Pods With Pareidolia
• If you’ve ever seen a face on a piece of toast, or an animal in the clouds, you’ve experienced pareidolia (from the Greek para for other and eidos for shape). Carl Sagan proposed that this is a survival technique: humans are hardwired to instantly recognize faces or familiar objects from seemingly random patterns. Less credible, was the claim by Japanese paleontologist Chonosuke Okamura that fossils from the Silurian period were in fact tiny humans, dinosaurs and other animals. He was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for his imagination.
• Does this collection of seed pods trigger a playful pareidolia?
More reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia
#sciencesunday
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 
What about Pareidolia’s cousin, Apophenia?
Interesting share Rajini!!
I get them confused, Chad Haney . I know that pareidolia is a subset of apophenia…remind me will you?
There’s also polymorphism to contend with.
If I’m not mistaken, apophenia is more general, i.e., finding patterns in random data. Pareidolia is where one finds a meaningful pattern in random data, i.e., I see a face in the cloud vs I see a circle in the cloud. I bet Allison Sekuler can explain it better.
Robot swarm wins a prize for imagination 🙂
Ahh, so perhaps most of these are an example of apophenia, rather than pareidolia Chad Haney .
The little red pomegranate seeds with the rootlet emerging reminded me of sperm too.
Hehe, you know what I saw Jeff Brown 😛
Very cool: check this out everyone https://plus.google.com/u/0/108086887435909989445/posts/JFGAzYuZLp4
how cool, and wonderful images to stare at and explore… 🙂
Just another way to enjoy the beauty of
spermpoppies, B Gallagher 🙂At least, from this scientist’s perspective.
Poppy fields are, ironically, beautiful, considering the destruction that heroin can cause. http://goo.gl/Omb1S
Andreas Katifes , consider yourself in good company 🙂
Actually, I cannot identify that particular seed pod B Gallagher . Perhaps some more botanically minded person will. Possibly Richard Smith
How about the wisdom of the wicked, Andreas Katifes ? 😉
Very fascinating post Rajini Rao. So when I see angels in the clouds, I will now understand why…scientifically!
What if you see one in the mirror Mary Owens ?
D’awww, +100 for Chad Haney !
Oh Chad Haney…what a sweet thing to say :-).
B Gallagher Rajini Rao the species is Abrus precatorius. It’s a fascinating species – it’s often used for producing jewellery because the seeds are so pretty, but those seeds are amongst the most poisonous plant material in the world. They contain a protein called abrin which inhibits protein synthesis by binding the ribosome. It’s about 50X more toxic than ricin. Eating intact seeds has little effect as the seed coat isn’t easily digested, but if you were to bite into one you’d probably die (though I’ve seen case studies where people survived chewing them). I’ve read that they’re commonly used in rural South-East Asia as a suicide method.
That’s so awesome to share that bit of science. Thanks Richard Smith That should be a separate post.
Fantastic, thanks for the ID Richard Smith . I’ve never heard of abrin..although we’ve probably all heard of ricin.
I think I’m a botanist first and a human second – when I saw the pomegranate seeds I thought “oh no, they’ve let the roots dry out!”. and the poppy fruits looks like poppy fruits… not until I read the comments did I realise what filth the rest of you were seeing!
What a great idea, Chad Haney . I am gruesomely fascinated already. I bet we could find some images of Abrus jewelry to supplement the biochemistry.
Welcome to the gutter Richard Smith
LOL, Richard Smith we are so busted. I’m going to blame my depravity on Feisal Kamil 😀
Why couldn’t I had you folks as my science teachers when I was in school?
Good idea Chad Haney and Rajini Rao. I’ll do a full post about it when I get home – haven’t done anything for this ScienceSunday yet!
Shall we save it for next weekend? You and Richard Smith do a team post on this and I’ll find a different dance partner.
Before heading off to bed, let’s blame Feisal Kamil a little bit! :p
Ooh yeah a team thing would be more fun. Yay collaboration! Next weekend is better for me anyway.
Feisal Kamil…thanks for scaring my angels away!
Mary Owens , you would have liked a crazy science teacher like me? I play songs in my lectures and tell my students jokes. I’m sure they think I’m crazy.
That’s my kind of teachers! 😀 duh.. i tell jokes all the time! :p
Rajini Rao…if I would have had you as a science teacher throughout Jr. High & High School, who knows what my life path would have been? My best science teacher was in 7th grade & he made science super fun & understandable!
BTW Rajini Rao…your students are BLESSED to have you as their professor!
A good teacher makes a world of difference in nearly every subject..I so agree, Mary Owens .
Meanwhile, I am digging up all sorts of strangely fascinating information on this poisonous seed. Stay tuned for an upcoming science post 🙂
These are simply wonderful, ranging from amusing to a little frightening 🙂
I thought so too, Chryle Elieff . Beautiful on their own, even better with some imagination 🙂
This is really pretty 😀
Hehe, do you like my excuse for posting pictures of awesome seed pods Feisal Kamil ? 😀
I’m hoping that you will, Feisal Kamil 😉
Where are you off to, Feisal Kamil ?
