f,2.50 SYNAPSIA THE INTERNATIONAL BRAIN CLUB JOURNAL Sumner 199! Number 2

Dominic O'Brien - World Memory Champion Remember this man's face - he won't forget yours

ln this issue . Memoriad '93: A Memorable Event . . Remembrance ofThings Unconscious . . Fermat's Theorem: Proof or Guesswork? . . History of the World Championship . SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

SYNAPS.IA EDITORIAL Fulure Perfect lmuld like to use thiseditorial to outline members. So, if you ha\€ anything you Mnt The editor wlcomes to read€rs our plans for sr'opsio over ap- to say aboutanyofthe sboE topics or, in- contributions to Synoririd. proximately I the next I months. We are deed, anything ele, do get pen to paper. Please contact him at \€ry keen to make the maSazine more in- There are many reSular features (eg. book 23 Ditchling Rise, Brighton, teractive and to encourage contributions reviews, top t€n books,letters page etc.) sussex BN I 4QL from readers and members of The Brain thatare idealfor contribution s and w are Club. With thisin mind, and tosi\€the also, of course, always deliShted to magazine a more coh€rent structu re, from consider new $g8estions. now on €ach issue will hare a theme. This willgive potential contributors plenty of THE BRAIN time to map out any material they wish to CLUB C}iART€R The Brain Club wis incorpoFted on forward in connection with th€ various I 5 May I 989, and became a eAstered topics. This issue, taking advant4e of the charity on 23 N@mber I 990. lt5 of- recent Memoriad, haE taken memory w ficbl chdter sbtes the Club's formal as ou r theme. The themes planned for fu ture issues (along with publication dates) A. To prcmote rerea.ch into the study of thought procerses, and Autumn/Winter 1993 (double issue) into the inEtigarion of the me- Babies lsl11193 chanics of rhinking a! manifeted in leaming, undedindint, cofr munication, probleciolvin& sprinS 1994 creatMty and decision-makin& Sport t5lo3l94 B. To disseminate the results of such res€arch and studl Summ€r 1994 C. To prcmot€ generdll/ education Animal lntelligence t5to6t94 and tninin8 in coSnitiE prcc- e$es and techniques. Autumn 1994 D. To d*lop and exploit new tech- Menrrl World Records l5/09/94 niqus in cognin',€ pro.e$es.

Winter 1994 tst t2J94

The double issueatthe end ofthe cur- reflt ye:r will enable us to get up to date and from then we will be publishing reSu- \ larly at three mondlly inte.rals, with a view to pro8ressing to six issues per y€ar and, r/ /,/ eventually, to making S,,ropsid a monthly \\

The publication dates for the magazine ao are given abo',e. Contributions for th€F should reach me six w€eks prior to these V dates for the materiat to be included in that ---\..,.'\.-. .

We want Sy.qpsio to be an interacti\€ magazine. lts main function is to run articles that will hopefu lly prov€ to be of interest to Brain Club Members The secondary function is to actaconduit for the e)(- €han8€ of information and ideas betreen SYNAPSIA Yol 4 No 2 Summer 1993 2 I st February I 995

Editor-in-Chief CONTENTS Editorial CoBultant FEATURES

Ray Keene OBE Sir Brian T@I KCMG tEtoBtAD'93 A TETORABLE EVEI{T The s€cond l'lemoriad was recently held atsimpson\ in the-strJnd in London. Sy.opsio was there to report firsFhand. RETETBRAI{CE OF THII{GS The Buzn OGanisation Ltd uNcoNscrous The Harlelord Manor Etate t2 D''id Shanks unraEls the secrets of conscious awareness.

B0€kingh.6hire SL7 zDX Tel: (0628) 482765 A HISTORY OF THE WORLD (inside UK) GHESS CHAilPIOIISHIPS +44 16 614442765 k has been written that the mentai and physical PreParation required tocompete successfullyin a Finalmakes a boxinS match such s Ali Frazier seem likeaquietchat in comParison. The €dibr reseres ihe.iSht to in London, RaFond K€ene takes a short€n, amend or chang€ uy With Kasparov - Short fullswingin con tribu do n a..€pred fo. p u b licaiion. look at previous mental battles at this rarefied lwl. lfyou wlld likeadiclc r€nrrned, d6e ii.lude m +ProPrht€ sAE. PROOF OR GUESSWORK? has finally Thc @rm and .on.ept tlind l'1ap Fermat's three hundred-year-old mathemancal conundrum in this is a 22 been cracked. Wilf Hey explores the backSround in a SFopsio .€ferred to Publication

P€c!b, rhe frdd: fas@st brain dnoonitt, G happy b P@id e DRAWING IS NATURAL canoons baed on your idea dd 28 Artkt torraine Gillcontinues her series on drawin& ln thisissue she examines p€rc€ption.

Desiqn, arMrk and type*t ing by REGULARS

3 Edito al 5 Synaptic Flashes 19 Amazing emory Stolies 20 Animal lntelligence 2l lntelligence about Intelligence 26 lhe Ionian 30 Poetry Corner

) SYNAPS ,A SUMMER 1993

SYNAPTIC FLASHES Brain News

A 'wet' weekend in llew York Bed Hot Chile Perlormances ln the last issue of Synopsio we reponed the Ben,amin zander (BCM 500) has justcom- extraordinary exploits of ls-year-old Alan pleted a su€cesdul tou r of Ch ile with the Saldanha, who b€came theyoungest eEr acclaimed Boston Youth Philharmonic Or- British Scrabble Champion- As rewent to lhestm. The orchestra, which consists of press Alan was about to compet€ in the younS musicians betreen the ages of l3 World Championshipsat th€ Plaza Hotelin and I I, delighted audiences with a series ol N€w York as part of a l4-stronS team from concerts that would bea.comparison with Britain and lreland. Aft€r an €xcitingand most professional orchestras: 'Th's ex- exhausting week€nd Alan was placed a very tremely talented young group creat€s creditable fifth, the tirle b€ing lifted bya 26 sParks and transmits to th€ audi€nce both year old television producerfrom Leeds, the spiritand the essen€e ofthe music Mark Nyman. l4ark, who is the brains be- which they perform' (E l4ercu.io). Benjrmin hind the popular Channel4,word quiz se- himself, as Anistic Directorand conductor. ries CountdoM, fought ba€k from two was singled out'His conducrinSis masterly, games down in the best-of-five finalasainst clear and fu lly expressiv€, establishing him

Canadian I oel Wapnick usingwords such as instantlyasan imponant leader' (ro Epocd). 'Dojo', a judo hall, and 'quint', a sequ€nce of fi\€ cards in piquetithe winning word was The 5OOO Steps to Genius According to Professorlohn Sloboda, a psy- chologist at the Uniyersityof Keele, mas- Schools Chess tery of a musical instrument does not re- The finalof the 1992 93 Tle T,,mes British quire any inherentgift, and iswithin the

Schools Chess Championship ended in a grasp of most of us. Professor S loboda thrilling vi€tory for Truro School over Hab- studied 120 pupils learning musi€alinsrru- erdash€rs' Aske's by 3.5 to 2.5. Truro, ments ata lYanch€ster schooland con- whose most famous recent ex-pupilisth€ cluded that the most successfu I carried out British No 2, l.,lichael Adams. the required practice, were encouraged in now holds the remarkable record of reach their early efforts bysupportive parents, ingthe last four in allbar one ofthe past and were instilled with enthusiasm by their five years. For Haberdashers', ir was a \al- t€achers. Sloboda says 5000 hours of prac iant effort on their firstappearance in the tice are necessary to achieve entrance to finalstages.ln the play-off for third pla€e music schooi(the beststudents had prac- 14anchester G rammar School defeated tised for 10000), buta levelof competence Royal G rammar School, Newcasde, 4-2. can be achieved after I000 2000 hours. The new Brain Trust Order of l4erit will Sloboda claims, Mrny people believe appear in the next issu€ of Syndpsia that musicians are born notmade:that there is some inherited gift thatsets a small Rewriting the Tertbook number of people apart from birth and den The recently published Simply AlEebrc isa tines them for mu sical excell€nce. The sci- maths textbook with a difference: it wis entific eviden.e forsuch beliefs is much less written byan I l-year-old. Rosalind Selfes secure than might bethought. The vast ma- guid€ is desiSned to put the fun back into si iorityofthe population possesses the in multaneous equations, indices and basic herited characteristi€s needed to perform principl€s, and she is already planninga fol music well, and differences in accomplish, low'up on co-ordinate Seometry. Having mentare mainlydue to differences in expe- been educated byh€r parents arhome over rience, opponunity and motivation. I dont the last few years, Rosalind has justre-en- know that allof us could be NiSelKennedy, tered the education system on ascholarship but most of us hde much more musicalca atan independent school near her hom€ in pacity than w€ believe. Even lvlozart had to Ems',rcrth in Hampshire. SYNAPS'A SUMMER 1993

