The Red Notebook

There is none so blind as those who will not see, but those who are absolutely determined to see something will often do so, even when it’s not there. Psychologists call it confirmation bias, and it manifests itself in almost any situation in which one truly wants to believe something: canals on Mars; the blatant off-sidedness of the goal against your team; the utter adorability of your children; the latest ‘evidence’ in support of your favourite conspiracy theory. If you’re after evidence to bolster your existing beliefs, seek and ye shall almost certainly find!

Of course, the classic example of confirmation bias is the countless sightings of the Virgin Mary in pieces of toast, cappuccino foam, wood grain, and just about every other bizarre location you might care to mention. If such manifestations are indeed the Lord’s work, then He really does move in mysterious ways. In reality, these ‘sightings’ are nothing more than vague, coincidental likenesses blown out of all proportion by people who have a very particular way of looking at the world.

In fairness to those who think they see the Virgin Mary in the stains on their bathroom wallpaper, the human mind is very much programmed to recognise facial features, so it’s hardly surprising that we occasionally see faces when they’re not really there. The British comedian Dave Gorman has an excellent set of photographs of ‘faces’ he has spotted in inanimate objects. There is also a Flickr Grilled Cheese Virgin photo pool.

Even us hoary, old sceptics aren’t immune from recognising human faces where they are clearly not. In my own case, I have never spotted the Virgin Mary—well, OK, there was that one time in that pub in Wales—but, last month in Cambridge, I did clearly discern the face of none other than Charles Darwin in a cluster of brachiopods in the Sedgwick Museum:

The image of Darwin in some brachiopods recently

What do you mean you don’t see it? And you have the cheek to call yourself a Darwin groupie! The brachiopods do not lie!

It’s the dawn of a new era!

This is a totally astonishing experiment:

BBC: Tiny fossils reveal inner secrets

The exact moment when a 550 million year old cell began to divide has been captured in an exquisite 3-D image.

The picture is one of a series taken by researchers examining ancient fossil embryos from Guizhou Province, China.

The specimens, described in the journal Science, are the oldest known examples of fossil embryos, and shed light on the early evolution of complex life.

Scientists used an advanced X-ray technique to peer inside the balls of cells to reveal the structures inside.

If it didn’t sink in, read that again: scientists have managed to peer inside fossilised embryos that are 550 million years old. That’s pre-Cambrian to those who understand that sort of thing (and pre-pre-pre-dinosaurs to those who don’t). Doesn’t modern technology just blow you away?

More importantly, the experiment opens up a new line of enquiry into the Cambrian Explosion debate:

…Using the microCT technique to analyse late stage embryos, with up to 1,000 cells, the team was able to gain insights into the creature that produced them.

…The team believes the cells probably came from extremely simple creatures.

“They would have developed into sponge-like creatures, but more primitive,” said Dr. Donoghue [of the University of Bristol in the UK].

If right, this means that the Cambrian Explosion theory for the origin of complex animal life would still stand

“This work provides a constraint on when advanced groups evolved,” Dr Donoghue said.

I’m not sure if I understand this last point: just because these particular fossils are primitive, why does that put any limit on when advanced groups evolved? Why couldn’t primitive and advanced species have lived at the same time? (I hate the words primitive and advanced, by the way; simple and complex seem far more appropriate.)