That’s not so bad! Don’t take a mobile device and resist peeking on G+ 🙂
Have a good time Feisal.
I read a news story about a big recall of jewelry made from the seeds because of concerns over poisoning. They do have to be thoroughly chewed to release the abrin..just swallowing the seed is relatively harmless.
I’m wondering why, when ricin is legendary as a possible “weapon of mass destruction”. I suppose we ought not to give anyone ideas 😛
Apparently, one can use activated charcoal and physical methods like lavage and cathartics..ughh!
http://www.asanltr.com/newsletter/01-4/articles/Abrin&RicinRev.htm
There’s all the reading we need for a post, right there Gnotic Pasta . It would be fun if we had three posts on ricin/abrin for next #sciencesunday. You could do it from the warfare angle, I could do some combination of biochem and jewelry and Richard would have a botanical angle.
The evil face of popcorn – goo.gl/cSLxd
That’s a good one Rich.
That’s a great example, Rich Pollett . I’m going to be distracted by the thought the next time I’m in a movie theater 🙂
B Gallagher shopped digital images on the internet? Very possible. 🙂
B Gallagher NanoHorror – I believe we have seen a new meme emerge here on G+ 🙂
Not the variety that produce heroin? Why ever not? 😛
Did you know that poppy seeds are used extensively in Indian cooking. Some desserts can actually give you a high. When we were kids, an uncle unwittingly fed us some sticky sweet made with poppy seeds. I don’t recall much other than I slept really long and well that night 🙂
I heard of someone testing positive for opioids due to poppy seed pastries. I don’t know if it was true or not.
Same here, Chad Haney . At least, I was told that consuming poppy seed bagels makes one test positive on drug tests too.
Good to know! There must be a threshold that takes these small intakes into account.
I love these Polish poppy seed rolls.
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishdesserts/r/topielec.htm
Chad Haney — you rock! I was just thinking that I wanted to make something like that, and you made my life that much easier by posting a recipe! Also good that it makes three rolls because I could and likely will eat an entire one myself
Chryle Elieff , if you do try making it, please post some pictures! That drowning dough technique sounds intriguing, I wonder what it does for the dough. It’s also interesting that the recipe calls for soaking and grinding the poppy seeds. One reason they are a pain to cook with is that unless they are thoroughly ground with something like a stone mortar and pestle, they don’t really release their flavor.
Really mind blowing. Thanks Ranjini
Stephen Macknik wrote a brilliant article on pareidolia in Scientific American a few weeks ago; did you see it, Rajini Rao?
BTW is the playfulness related to papaver somniferum?
Is this it? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-faithful-resemblance
Checking it out..
Yes, I think that’s the one, but I have a vague memory of a longer article, and where Allison is mentioned as a “face from space” (in her pre-moustsache incarnation). Sorry, but my long-term memory is very fragmented and unreliable.
Rajini Rao this is great! combining the idea of pareidolia with the druggy / poisonous effect of poppies (as well as the recent post of Siromi Samarasinghe on poisonous plants) i am stricken with this question: why does pareidolia INCREASE when one is, effectively, stoned / drugged / hallucinating? is there an evolutionary advantage to being exposed, temporarily to a boost of pareidolia? is this what people also mean when they discuss opening / blowing up your mind? somebody from the neural side can perhaps elucidate – maybe John R. Ellis ?
nomad dimitri It would only be conjecture, but I’d says that drugs tend reduced the “control” or inhibition of the frontal cortex, so that there is less direct analysis and conclusion by the brain as to what is “reality”, allowing more associations and possibilities to be considered. Pariedolia itself may be protective in the wild, allowing it to evolve into a default state, corrected by further evolution of the forebrain.
That sounds like a logical explanation, thanks John R. Ellis . Pareidolia is considered to have evolutionary advantage in making split second decisions in the wild (friend vs. danger). Not having err..experimented with hallucinogens, I’ll have to take nomad dimitri at his word 😉
Rajini Rao John R. Ellis : that sounds right. interesting definition of “open mind”: “less direct analysis and conclusion by the brain.” i have to ponder this further but i like it a lot. when you live in california, Rajini Rao , in a university setting, hardly a day goes by when you don’t overhear tie-dyed students high on something or other describing how this or that looks just like this or that (“check it out, man”) a sure sign they are hallucinating!
Fear not nomad dimitri they won’t bite you.
John Condliffe oh, on the contrary, they are usually full of sweetness
John Condliffe btw: thanks for turning me on to Hector Zazou! wow, the list of collaborators he had! the only one i was surprised NOT to find is Paul Bowles!
Delighted to have been instrumental in in the process. nomad dimitri
In Journey- Poperm…..
yes true
Green love
NecroPareidolia.
good effort
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