A MEMORABLE WEEKEND Dominic OnBrien retains the World Memory Championship.

llemoriad ll - 'decathlon'. Dominic prowd himselfto be Dominic Returns untouchable in allfields and r:n outa The second l'4€moriad, h€ld atSimpson's- in-the-Strrnd over the w€ek€nd of7-8Au- His outstanding feats included the mem gust, resulted in a tremendous success for orisation ofeightpacks of playinS cards in dominant Dominic O'Brien. who finished one hour, the memorisation of 1002 binary first in sev€n out of the ten gruellingevents digits iD halfand hourand, perhaps most and retaiDed th€ overalltitle of world impressiwly of all. the creation a new mrld t4emory Champion which he had won in record by remembering 100 numbers the inauguralcontest in 1991. which were read outattwo second inter- This year\ competition was made up of vals. He did this notonce, but twi€e, making ren events of differing du rations (analogous to sprints, middle distance and marathon Poet Laureate Ted Hughes created a new runs), to arrive atan overallmemory text, Anamnemonicker (see Poetry Theptize &e kredtk GnkEa Bilabd Awtd donoted W Dotil Wtkie s canpony, |+ote turcEtbn. SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 7

i t Btion Otvoz, Ecnuol n.noper of s'nPsoat, opens ihc proceedrnrs

Corner), for the competitors to memorise Record Breakers and 2l-lea. o d Oxford Un iversity stu dcxl A nunrber of remarkable fertsand new lonachan Hancock won this event by mem- world records were witnessed over rhe orisinS l2lines with punctuation perfecrly Ev€nt I Prizes for the event inc uded rhe com, The flrst ofrhe mar:thon events. Dom n c's plete set of rhe Encyclopoedio Btitonnico and score of900 digits remembered in one a bronze elephant donated by Seredrin on hourwas remarkable and const rures a new behalf of Olympic swimmer David Wilk e. The Brain Trustako announced a {2000 Event2 donation to sponsor research inro rhe ln th s roundlonathan Hancock establshed memory of che elephant. himselfas a formidable contender for the Media interest in the event was ticle with a 100% score on the .onrnued overeot extremely h Sh. Film ffews included the BBC for To- morrow s World. the aac for The Unforgettable l'lemory Show, London Tonight and Sky News. Ra- dio co\€rage was obtained on LBC and Classic Fl,1 There was a so a mass ot newspaper coverage in most of the nacionaldailies. with sizeab e spreads in the tn.lepentlenL the DaW Tele- sroDh, Ihe L:des, and the 6uordior. the latter pair car- ryang a sood shotofa pho togenic Dominic posing with a pack of playing c:rds.

Thc canpclnaf and aConisinE teon Lefi to aEht lon anon, Notdsho Dioa Aknon Len, lanothon Hono(k, Dmintc A kin, Kcn Wilshne, Philip Band, fan/ Buzon ond Jant5 Lcc. SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

MEMORIAD'93 The Events

J|emorisation ot a 2ooo digit number ll hourl I Contestants recall this number by writing it down. The arbiter then checks this number against the original, with digits beinS ticked or cross€d accordingly. At the end of each line of forty digits a note is made of how many mist kes there were in th€ lin€. No mistakes scor€s 40 Points, one mistake scores 20 Points and more than one mistake scores zerc points.The line scores ar€ totall€d for an ov€rallresult.

emorisation ol loo narnes and faces lt5 minutesl Fac€s are pr€sented to the contestants in a certain order with corresPonding nam€s underneath Th€y are then presented in a new order without nam€s. Contestants mark nam€s on the new sheets, and score one point for €ach name correctly recalled.

emorisation ol a list ol 5OO words [l5 minutesl Words are presented in columDs of fifty and numbered. Contestants need to recall rcrds in sequenc€ by writing them dow.. The columDs are scored as follows: no mistakes scores 50 Points, one mist ke s.ores 25 points and more than one mktake scores zero Points. The column scor€s are totalled foran orerrllresrlt

emorisation of a IOO digit number spoken aloud, at two-second intelvals Contestants recall this numb€r by writing it down. The score is considered as the number of digits correctly recalled before a mistak€ is made.The procedure is rePeated three times,only the bestscore countinS

Itemorisation of 12 packs ol oards ll houd Contestants areSiven one hour to memoriseas many of l2 Packs of cards as they can No mistakes in a Pack of cards scores 52 points, one mistake s€ores 26 points and more than one mastake scores zero Points. The scor€s for the individualpacks are totalled foran overallresult.

Speed memorisation ol a 2OO digit number (5 minutesl Contestants recallthis number by writing it down- The scoring system is as for comP€tition I emorisation of paintings and images l20 minutesl Contestants ar€ 8iv€n 24 images which they hrve to memorise. They are then SiEn a funher 100 images of which the original 24 are a part. As each image is presented, the contestants are asked to note wheth€r or not this image has been presented previously.They receiv€ one mark for getting this correct.They re.eive an exth mark iftheycan note whetherthis image has been Present€d the sameway round as Previously oroPPosite. llemorisation ol unknown text ll5 minutesl Contestants are given 40 lines of text to memorhe. They then r€call this text by writinS it down, in€luding punctuation. lf a contestant mikes any error in a line, that line is scored as zero A Perfect line scor€s one

I emorisation ol a 2OOO digit binary number ll hou.l Rules as for competition l.

Speed memorisation ol a shullled pack ol cards to Contestants are hand€d a shuffled pack of cards by the arbiter. StoPwatches are set to zero and started in synchrony. When cont€stants have finished memorising the pa€k they rais€ th€ir hand and the watch is stopped. Contestants score only as much of the Pack as they (orr€ctly recall, e.S remembering 25 cards using the €ntire fiw minutes scores highe. than attempting to rememberingthe whole Pack in on€ minute, but failing on the 25th card and thus scoring only 24. SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

MEMORTAD'93 Gompetition by Gompetition Results

, 2 3 4 5 6 7 a I to 2000 t00 500 t00 t2 200 2000 speed digits names words digits packs digits imagesltext binary cards goo I Dominic 1 74 4 125 1 100 1 416 1 132 1 16 3. 6 6 1002 1 2.OO 1

2 Jonathan 160 5 100 1 1t4 2 352 312 2 17 a 15.5 5 12 1 200 3 3.O9 2 3 Philip 460 2 43.5 I 499 164 104 3- 75 2 16 6. 7 4 600 2 245 't9 4 Creighto 83.5 3 46.5 4 11 5. 104 3= 7 14 1 3 a 3.49 3 5 Alastair 120 6 462 42 10 78 536 5 172 3 162 6 137 6 Ken 110 7 45.5 7 48.5 a o7- 57 3= 14.5 B 7 185 5 QA 7 Tom 320 4 62.5 6 873 O7. 57 99 3 7 176 I Natasha 904 458 745 11 5= 745 30 6 15 6- 10 2 64 9 11 I

Ir the crosstob/e the ttst s.ore is the .ortest ntt score in the eftnL The second indkates then plo.jng in that event Grand Totals - The Final Standings

Dominic O'Brien 192,51 renowned memor/ performer'on radio and TV. The reigninsWorld t4emory Champion, holde. of rhe World Speed Card l4emorisation record (55-4 Alastair Levy (6Ol seconds!)and television personality. l4-year-old son of David Levy, the well known organ,se' of Lhe Computer Olympics.lunro. champron. Jonathan Hancock l8O,5l Oxford University student and second in Memoriad'91. Ken Wilshire (54.51 lonathan has recently blazed hisway through a series of Employed with Chemi€alBank ofNewYork in London. psychological memory t€sts. Tom orton 153.51 Philip Bond 167.51 Phone numb€rs memoryman from . 14athematlcian, f inan.ial analyst rnd menLiLhtere. World's leading'numbermatricisCand challengerfor lfatasha Diot l5O.5l the EnSlish and World titles in the memorisation of Pi. I 6-year-old schoolgirl from Sunbury. Ladies World Champion- Creighton Garvello l66l World Record holder in six-pack m€morisationand Other comp€titors for specific competitjons: Sue EnSlish NationalReco.d hold€r for the memorisation of WhitinS, Vanda North, Helen \,r'hitton, Sophie Holt, the number of digits of Pi (20000). lnrernationally Dous Fulton,James Lonsworth andjam€s Lee.

