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POPSThe 'satellite navigation' in our brains
n a follow-up study, Dr Spiers and Professor Maguire used the Playstation2 video game "The Getaway" to examine how taxi drivers use their hippocampus and other brain areas when they navigate. Taxi drivers used the virtual reality simulation to navigate the streets of London whilst lying in an fMRI brain scanner. The researchers found that the hippocampus is most active when the drivers first think about their route and plan ahead. By contrast, activity in a diverse network of other brain areas increases as they encounter road blocks, spot expected landmarks, look at the view and worry about the thoughts of their customers and other drivers. "The hippocampus is crucial for navigation and we use it like a 'sat nav'," says Dr Spiers from the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at UCL. "London taxi drivers, who have to know their way around hundreds of thousands of winding streets, have the most refined and powerful innate sat navs, strengthened over years of experience."
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POPS How do you make the object of your affections fall in love with you? A person's smell provides clues about their genetic make-up. We are programmed to sniff out those whose genes are different to our own. This apparently helps ensure any children born will have broad immunity against disease. Those looking to impress should also keep conversation to a minimum and concentrate on their appearance. Research shows that 55 per cent of first impressions are based on how we look rather than what we say. Getting off the sofa and out and about is also important. 'Meeting a lot of people is key,' Mr Robinson said. 'Sitting there moping and eating chocolate is not going to get you anywhere.
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POPSThis is Fernando Torres Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1 Scorer: Fernando Torres First day of UK football season. (Hard luck, wiganfootie. Long way to go)
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POPSThe Last Victorian Leviathan Steam Ship Alas, the end of the Eastern came with more of a whimper than bang. After suffering far too many accidents, and far too many money troubles, the Eastern passed from one hand to another until eventually the largest ship in the Victorian world came to a humiliating end, first as a floating billboard in Liverpool and then finally broken up and sold as scrap. - It took two full years just to dismantle this ship (gives you an idea how big it was). - A mysterious dead body was found inside the special double hull (one can only imagine the desperate story of that stowaway...) At least Brunel didn't see the sad and pathetic end to his magnificent Great Eastern, though he didn't live to see its majesty either. Brunel died only four days after the great ship's first sea trial.
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