical interference between the person and the moved object.
5. The superpower ability of gaining information about an object, a location, or a person using a form of non-physical energy.
Easter Match http://www.mindgames.com/game/Easter+Match
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Can You Figure this one Out?
Chromosome Maze
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Visual and mind tricks concepts used by pseudoscience illustrated in simple ways People who practice pseudoscience use visual and mind tricks techniques to support their claims. Mind tricks can involve con8licting right and left brains roles creating illusion. The following activity depicts this type of mind tricks used in pseudoscience such as pretending to possesses extrasensory perception:
Visual tricks are also used in pseudoscience. For example, telekinesis relies strongly on visual tricks to persuade the viewer. If someone is sitting next to you pretending to possess telekinesis ability, he might claim that he is moving the following image. However, in reality, this is a visual illusion created by the eye and the mind when one focuses on the image. This illustrates in a very simplistic way how pseudoscience may use mind and visual illusion to justify its claims.
The following video shows a pretended psychic ability by Ivan Velicaria relying on the technology of screens today and their ability to spot ones eyes position. Fun Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKftNx535j0 Games By Aly Sultan
The Empty Triangle
Is it A Circle
Mathematica
Games By Karim Rizkallah
Easter Match
Games By Karim Hammamy
Chromosome Maze
Visual And Mindtricks
Can You Figure this out?
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