Eod event scorcd I 0 poinLt fot the winne, I for the competltor plo.ed se.ond, I for the third ej'c. Eod .ompetitor's ro.oi rs given in bn&ets oftet his or het nome. t0 SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

Event 3 On the word memorisalion test Dominic and lonathan were extremely evenly matched, wilh Dominic iust coming rhrouSh

Event 4 Ahhough Dominic achieved many remark able feats in the course ofthe w€ekend, !his was lhe mosc lmPressive. When !his event had been ffeated, ir was viewed as a mcntal Everest lo be climbed by the year 2000 rhe mental equivalen! ofthe three'm nute mlle. To putthe resuh in some kind ofper' spective it is worth notinS that at che end of rhe nineleenth cencury, the best score achieved was 17. The previous world record, and this was achieved by sorneone who had praciced hard for many years, was 81. To score 100, twice, under che pressure ofopen comPetition, s really

Ar the end ofthe weekend. whcn the prizes had been awarded:nd LarSe amounts oflood and wine consumcd, the BBC wanred to do some filming and requesled rhe competltors reassemble themselves lo do some lakes. When cverythin8 hnd been ser !p, this event was rcconslrucled, w th rhe competitors pr€tcndlng to be concen' trarinS on memorising rhe number which was bcing spoken alo!d. However, !hey were nor all prelendingi Dominic, even af' ler his exenions over ihc weekend.nd !he .eccnr buffe( correcdy recaled 104 diSils, names faces. exceeding hb prcvious scor€l when watld Juniot ahonPidh Alastun Lqy. memorisarion of and l4-year' $!s old Alasrair Levy finished an ourslanding Everest had bcen conquered mount: nco s second, wirh Dominic forced bnck inro set themselves the targe! of climblnS it wi$out oxygcn. Perhaps Dominic s next

Ton Monan with t t\.tisbn PeBonottr SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

targetwillbe to correctly recall 100 digits to be forgotten,' and also to have the ap pearance of be'ng useless, but:ctually being Eveht5 usefulonce one had deciphered it. Dominic's score of eightpacks memorised Event 9 correctly, in this, the second ofthe The finalmarathon, resultingagain in a new ma.athon events, was a further newrcrld world record and another first for record, but mention should also 8o to Jonathan Hancock, who achieved the excel Event l0 lent scor€ of six packs.lonathan is a previ' A finalsprinterent and it's that man againl ous record holder in this evenr in 1988 he AlthouSh 2.00 is some wa/outside Do, memorised six packs. However, this was minic's record of 55 seconds, this was with unlimited time and, in his recall, he achieved atthe €nd ota long reekend and made five mistakes. Here, as with the speed in open competition, where any mistakes memorkation ofevent four, new heights could prove very costly. Thiswas ako the have clearly been scaled. eventthatfirst inspired Dominic to start trajning his memorywhen he watched The firstsprint event Creighton Carv€llo performingthis feat on wo d tlenory chonpon Donnk resuked in a further clear Record Breakers a few years back. first for Dominic. with Philip Bond achievinga very creditabl€ second. Event 7 For only the second time the weekend so far. Dominic'n failed to win the event; he was placed third

EventS No new recorrls were set here, but the winner was clearly Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, whose poem, Anamnemonicker Gee Poetry Corner), had the comPetitors struSSling. The poem was 'w.itten t2 SYNAPSIA SUMMER ]993 REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS uNcoNscrous lraditional ideas about memory are being challenged by the discovery that much ol what we retrieve may be hidden from conscious awaleness, writes David Shanks. The Greatest ilystelies psychologhts to overturn many laws of Memory and consciousness are among the memory previously thought to be unassail greatest mysteries ofthe mind. How is it that re can consciously recollectevents that have happened to us in the past? Many nemembrance ol Things Past people have been t€mpted to compare hu Novelists have been keener than psycholo man memorywith the memory stonSe de- Sists to ponderthe relationship betw€en He describes how vices of computers, and this analogy has in- memory and consciousn€ss. One of the no sooner had he deed proved beneficialin the understandang most graphic ac€ountsof the experienceof of certain aspects ofmemory. Butwhile memory is in l4arcel Proust's novel Rem€m- tasted the cake computers,like people, can retrieve infor- bronce of lh,ngs Post. As a result of eating a 'than a shudder mation, they do not h:ve anyofthe curious piece of madel€in€ cake with his tea, Proust's hero had a strong feeling of famili ran through me feelings or experiences that memory 8ives and I stopped. ariry and asensation thatthe cak€ was re- Consid€r some of these experiences: minding him ofsome past event that he Ms intent upon the everybody has had the feeling of d6id vu, unable to reconstruct. He d€scribes how extraordinary where w€ ha/e a strong sensation that no sooner had h€ tasted the cake'than a thing that was som€thin8 we are actually experi€ncing for shudder ran through meand lstopp€d, in- thingthatwas happening to me. the firsttime is familiar. Or consider the tent upon the extraordinary tip-ofrhe tongu€' phenomenon when re happening to m€. An exquisite pleasure had An exquisite know thata word or name is stored in our invaded mysenses, something isolated, de' pleasure had memory, butwe cannot retrieve it. Often, a tached, with no suggestion of its origin-' invaded my person can even makeaccurat€ judgments He knewth't the cu rious sensations he was havingwere notsimplydue to the cake: senses, some- aboutwhata word sounds like or how lonS it is, yetsrillbe unable to retriere it- Here is itwasn'ttharthe cake wasso delicious that thing isolated, a situation in which weare conscious that itcould be causingthose strange experi- thar it was connect€d with detached, with no o!r memory is providinga Sreat dealof in- ences. l sensed suggestion of its formation abouta word, but not conscious the taste ofthe tea and the cake, butthat it ness of th€ word itself. infinit€ly transcended those savours, could origin; k is almost taken for gnnted in tradi not, indeed, be ofthesame nature.'lnstead, tionalaccounts of memory that remember- he imm€diately attributed the sensations to ing is accompanied bya sense or exp€rience memory: he knewthat a memorywas try- ofrhe past, and ako that the act of remem ing to force its way into his consciousness. bering is accompanied bya conscious f€€ling Eventually hewasable to draw the memory ofawareness ofthe past. ln fact, this simpl€ out into consciousness and was tmns- view allowed psychologists to ignor€ con- ported back toan occasion in his youth sciousness, which for manyyears during the when his grandmother had given him a behaviourist era ofthe l940sand 1950s piece ofthe same cake. This simple event Ms virtually taboo as a subiect of study. happening late in th€ hero's life, summoned But renewed interest in conscious phenom- up lonS-lost memories of the utmostvivid- ena, togetherwith new experimental t€ch niques, h,/e made consciousness afloLrrish- The centralquestion that has motivated ing research topic. A new p€rspective has recent r€search iswhether the relationship emerged on the role consciousness plays in between con$ious experience and our b€ha/iourwhich is leading cognitiv€ memory is as simple as is usually thought. SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 t3

Are we always aware that would if you had not read that word previ- beringl Psychologists and neurologists have ously. Although you cannot consciously re- been intrigu€d to discdersome circum- member the word, it has leftbehind some stances in which awar€ness of r€memb€r- record in your mind. ing can happen without the rerievalof any Psychologists have now invemed a vari- actual memory, as, for example, in Proust's ety ofsuch implicit memory tests. For in- case, and some in which memories appear stance, ifaword is flashed in frontofyou to be able to express themselves in theab forabout0.035 seconds, it willbe difficult sence ofawareness. Thus rhe apparently in- to name the rcrd, because the exposure timat€ relationship between the retriwalof duration isso short. But ifyou had read the m€mories, on the one hand, and the €on- word, say,24 hours previously, you lrould s€ious experience ofm€mory, on the be mu(h more likelyto name it. Asain, this other, can be broken. is an implicit memory test: th€ instructions Consider. forexample, peopl€ who can do not require you to consciously rem€m retrieve information without being aware of ber any previous study€pisode. Your ability it. Neurologists have known for manyyears to say the rightword indicates that a prior that patients with damage to the temporal episode can influence future behaviour lobes ofthe brain can lose their memory. Such patients are typically unable More traditional memory tests are ex, consciously to recall even recent events- plicit because theydo require the person to One patient,'H.M.', was subjected to scores consciously remember a priorepisode. The of psychological tests on consecutive days. most common ofallmemory rests, free re We appear to By the second day he had usua lly forgotten call, is typicalofthis: some time after read- 'know'far more everythingabout the tests,and could not inSa list ofwords, th€ person isasked to remember seeins th€m before. remember the words they saw previously. than we Yet at the same time,amnesiac pati€nts Another commonly used o(plicit memory consciously such as H.14.ar€ clearly influenced byun- test is recognition. Her€, sev€ralwords are report. €onscious m€mories of pastewnts. For€x- present€d and the person is asked ample, when amnesiacs read a lisrof. ords, consciously to rememb€r which of them including, say, the word 'reed', and are later they had seen errlier. ask€d to remember thosewords, they have So results from implicit tests show that great difficulty doingso. But ifthey ar€ memory/and€onsciousnesscan.eadilybe asked iDstead to spellthe spok€n word, sepanted. Sev€ral researchers have claimed theywillbe mor€ likelyto spellit as'r€ed' that such findings provide evidence for dis- rather than the more common 'read'. The tinct memorysystems in the brain. One of word is in memoryto the extent that it in- the most forcefulproponents ofthis view is fluen€es theirspelling, but is unavailable for Dan iel Schacter of Harvard Universit/. He believes thatquite different memory sys- Memories that rewalthemselves in th€ tems ofthe brain underli€ performance on absence ofawareness hav€ been terme.l explicitand implicittests, and that th€ con 'implicit memori€s'. and the studyofthe scious experienc€ of memory isassociated implicit m€mory has become particularly in- with only one of those systems, the explicit terestingto psychologists. ln many situa- one. The strongest reason for supposing tions. 'normal' people who cannor con- there are two independent systems com€s sciously recoll€ctan event can be shown from the discde.y that a variety of factors nonetheless to retain some unconscious have very differ€nt effects on performance tace of that evenc We appear to'know in explicit and implicir memorytests. far more than we can conscioudy report. Some of the majoreEmples ofth€se lmaSine that in a psycholo$/ €xperiment factors are worth considering, b€cause they you are shown a list of ,,rcrds (this is called show that many of the cherished genenlisa- the'study' list) thatincludes, for example, tions about memory that psychologists hre the word 'mystery'- The stud/episode is held to be correct are talse. For a start, it follo',,v€d som€ w€€ks later by a test- lt is has b€en known for many years that unlikely thatyou would then be able to r+ memory for pictures is betterthan member many ofthe 'aords. But if you memoryfo. words when explicit memory were, inst€ad, shown the word fragment testsare used. Subjects can recalla larg€ _ys_eJ', and simplyask€d to complete number ofobjects bett€r ifshown pictures this fragment, you are mor€ lik€lyto pro, ofthe ob,ects rather than a list ofthe du€e myst€ry'asa completion than you names of the obiecrs. For instance, it is t6 SYNAPSiA SUMMER 1993 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WORLD CHESS CHAT'IPIONSHIPS I With the World Chess Championship currently in full swing in I London, Gll Raymond Keene OBE lBC 275l takes a look at the history oI this challenging mind sport.

