Here is a mask of Charlie Chaplin that rotates. Notice that, no matter how hard you try, the hollow and concave rear of the mask eventually becomes a convex golden face that spins counterclockwise. Pretty cool, give it a try:

Here’s another great optical illusion that will play major tricks on your mind. And if you haven’t seen some of Felice Varini’s work yet, check out this brain art.

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The puzzle ‘Captured in the Forest‘ (just prior to this post) reminds me somewhat of this earlier brain teaser, ‘A fork in the road‘. If you haven’t tried it yet, take a look before reading the comic below

From www.xckd.com:

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Alcohol’s toxic effect on the brain is readily communicated by this MRI scan comparing a normal brain to that of an alcoholic:

As you can see, the alcoholic brain on the right is massively shrunken due to brain cell loss.

While visiting Chicago recently, was reminded just how much alcohol is a part of young people’s lives. As you drive through Wrigleyville, Downtown, Lincoln Park, Andersonville you can’t help but notice bars are everywhere. Unfortunately, when many students drink, they do it to excess- i.e., they binge. What I wish I could tell all students is that the overwhelming amount of research clearly indicates binge drinking is very bad for your brain and will seriously impair your ability to learn and get good grades- both in the short and long term. From a 2007 study that appeared in the European Journal of Neuroscience:

These findings indicate that binge pattern exposure to ethanol during adolescence induces brain damage by inflammatory processes and causes long-lasting neurobehavioural consequences.

Here’s the conclusions from another study looking at binge drinking in young adults [Reference 2 below]:

…differences can be seen in mood and cognitive performance between those that binge drink and those that do no

And it’s not just college students. According to the National Institutes of Health, almost 1 out of 10 Americans meet standard diagnostic criteria for an alcohol use disorder.

The latest bit of alcohol-brain atrophy research comes from Carol Ann Paul (of Wellesley College) and colleagues. They looked at MRI brain scans of 1839 people aged 34 to 88, and their findings (presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 59th Annual Meeting in Boston May 2007) indicate the more you chronically drink, the more your brain volume decreases. The results held true even for moderate drinkers.

According to Carol:

There is a continuous negative correlation between alcohol consumption and total brain volume. It seems that there is not a beneficial effect of even small amounts of alcohol on brain volume.

For an earlier story about how alcohol knocks the teenage brain off its growth trajectory, click here.

Another bit of research released May 10, 2007 reveals alcohol can also induce atrial fibrillation, a very common heart arrhythmia which is a very strong risk factor for strokes.

Reference 1: Paul CA et al. "The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Total BrainVolume: The Framingham Heart Study." Abstract P05.030, presented May 2.

Reference 2: Townshend JM, Duka T. Binge Drinking, cognitive performance and mood in a population of young social drinkers. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2005 Mar;29(3):317-25.

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Haven’t done a brain art post in a while, so figured I’d put up some pictures of Felice Varini’s incredible work. Note that these images were not ‘photoshopped’, nor do they use painted glass.

Click here to see an animation of a large scale Varini illusion done in a warehouse type setting, and then click here to see the secret behind the amazing effect.

If you’d like to view more of his work, you can visit his website here.

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Don’t expect an answer to this puzzle anytime soon….

Just published today on the NASA/JPL website. Kevin Baines, a member of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory team, says:

This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides. We’ve never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn’s thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you’d expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is.

For the full story, and more pictures, click here.

If you’d like to see another space image that conveys a "high degree of order", click here. For powerful words by Carl Sagan, click here.

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Thanks to MARS-1 for allowing me to post his Psychic Wars painting.

(Click on image below to jump to high-resolution version)

If you’d like to see more of his paintings and scultpures, you can visit his homepage here.

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From Altariel’s Stumbleupon page:

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“A Hole in the Ground” by Seb Przd:

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Recently corresponded with Jim Warren, who was not only kind enough to provide the official answer to his “Find the Seven Horses” puzzle posted about a month ago, but also to provide another great brain art picture challenge.

[Click here to go to "Seven Horses" puzzle, answer is in comments section]

This new puzzle is entitled, “Seven Hearts…”; can you find them?

Please feel free to post the heart locations below

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Wow, this optical illusion really messes with your brain.

Hard to believe, but the squares marked A and B are the same shade of gray.

For an explanation and proof, click here.

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In March of 2006, an incredible news story was released about a double helix nebula found near the center of the Milky Way.

From the UCLA website: “We see two intertwining strands wrapped around each other as in a DNA molecule,” said Mark Morris, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, and lead author. “Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm. Most nebulae are either spiral galaxies full of stars or formless amorphous conglomerations of dust and gas — space weather. What we see indicates a high degree of order.”

The pictures themselves were nothing short of amazing; however, what struck me as even more incredible was Professor Morris’s choice of words : “What we see indicates a high degree of order”

If any astrophysicists are reading, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this

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Crazy as this may seem, those little beans below are not moving!

(found here: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Pages)

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Haven’t added a post to the “Brain Art” category for quite some time, so here’s a nice painting by Robert Gonsalves. His works very much remind me of the dream world, where unlikely segments can sometimes fantastically blend into each other.

(Much Thanks for Saper Galleries for permission to display)

If you’d like to see additional images of Robert Gonsalves work, click here.

If any readers would like to contribute to the brain art section(or any other section), please feel free to email me at info (at) smart-kit (dot) com

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Don’t know if I’m the only one getting this kind of spam, but every day my inbox is filled with at least 10 stock alert/quote emails. I’ve gotten pretty decent at avoiding most of them, but once in a while they get me with the false message titles. As far as the content of the email itself: First it was just with plain text, then they added colored text. Next, the info was dressed up in picture format. And now the latest modifcation-a catchy optical illusion!

What will they think of next?

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What’s special about the bands in the picture below?

(picture courtesy of Cliff Pickover & Teja Krasek)

Cliff Pickover has a book dedicated to these unique structures. Actually, if you ever want to witness a massively creative scientific mind in action (40 patents, 37 published books), head on over to his website for lots of interesting stuff. Just ordered his latest book A Beginner’s Guide to Immortality: Extraordinary People, Alien Brains, and Quantum Resurrection

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