Feel the pain!

Look at the picture, did you feel the sensation of pain or just freaked out?

Lately this picture appeared on my facebook wall several time, every time I see this picture I clutched my fingers like I’m protecting them from that sharp knife, even some of friends who saw this reacted in a very similar way, I was quite amused!
After doing a bit of research I found out that, all that sudden painful sensations aren’t caused by the picture, these are caused by kind of neurons called Mirror Neurons in our very own brain some where in premotor cortex (upper middle part of our brain).
These mirror neurons fires both when we act and we observe a same action performed by another person, quite interesting huh?
Apart from scaring you these neurons play very significant role in one’s ability to acquire new skills by imitating, and language development in kids.

Next time when you see your girlfriend crying during movie or a kid imitating your expressions think of Mirror Neurons.

Deal or No Deal–Applied Physics

We have games shows based on pretty much anything you can think of, we have game shows based on music, game shows based on general knowledge, game shows involving some self proclaimed celebrities living together in a house full of ads, and game shows where some looser ride the cool bikes and talk trash.

But never we have seen games show based on Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, it is Deal or No Deal, outstandingly pointless afternoon quiz show aired on regional TV channels in south India, where dumb contestant try to guess what might or might not be in the sealed boxes, just like Schrodinger’s potentially dead cat, the contents of each box exist in a sort of theoretical super position fluctuates between pigeons and fortune until actually the box is opened, at that point reality assigns value to it in physical world, and the audience either go “Hurray!” (I just used the extinct word!) or “oooohhhhhhhhhhh”. In other words it’s just a guessing game, there on fucking physics involved, may be bit of probability math. Deal or no deal in many way the show that isn’t exist if you watch it you will simply stare at void. And I almost wasted an hour writing about it…