The Unollioial Champions London to coincidewith the Great Exhibi' Before the officialtitle of \ /orld Champion tion held in Hyde Park thatyear. Partici- was inaugurated in 1886 there rere a pants in(luded Wyvill, Williams and Staun numb€r of playerswho could justly claim to ton himself, but the German playerAdolf be the strongest in the world, although Anderssen was the clearwinner. there was not yet a formal championship. Seven years laterwhen Paull4orphy, the The encounters betreen the Frenchman undisputed Ameri€an champion, arrived in La Bourdonnais and l'4cDonn€ll, who was Europe, he souSht matches againstthe lead- lrish. wer€ too diffuse to be seen as a real ing continental players and roundlybeat prototype for the modern title matches, al Anderssen in a match played in Pa.is. though in the y€ar of I834 the two played ln thesame year, Staunton, perhaps the no fewer than 88 games. The eventual score first unofficial. orld champion, met Mor was 44 wins to La Bourdonnais and 30 to phy.lt was only a consu ltation game but McDonnell, with l4 draws. Their play was ther€ is no doubt, given the €rushing nature notablefor energy and ferocity mther than of Morphy s victory, thatthe art and sci- HMtd stountoh Nlgel Shont greo. ence of chess had moved on consid€rably Thefirst match which €losely resembled since Staunton s domination ofthegame in t843. Somewhat su rprisingly, it is the French the Staunton-St who are now most busily engag€d in creat- inga memorialto thegreatest English play- Paris in 1843, er before the advent of NigelShort. Staun- ton (played byJames wilby, of Howards an Englishman, End and Lady Chatterleyfame) willbe the subiectofa French film Echec (looselyto be translated as checkmate) set in Fnnce in player in the the 1840s. Charlotte Rampline is the female

Anderssen had established himself at London in l85l as,de focto, the greatestliv ing master.ln 1858, though, Anderssen lost a match to Morphy, butwhen Morphy re- tired pr€matur€ly Anderssen on€e again ln l85l the in was regard€d as the man to beat. The next turningpoantwas the fascinating €lash be- fatigable Staunton tw€€n Anderssen and Steinitzin London in t866. Th€re have been claims that SteiniEi tenure of the World Championship truly dates back tothis match.ltwould, howryer, SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 t7

have been undiplomatic, to say the least, to shifting pragmatism of taskert style, a style claim to be'World Champion'while Mor possessed of such flexibilityand resilience phy lived, eve. though he Ms inactiw. Mor that itMs to maintain Lasker's grip on rhe

phy died in I 884, having spent the last two supreme title until l92l , when he was de- d€cades of his life immersed in depression. feated by the Cubangenius Capablan€a. However, when Lask€rand Capablanca had

The Advent ot the Official first clashed at St Petersbu r8 in I 9 I 4, Lask World Championship ilatch er Proved rhe stronSer. During the I 880s and I o- hannes Zukertort had emerged as clearly Kasparov'6 Chess ldol superior to all of their contemporaries. has often stated that Both of them claimed to be the strongest is his chess hero. Their player in a series resemblance is see. 1 the world- After of bitter stylistic clearto Both v€rbalexchanges the two men finally metat love combinations and the attack, thouSh in the chessboard to resolve their conflict. 1927. when Alekhine had to face the virtu- Steinitzscor€d a decisiye victory with ten ally anvincible Capablanca for the \ /orld wins to ZukertorCs five. Championship, he curbed h is hatural predi- The outstanding match€s in the history lections in orderto become a super strate, of the World Chess Championship have, by gist. Kasparov had to learn the same lesson 8en€ral cons€nt, been thos€ which €xhib- when strugSling against Karpov six decades ited a fierce contrast in the playingstyl€ of the two protagonists. At the very dawn of From 1927 until 1946 (with a two-year recosnised world championship play in gap after his def€atin the firstmatch against 1886 the fiery imagination and tacti€al ars- Euwe) the senius Al€xand€r Alekh ine held enaloflohannesZukertort,althoughmeet- sway over the €hess world. Alekhine had a Nuondet Alekhine, shan K*pdtov h6s ing with initial resound ing successes, ulti style so multi-fa€eted olen cned 6 his des he.o mately foundered on the rock hard strate- gic logic ofthe new scientific schoolpro- match Capablanca in pounded byWilh€lm Steinitz. After a seri€s the Cuban champion's of fascinating games Steinitzwas declared own blen.lof tren.h the first officialchess champion ofthe warfare and victory by

The newchampion held the titl€ un- less. Al€khin€ was far til 1894, when he losta match to the rising more at home in the German star Emanueltasker. Asecond de-

feat at Lasker's hands in I 896 was, perhaps, mel6es which charac- a partaalcause ofSteinitz s sufferinga nerv' ous br€akdown, from which he neverfully matches from 1929 recovered. He died in a state of poverry as a until 1937 aSainst Bo public Mrd of the Cityof NewYork in goljubow and Euwe. t900_ Duringthe 1950s Steiniewas the chief promoter ofthe chess was dominated 'llodern schoolof chess, a system which by the Soviet School, reje€ted the pyrotechnics of sacrifices aod exemplified by Bowin- combinations, concentrating inst€ad on po- nik and Smyslov, play- sitional play aimed at the accumulation of smail advantages. YetSteinitz, too, was to that their games \a€re meet his master eventually in the shape of hardly distinguishable Emanuel L:sker. For allhis strateSicskill Steinirz could not copewith the slippe.y was not unril 1960,

World Championship Match, Holland 1937

I 2 3 4 5 6 7 I9 I0 II l2l3l4 15 1617 18192021228A25 Tbtal Afekhine 01y,y'0 | 11y, 1y,y,ol y, y,0 y,f,fzll y, l I lsy, Euwe | 0 yz y, 1 0 0 0 % 0 y,y, l0 y, y, 1. y,y, y,0 o y,0 o 9y, t8 SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

wh€n the vibrant young tawian l'likhailTal A Western World Champion inflicted a crushing defeat on Mikhail Although Petrosian narrowly succeeded in Bowinnik, that the stylisticclash to be defendingthe title in against BorisSpassky found at the core of g.eat matches onc€ in 1966, h€ €ventually relinquished itto again b€cam€ truly visible. Bowinniks Spassky in 1969. Spassky in turn was Olympian calm was repeatedly shatte.ed by usurped by th€ unpr€dictable American the Napoleonic force of th€ young Tal: Bobby Fischerin atitanic match in R€ykiavik theirgam€s were replete with grand stEte 1972. Spassky was an adventurous attacker. gi! designs occasionally triumphin& but His play was very much in the mould ofTal more often collapsing under the vari€8ated and Alekhine, y€t in Fischer hesuccumbed assiu lt of tempestuous tactical sorties. For to the prophet of heroic mrterialism. Fisch connoisseurs, th€ two mat€h€s between er was a chess superman who rculd snatch Bowinnikand Talin l960and l96l repre materialin a fashion thatmight have seemed s€nted some of the most bloodthirstyand sordid in a lesser player, only to r€lease itat exciting chess seen at!\lorld championship the appropriate moment for otemhelminS lel€|. Although he was defeated in the first advantages in terms ofthe initiativ€, mobil- match Bowinnik, employing subtl€ psychol- ity and striking power. lt was a tragedy for ogy, triumphed in thesecond, explojting the world of chess that Fischer ceded the Tal's dislike of simplification and the title by defau h to in I 975 and did not playa single serious tournament l'4ikhailBorvinnik had won th€ V,6dd or match game forthe two decades from Championship in 1948, finishingahead of 1972 to 1997. Smyslov, Resheysky, K€resand Eu,,rc in the quintrnSular match tournament held to de- The Greatest Rivalry Mlkhdilfd,6endEr.i of RiEo ond 6n termine the new champion afterAlekhine After successflrlly defending the title twice dw dr mens unusudJ er@prion ro t r had died in possession ofthe title. During against the Soviet defectorViktor Korch- the 1950s and noi, Karpov had to face a fresh challens€ in

early I 950s 1984 from Garry Kasparov, whose rise to Bowinnik had to challenger status had been nothing less than fight off chall€nges meteori€. Theirfirst match ended in con- from MikhailTal, troversial circu mstances when the FIDE as rellas David President Floren(io Campomanes stopped the match after more th3n five months'play Smyslov and Ti claiming exhasstion on the partofcontes- tants and organisers. Kasparov disputed this decision vehemently and a€rused Campo' Bowinnik in i 954, man€s of cominSto Karpov'said justwhen Kasparov was lookingas ifhe mightsnatch onship in 1957 but victoryfrom the jaws of defeat. This injus- tic€ must have spurred Kasparov to greater efforts in his assaulton the down. for in the return match in 1985 he seized the title in dramatic fashion to become the youngest World Champion in history. Sinc€ 1985 Kasparov has succ€ssfully defended againsr Botvin nik, only to Karpov on thr€e occasions, most recendy in the 1990 match, splitbetween New York and Lyons. The appar€nt narrowness of Kasparov's margin ofvictory is illusory. Kasparov had the match wrapped up by ally and definitively game22, but slipped back to lose game 23 after he had alr€adydecided the contest in his fa\our. After this match Karpov was de- feated by Nig€lShort in the elimination cy- tim€ Bowinnikdid cle and th€ challenger baton was passed to not hav€ the riSht the young Englishman. Can Nigelmake his- tory by defeating Kasparovand become the fourteenth official World Champion? SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 t9

AMAZING METORY STORIES The Dominic ol His Day

Chess and llemory subsequently confirm€d thatall the Paul l'4orphy, one oftheSreatworld chess reconstructions he had made w€re exact. champions, was born in New Orleans in Th€ remarkable skill that Morphy exhib- When it was 1837 and developed an exceptional talent it€d is an example of a tal€nt thar can be de- realised that from an early age - at I 3 he was already es- velop€d in every memory - the ability to t:blished as one ofAmerica's leading play, retri€ve in detail the most complex of records of over ers. H€ came to Europe in 1858 and, to ev, memory €vents, even thos€ which may ap- 4OO of his games €rybody's surprise, defeated the cream of pear to hav€ been lost forever, but which had been lost, European chess: Liiw€nthal, HarrwiE and the remarkable brain retains p€rfectly. Morphy simply And€rssen w€re all overwh€lmed in matches over a six-month period. Synopsio invites readers to submir th€ir own sat down and florphywasable to reach these astro- amazing memory stories for publication in wrote out the lot! nomical heights in chess with relatively linl€ traditional-styl€ study of the game, because he was able to depend upon a naturally studied and developed ability to make im- ages and to translate this into an astonish- ingly pow€rfulmemory. Like Bidder, H€i- necken, Masliabechi, and others befor€ him, l'4orphy used the bas€ of his knowledg€ to eytend himselfinto other fi€lds, acquirinS on his way to the world chess champion- ship. fourdiffer€nt languages and a degree

Morphyalso distinsuished himself in an- other extraordinary mental memory field: blindfold chess. f4orphy d€v€loped this skill co play many simultaneous gam€s blind folded - a mentalt€stwhich requiresa per- fect recallof ever/ new position in every si- multaneousgam€. He also applied his memory to law and could reciteverbatim most of th€ Civil Law Code of Louisiana. tu his fame spread, so did knowl€dge of his claim that he could rememberthe mo\€s of every championsh ip game he had ev€r played in his life. People stopp€d atthis claim, butitwas not putto the test. Then one day itwas realised that records of over 4O0 of his gam€s had been lost, so Morphy simplysat down and wrot€ outthe lotlHis opponents and r€f€rees of the gam€s

PaulMotpht, dft ptide ond sotw of Paris 1858

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I 9 1011 Tbtal Morphy 0 v, 1L 11 1 % 1 01 8 Anderssen 1%00000%010 3 20 SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

ANIMAL II{TELLIGENCE Pet Power!

Raise Your lntelligence, Md yesst k nu.h morc sinilot than was Lower Your Blood Pressure - ttouElL tt hss proved possibte for defectiye Buy a Pet! Wost ce s to be corrc.ted W the intodudion of Warwick Anderson, ofthe Baker l4€dical humdn DNA into their s) ternsl - Ed) Says An- Research lnstitute in Melbourne, has p.o derson, commenting on whatwould happen duced the best evidence so far that pets are if a d rug was available thata€hieved such ex- sood for your mental(and physical) health. traordinary r€sults: 'that drug.,rould be And€rson €xamined 5,741 people aged be hailed as a maior breakthrouSh.' 'There is obviously tw€en 20 and 60,784 ofthem pet-owners, some deep form byofferingthem free health risk evalua- llore Bugs in the System of communication The British Small Animal Vet€rinary Asso- Pet-owners turned out to be less ciation report that more and more people going on between stressed mentally,and to have siSnificantly now prefer the companionship ofspiders, animal and human lower levels of cholesterol and triglyc- beetles. bufterflies and stick insects to the synapses.' erides, as.,!ellas having lorer blood pres more 'traditional cats and dogs. sure. The differences rere similaracross Reasons given for the Epidly risingnew groups who dieted diff€rently, or who w€re trend includ€ the factthatthe insects'be in different socio-economic cateSories. haviour is much more complo( and inter The difference is impressive saysJames esting than had previouslybeen thought, Serpell of theCompanionAnimal Research and that some form ofmental rapport Group at Cambridge. Serpellsays the dif- does seem to grow between pet and ference is'stronger than improvements found in comparabl€ studies on people who l''1ary Branca, president of the society, have switched to vegetarian diets or taken confirms that ins€cts can b€ quit€ selective, up exercise proSrammes.' and will'allowa person who normally looks As most problems with health tend to after them to do things lik€ pickingthem up stem from the use of the brain,there is ob- and handlins them, that they would not let a viously some deep form ofcommuni€ation stranSerdo. You do geta rapponwith the goingon between animaland human sy- insect, and it is more exciting togeta rap- napses (A re.enr BBCz progdmme, Crc.king pon with an invertabrat€.' the Code, .ost liglt o^ sone resent reseorcJr into genetics \4l1icl1 pon els thi. it seems il,ot Record-Breaking Polly DNA from dtf€reit specter € €. hunon, Mns The Young lelegroph repons that the most talkativ€ pet bird was an African Srey par- rot nam€d Prudl€. The prattlinS polly knew nearly 800 words! Mowgli

Synopsio looks forward to read€rs' opinions on tfi€ relative m€ntalskjlls of their pets! SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 2t

INTELLIGENCE ABOUT INTELLIGENCE Brick-brains and Feather-brains

ls Size lmportant? animals. Althosgh reptiles are as small, For centuriesscientists have arSued over brained now as they were in prehistoric whether the size of a person's brain is times, n€arly200 million years a8o there Iinked to their intelligence. The conven was agreat l€ap forward in relative brain taonalview is that the quality rather than siz€ with the evolution ofthe early mam, quantity of brain tissu€ explains differences mals, who rere four or five times bminier in antellect, butthis orrhodoxy is currently than the average reptile. This increase can being chalienSed by t',ro groups of inde- largely be explained bytheapp€arance of pendent .esearchers, oneat the Uni!€rsity the cerebral cort€x, a thin layerofcells Using IQ as a of low" coll€ge of medi€ine, and the other coE.ingthe forebrain which is responsible measure of the atthe University ofWestern Ontario, using for allconscious thought.The cortex is different and high-tech electro-magnetic body scanners. unique to mammals and cannot be found in The lowa team, headed by psychiatry birds, which evolved only shonly after complex aspects professor Nan€y Andreasen, took a sample mammals and with an equivalentbrain size. of intelligence 'is of 17 men and l0 women with an eerage Forat leastanother 100 million years the like trying to age of3Sand an avenSe lQ of I 16, and dis- mammalian brain remain€d roughly the measure tovered that up to a third of the nriations same relative size, butther it began to ex- electrons using a in lQ scores could be explained by the size Pand with the evolution ofmodern mam- of the brain or its sub-regions: 'There is a mals. Not all mammals were equally af- 12in ruler.' modest but statistically signif icant relation fected by thisiump - insectivoresand some betw€€n intellig€nce, as measured bythe marsupiak retain around the same brain-to standard lQ t€st, and the volume of brain body ratios as th€ archai€ mammals. structur€s, regionsand tissue. The larger Allowingfor bodysize, human brains are the brain, th€ haSher the lQ.'Although their arouDd six times larSer than the averaSe results have been reproduced in two subs€- mammal (as are some cetaceans, such as quent unpublished srudies, Andreasen and dolph ins), whereas monkeys' brains are her colleagues remain cautious of their only two orthree tim€s larg€r than the findings, and suggest that other factors are mammalian . However, the mostsig- also important in determining intelligence. nificantadmnc€ is notthe increase in brain l4eanwhile in Ontario, resear€hers have size in itself, butth€ de!€lopmentof the been carrying out similar tests on groups of cortex,which occupies 70 to 80 per cent of women, and have discovered thatthe'r brain siz€s are more related to verbalskills tt/t--/^, than spatialability. This controErsial find- ing fuels the age-old'natur€ versus nurture' /,./ Li /--'\D \' debate. Howe!€r, som€ psychologists are -- highly sc€pticalof att€mpts to link sex dif 'E)\\*il\ ferences and intellig€nce. Accordingto He l€n Haste of the University of Bath, using lQ as a measure ofthe diferentand com- plex aspects of intelligence k lik€ trying to measure electrons usinga l2in ruler.' this circuitry Bird-brains, Hare-brains and which distin- Human-brains ^K(M Wheth€r one a€cepts that there isa rela- tionship b€ttteen brain siz€ and human in- lowing a unique tellig€nce or not, it is cl€arthatbrain size cogn itiYe ability as (relativ€ to bodysize) isoneofthe major rellasahiShlyde factors which distinguishes humans from other mammak. and mammalsfrom other languaSe. SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993

PROOF OR GUESSWORI(? Last month Synapsia reported how a centuries-old mathematical conundrum had been solyed. Wilt Hey uncovers the remarkable background to Felmat's Last fheorem.

Thc Prince of Amateurs 'You know, l didn't trust you fellows; in the Pierre de Fermat, a seventeenth-century middl€ ofth€ night lSotup, took my third lawy€r, €arned his i€putation amongst ofthe pile and hid it.As lreturned a mon- mathematicians as'the Prin€e of Amateurs'; key started makinga racket, so lthr€wa and made important discoveries in his fa- coconutat him from the r€maind€r ofthe vourite field, Diophantine analysis. Dio- pile to scare him away.' phantuswas a mathematician in th€ €arly Another said 'l was aboutto confess ex- Christian eri (circa the third century, actly the sam€ thing!l. onderwhether I thouSh his datesare notknown €xactly) awok€ beforeyou, and tooka largershare, who posed and solved mathematical prob- or after you and got a smaller share.' lems that involve onlywhole numbers. You 'ldid the same thing too!'said the final may think that problems are simplified man,'kseems that we alltried to when you can ignore decimalsand frac- ealh other. lwonder if we allsav/ the same wilf Hey lBC A54l tions, butinstead you willfind awhole new monkey? lfso he madeoffwith thre€ co- is disk editor of PC - and differ€nt - complexity. conuts foran easy night's work.' Prus - a best-selling Here are a few problems that involve Itwould be unfair of me toask how British computer workins with ',.hole numbers alone - to many coconuts w€re in the originalpile, magazine. He also Sive you an idea ofthe difierent kindsof wouldn't itl There are actually many possi- appears in PC thinking and figuringthat must 80 on. The bl€ answ€rs; iustSive me the lMst trc. An6wers la sister answers (',.ithout the working out) are magazinel and Yirus given atthe end ofthis article. How Fermat Discovered the News ,ntenational I Nrme the smallest number which is Theoaem la specialist twice a squar€ number, three times a cube, Fermat owned a copy of BacheCs Arnhmeti- compuler security and fivetim€s a fifth pow€r. (25 - which is co (translated from theworks of Diophan maEazinel. 5 x 5 - is an €xample ofa square number; tus),a book replete with problems created and32-7x2\2x2 and solved by that mathematician ofthe an- x 2 - is an example of ci€ntworld. One pag€ is devoted to the a fifth pow€r.) task of 'dividing a given square number into 2. Three men w€re two squarei, which is significant because the square root of these three square num- berswillbesides ofa right angl€d triangle. spent their first day For €xample, 169 is the square of l3; itcan b€ split into 25 + I 44, each of which is also and by nighdall had a square (25 is s x s; 144 is l2x l2).The thre€ numbers 5, l2 and l3 may ind€€d be Iarg€ pil€. before fall- the lenSth of threesides ofa right-angled ing asleep exhausted. trianSle. This page gaw the method Dio- ln the morning when phantus had found to splitsquar€s like this (when they can be splitlike this, that isl). vided the pile equally Fermat had the thinker's habit ofwriting notes in the margins ofbooks;and afterhis fractions, remember! death in 1655, a libra.ian who inherited his One of them booksfound a note on this panicular page, written in Fermat's tiny neat !€tters: SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 23

'On the other hand it is impossible to sepa- rate a cube into two cubes ora biquadrate into two biquadrates, or gen€rally any pow€r except a square into two powers FERTAT'S IAST THEORET with th€ same exponenl I have discovered a truly marvellous proofofthis, which how- ever the margin is not large enouSh to con- lf x is a whole number larger than two tain.' Ev€r since, both professionaland ama- teur mathematicians have called this'Fer- and o, b and c are all whole numbers matt tastTheorem', and have campaigned larger for wider margins in books designed for than zero, then the equation ownership by minds ofgenius class. Let's expr€ss the theorem in symbolic a'* b'= c*

'The equation a'+ b'= C has no whole- has no soiution. number solotions where x isgreater than

By the way, this should not be confused with'FermaCs Theorem'. which states that Most ofthe mathematical world was ea- 'if x is prime any integer not divided bythe ger to Prove Fermat right- or wrons. The p, then x" - I is exactly divisibl€ by p'. we genius C FGauss scorned the search, de- wont go into this now, but be assured that €laringthat it was an unimportantwild this is a cornerstone of numbertheory, and goose chaseibut thiswas onlyafter h€ had extr€mely important in thefield of fa€tor- sPent an unsuccessful summe. tryinS to inSvery large numbers - vit lin modern prove or disprove it.The first fewon- cryPtosraPhy- slaughts found proof that Fermat was right Nor would it be right to think thar Fer- abour.ertain numbers; in his little formula, mats LastTheorem was an entirely new x could notbe 3 or 4. (ltwas Leonard Euler concePt; the Arab mathematicians pre- who proved this - while tryingto disprov€ ceded Fermat by sewn centuries, maintain- Fermat's idea. Euler's name was pro- ing thata'+ b'= c'has no solution. Fermat nou nced 'Oiler' and his generalattirude to- was the first to say that there was a proof wards others earned him the nickname thatxcould never be greater than two. among English academics of'Eulerthe Spoil- 'On the other er'.) Then came the famous F Lindemann - hand it is Early Attempt€ the man who single-handedly had demon- impossible to Fermat had a Sreat r€putation. Puttingthe strated that Piwas transcendental. He pub- lastTh€orem to one side, he never mistak- lished the'marvellous proof that Fermat separate a cube €nly claimed that he had a proof;you could had left unpublished. Unfortunar€ly, rhere into two cubes or relyon Pierre to be thorough and correct. was an embarrassingly simpl€ flawseveral a biquadrate into ln fact, €v€n most ofhisguesses (conjec, pages into his paper - and much to his cha- tures'in mathematica I term inoJogy) two biquadrates. were Srin itwas found not by another acknowl- generally corre€t. Once he stated that h€ thought edged Senius but by a localmerchant- a or any numb€rs of the form 2^+ I (where n itself power except a was ofthe form 2) were rllprimes- Hewas ln 1857 E E Kummer had proven thatx square into two proved wrong there are exceptions but, - - could be no numberaboE 2 and under l0l powers with the strangely enouSh, this actually enhanced his - except possibly 37,59 and 67, and this reputation, in viewof th€ fact that hewas feat earned him agold medalfrom the same exponent. I carefulnot to overstate his beliel Academie Francais. Note that we are now have discovered But when th€ restoftheworld heard dealing with numbers that most ordinary a truly marvellous about the LastTheorem, Fermatwas al- €itizens would regard as bigj 2r1is over 137 proof ready dead. Apparently he didn'tfind a billion. and that is the smallest numberthar of this. !4,ide enouSh margin anywhere, orfor some could appear in a co'rnter-proof, showing which however other reason never got around to recordinf Fermatto bewrong. ln 1883 the Brussels the margin is not thas proot k is wrong to callit atheorem Academie declared no winner in a competi- large enough to untilit is a€tually prov€d - and w€ only have tion toadvancethis proof. Then Dr F P this little note in th€ marSin to tell us that it Wolfskhel bequeathed one hundred thou, contain.' deservEs that name. That is. untilaf* sand marks for a complete proof in 1908. 24 SYNAPSiA SU MMER 1993

the non whasefonous LIEoten h6 defe.red cenerc.jons of

hene de Femot ( I 40 I t 665). (Coutusr ofthe Mory Ev66

Although thisaftracted a lotof competition amateurusinSa ream ofpaper to find a (especially among s€hoolboys and counterproof. (lncidentally, if x were found crackpots) the prize was not won- to be anyth ing over than 300, allthree num- Step-by-step over the years, proofs bers in the sum would be greater than the w;re found that excluded even 17,59 and number ofsub-atomic panicles in the uni- 67 - then allnumbers below 7000. Soon the low€r limit forxwas raised to the dizy k looked more and more as if Fermat ing number 251,747,880 - certainly beyond was ri8ht, but nobodyelsewas able to un- the rea€h ofthe most dedicated schoolboy cover'his truly marvellous proof'. As time SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 75

w€nt on, and Fermarbecam€ a historical headlin€s, he €almly demonstrated the re- figure, a newgeneration of mathemati€ians sult ofhis resear€hes. Borrowing a nine- was born, and somebody dared sugg€st that teenth-century mathematjcal technique Fermat had made a luckyguess, butdidn't that had been allbut forgotten, he was abte to reason that the 'number' of semistable Tw€ntieth-c€ntury mathematicians con elliptic curves is the same asthe'number'of tinued the search. but had to contentth€m a specialkind ofshape in the hyperbolic selves with panialproof, excludinS more plane. (l say 'number' be€ause there are an and more numbers.ln 1932 C M Walsh infinityofthem - but it is the same kind of published a n€w attempt to prove Fermat infinity, so th€y can be matched one-for- right but he knew his work had flaws in it. one: go see your Friendly Neighbourhood W\,r'Rouse Bullsaid'Merenumericalwri, Mathematician againl) lt was already clear fications hare little r?lue- no one doubts rhe that each ofthes€ specialshapes muld be ruth ofthe theorem, and its interest lies in able to make a semistable elliptic curve, the fact that we have not y€r succeeded in therefore. The audience of academics obtaininga rigorous demonstration of it' Sasped about twenty s€conds before Wites (tAothemoticol Reoeotbns ond ksoys, announced ie Taniyama's conjecture was |1a€millan, I939). proven correct which meant that ln 1954 a number theorist bythe name FermaCs tastTheorem must be true! of Yutaka Taniyama conjectur€d that for vve must note that mrthematicians (and cenain elliptic curves there are matching computert are even nowcombing over shapes in the hyperbolic plane. One musr Wilest proof:it is nora nice, simple one bear in mind that every curve and every that you could find in any marSin, however shape thatyou can imasine (and even more big;and involv€s concepts nev€r imagined by thatyou can't) has an equation which can mathematicians in Fermat's day. Butevery- be us€d to describe it. Descartes developed body in theworld ofmathemati€s remem afo.m of geomery (known as cartesian) bers the red face of Lindemann. LesJeux sonr thatyou may remember from school, fdits, and there are no more bets; but no- whereby algebraic statements could be body is willingto say anythinS ex€epr that seen a shapes on a graph- This is an exten Fermat's Last Theorem is probobt con- sion of that idea - buton€ musr appreciate that Taniyama's elliptic curves involved Douglas Hofstadter, in his award-winn- whole numbers, and that the hyperbolic inAhookcade| Es

THE IONIAN

Contemporary society is be€omingan ever and unlike almost anything you get these more complex place to live. The remark days, it comes without instructions (not able tech nological dewlopments over the even inlapanese). Thus re are, in the main, last twentyor so years have Siven blrth to reduced to rrialand error to discover how an unparalleled information exPlosion. New we.,n make best lse of olr awesome avenues and opportunities have been mental abilities. What we need is aguide opened up for allofus. We have coundess .hir relk us howto utilise this most valu possibilities for acquiring information: able asset to the fuLl. Thisguide is ft€ l4i'd newspapers, magazines, journals, books, TV /Yop Sooki a techn ical manual for the brain. channeh, teletext, etc- In order to cope Virrually 100% of the time, information with life's increasinS complexity, re are that is presented to us arrives in a linear also expected to take on board many new form: lines of text, rows offigu.es,lists of skills, as is mostapparent in thejob market. insftu.tions et. This is the mode re have Being, for example, a secretary is often no .hosen to thnsmit ideas to ea.h other. Un longerenough. You may, perhaps, be ex- fortunately the brain is less than impressed pected to ha/e knowledge ofthe latest sofc- by such methods and is much happierat ware packages, aforeign language, Person dealingwith imagery than dry collections of nel management, experience of account- textand figures. Therefore this mode of ancy and so on. AcquirinS such newskills presentation isaturn-off and consequently means takinR on board yet more informa- the brain struggles to cope. This can easily be verified bya simple experiment. Wrlte Allthis serves to make life mor€ inter- down aten diSit number and tryto commit esting but it does bring its own Problems; it to memory in such a way that you are how are we to cope with the morass of sure you willstillknow it in a week's time. data that bombards our brains on a daily ba- Not so easy.ln contrast,look at a picture sisi Giwn the limited amountoftime that forjusta fewseconds. The chances are we have to dealwith any proiect, how are that, in a reekt time, and withoutewn try- we supposed to accu mu late, assimilate and ing, you willbeable to recallan extmordi ttind mapping is a most importantly, process this information? nary amount ot data concerningthe ima8e. Gornerstone of Tony We do, ofcourse, have perfectly satisfac- The brain's extraordinary abilityat deal- Bu:an's technique tory methods for holding simple (actual ing with imagery is backed up bya fascinat- lor using the brain to data: diaries, f ilofaxes, electronic organis- ing experiment, reported in the I 970s in its lull potential. ers, computers, backs ofenveloPes and so Scierltiir Amedtan, and quoted in lhe /yind Having struck upon on. ldeal for storage purposes butsadly in' ,1dp 8ook. The experimentwas €arried out the concept in ihe adequate for the task of processing data, by Ralph Haber, who show€d his subjects a early seventies, he except in the mostbasicand linear form. series of2560 photograPhic slides, Present has continuously What we really need is asuper supercom- ing one image e!€ry ten seconds. This vie* retined and puter, a machine capable of taking on board i.gwas carried out over a period of several developed this almosr limitless amounts of data, maintain- days and after the lastslide had been theme. Now he has ing perfect recallof it, with theabilityto re- shown, the subie€ts were test€d for recog written a book about trlew and manipulate anyof itata it. Byron Jacobs, moment's nori€e. Fortunately, thanks to an The recognition was carried outasfol editor of Syrapsia, inspir€d piece ofdesign work,we have all lows: each person was shown 2560 pairs of reviews. been gi\€n one the brain. Unfortunately, slides, one from the series they had se€n, SYNAPSIA SUIAMER 1993

a nind noF dout uind Moppins, tlken ftan U.. rou. M.notr, .ho publshett

while che ocher was from a similar. unseen imaSery and colour as vjrual srimulanls, rhe The Mind Mop Eook Rodiont ser. on averag€, rhe accuracy of recoSnition l'lind llapping t€chnique addresses rhe Ih,nk,ng, by Tony Buzan was 95%. Haber rhen crrried out a second brain in the language it responds ro best and Barry Buz:n experiment to restthe ability ofrhe brain As wellas beinS a fascinarinS read, rhe (BBC {r6.99). to recognise at speed. The set up wat rhe book also lookr great. There are hundreds rsBN 0 563 86373 8 same as before, but with one slide being of images, photographs and, ofcourse, shown every lecond. The resuhs were iden- Mind l1aps, many of thcm on colour plares. tical. l^ a third €xperimenr, again ai one per Even thc most image-hun8ry brain would be second- the slides were shown as mirror hard pressed ro objecr to this produccion! images. Again $€ rame resuks ensucd. Haber concluded that '-.. the recotnhion of pictures is essentially p€rfect. Th. results would probably hav€ b€en the same if we had used 25000 pictur€5 instead of 2500. To cash in on this abiliry we need a rech- nique that enables us to convert linear dara inlo visual imagery and thus make ir more accessible to the brain. llind Mapping is such a technjque, and The Mind MoP Boak it rhe definitive Suide of how to Eo about ir. Ihe M,nd Mop Book slans by exploring thc natural architecture and fundamcnral operation ofthe brain, thus providinS a !s€- ful framework for whac is to follow k con tin!es by explaining hov/ to harness and un, lcash the untapped power ofthe brain via this revolutionary mcrhod of accessing jn- telligence. Mind l1apping ofers exciring ways to use and imProve mcmory, concen- ralion and creaciviry and is thus ol rel- evance lo an/body opcrating in any situa- tion. The use of l'4ind M3pping in differenr contcxts is explored in chaprcrs on per- sonal, family, learning and busincss and pro-

A major bcnent of l'1ind MappinS is rhar it aliows the user ro expand and cxplore ideas while maintaining a €lenr tocus on rhe centraltheme. By incorporaring $e !se of 28 SYNAPS'A SUMMER 1993

Drawing is Natural tn this issue, Lorraine GilI continues her special oerieo on the art of teeing and the yisual alphabet. Follow her series, and learn both how to see and how to draw! Perspective that'look lik€ what they are s'posed to'. Perspective isa funnything. Genenlly it Coincid€ntally there isalso the perc€F means puftingthings in their place; getting tualfact thatour eyes are in constant ki- priorities righr For ou r ancestors who first neticassessment ofthe world about us, made marks, the main focus€s of'p€rsp€c- coding and de-lodingthe information from tive'w€re food, ferti'ity ind knowinSwhere ourenvironment by their analysis of the they w€reon the landscape. Thus we ha/e number of edges and l'ghtchanges which beautiful drNings ofanimals, stick fiSures perceptually are qi,{o/s in constant motion. Artist Lorraine Gill ofmalesand females and marks on stones At some time or other we haw allno- lBC 49l has denoting places and sasons. ticed, drivingin the €ar, that the road's already had ten one- Perspectiv€ changes according to when edges coN€rge into one pointon the hori woman att we are born and where. Over time, humans zon. Above this pointthe edges of the top! exhibitions and has began to simplify animal d r}wings into abs- of buildings or trees will appear to con- written two books! tract lines (an alphabet). With this code verge down\i€rds to this point. The edges The Nature oI more information could bewritten ontoa below will appear to converg€ up to this Perception and How smaller surface (clay tablets). This led,owr to Draw. the millenia, to measurements; more order DralyinS is simply lookingatand then ingand eventually to bureaucracy transcribing your looking knowledSe into and schoolinS, as more people settled into one area and organ Why notconsciously look for these'van- ised themselves into a society. ishing points'; they will be in line with your Drawinss and sculptures be eyes wherever you observe yourenviron- came advertis€ments for the ment. Sometimes they are hidden by ob- elders and Kings who won and ,ects but they are always 'there' and are lost battles. samilar to billboards part of you r 'alphabet of drawins'- abn today, adv€rtising to the p€ople. tract points in the distance bywhich to lmages gav€ perspective as a se- measure all obi€cts relat€d to them. quence of *ents,lake a comic- When you see a paintingwith three-di- book a story to be read ofthe m€nsionalspace, play the visualgame of actiYities of those in power. finding the vanishing point the artistem- Perspectave k€pt changing ployed which Sives th€ illusion ofdistance. and is still chan8in8. Mostofus After all, there is an alphabet to b€ read. stillsee artistic perspective as an Why not do the simpleexercises illus- illusion of three-d imensional trat€dlTheyare designed to help famil- space where thangs recede into iariseyour perception to horizon lines,van' the distance, b€coming smaller ashing points,and the lines which recede the farther they are away. into the distan€e! Simply draw on a blank Three-dim€nsional perspe€- pieceof paperthe same imag€s that are in- tive was an invention formulated cluded wlth this article, noticingas you by Brun€ll€schi, an architect who draw how the lines and vanishing pointgive lived duringthe ltalian Renais- you the impression ofdistanc€.ln the sance. H€ d€vised theformulaof fourth drawing, tryaddingsome real images lin€s receding into the distance such as trees, houses, or people, to make toavanishing point and today the persp€ctive even more'real'.ln the w€ stilluse this to drawthings next issuere shalltake this l€sson further. SYNAPSIA SUMMER 1993 79

I 2

Hc)RIZc)N VANISHING POINT

?q \\.^ LINES \ BECOMING \ c,o SMALLER IN THE DISTANCE

the king E deod. bng li€ dE qleen 30 SYNAPS'A SU MMER 1993

ANAMNEMONICKER

A Knight in omow fo s pushed ofrhis stor ry the mw of o cod. A ,"Eddnry rins Bounced off a coffin but o finget cought it A rcDiet donces owoy shinng A Uo.k F Oook is llung oside wh e tE onet Flogs hinself with nettles in o gorden. Irl An ignis fa.ui foce, pole, gry beorded, $ Pondets o tuft of pti',i'rcses. Too lalf' For the hoop of steel. Too lote fot the nightbnd o o HwrynE into the snore A .oryse in steel Toppled b/ drunkords, .sns fiom the foot of o cliff. A sulphut .ofrn, the crypt's condelobro, a. o Worms the wom whi.h seNes os doily brcod For the mole. A differcnt worn k dinnet To rhe cotp whkh sefles os hrightet shodow To the holf+essed snd holf-witted. A pon Ofsdmese Twins hunt w,th a pedi$ree Dochsh\nd. Whdt \4us o posspoh is o twist ofpoper Hiding a fiery poerr, ond the eeg of o bbry. Prison b s bend undet o ttunpet blost Blown W the nask of a blo.k krlight *4o butd!,e.s The tkC-finget with o honmet of nettles. A Pigeon vo'7|'its o I:b ond o virgin Hides her foce in a bible of fies. A doqEer Sldshes the oir oround its resti,ng ploce. Sudddtly cones o nun out of nothing. A rose devours itr€fond drops fogmenb. A dork horce brcods ooils egls in o more3 ,est It oI cones out in o nr,irrcL Even the dog Doshes from its kennel sni;fs ot o &ng Sleeping on flowus bewoiled W o laughingl]'omon A nouse

BRAIIII CLUB NEWS Dominant Dominic meels Layang Layang

Change of l{ame

As reported in the last issue of Synopsio a numberof people who have ioined have r€marked thattheywould hryeioined more readily had they realis€d the nature and aims ofthe Club. tn univ€rsity €irctes,James L€e has pione€red the use of 'Use Your Head' in the titles of grouPs or so.ieties with a similar aim to our ctub and fo owinsthis lead we have decid€d to adopt that nam€ oursel\€s. Thusfrom lstlanuary l994,The Brain Club willbe known as the UseYour Head Club.

Thames Valley Brain Cell World llemory Champions lteet The emory Elephant The first meeting of the Tham€s Valley Cellof the Brain club was held ae Rank Xerox. Parkway, Globe Park, A meeting of brains was held in th€ Elephant House at r4arlow, Bucks on 23rd September 1993. This meeting London Zoo on Monday,20th September 1993. the World Memory ChamPionshiP held in coincided with th€ Period when this magazine was being Following prinred, but re hoPe to carry a repon in Lhe nexi issue London recently, adistinsuish€d group of memory t4earwhile, anyone who is inter€sted in dev€loPingand champions, authors and expens on the brain cam€ €xploringtheir mentalskills €an contactThe Brain Club together to meet iryong Lolorg. At the meeting Layang l'4emory ElePhant'on at PO Box I 82 I , l'4arlow, Bucks SL7 2YW (tel: 0528 Lzyang was officially named'The 477OM\. behalfofThe Brain Trust, which has donated fu.ds to sponsor res€arch into the memoryand intelligence of animals, especially elephants. yearold elephantwhowas Brain Club layang LayanS isa ten Somerset found abndoned after her herd had been driren offa plantation in t4alaysiaand was brought to London Zoo in Lynn Collins reporrs that on I 8th the largest Brain luly 1985. She loves attention and companionship and, Club gathering ever took pla€e at the Brain Club accordingto h€r keepers,'does have the memory of an Southw€sCs meetingat Greenham Hall, Somers€! Tony Buzan was guest speaker and held a r€cord crow.lof 96 David \|r'ilkie. the Olympic Gold Medallistkindly people €nthralled. lt was a huge success for the Club, donat€d th€ magnificent elephant troPhyforthe overall netting fl00 and many new membersl a Profit winner of the World Memory Championships. This memorable occasion for all concerned. award was presented by lony Buzan to Dominic See next Synops,o for a full rePorl O'Brien. the recent winner.

London llews

Michaetv. Roman Pintiti€ reporrs that inJuly the London €ellof the Brain club was addressed by Tony Buzan,leading to an increase in the normalturn outof20-25 to 52. GuestsPeakeE included Riy Keen€' PhiliP Bond'Jeff Malyon' Eugene Duvenard,James Lee and Vanda North and was a tremendous success. Future m€€tings are plinned for l5th October, l2th I 3 and I 9th Novemb€r and I oth December. Please contact M. Roman- Pantilie at 93 Fox Lane' London N 4AP

(tel 08 I 886 7 I 06) for further information.

BRAIN OF THE YEAR 1993 We welcome yorrt suggestions. (lCK THN P(ITBITTIAI (lF Y(ITR BRTI1T

l"-*'*R ---

THD KEY-

(- The Mind Map Book is published by BBC Books. '\\ Hardbark f16.99 ISBN 0563 36373 8 1.. ,'lvailable through good bookshops or hy mail order {+f4 p&p} from The Buzan Centre - ring 0202 533593

ii'