Im confused by this.....should we part our hair on OUR left or left for the person looking at us??????????

why does she sound exactly like brit marling

I think you are following great approach in it. I got to learn many things from you.<a href="http://www.ibeautymedispa.com.au/">http://www.ibeautymedispa.com.au/</a?

@Marcela Pino: yes, the chirality of the molecules in an organism would be the same after it died.

Living things are not alive because of what molecules or elements they contain, but because of the way those molecules fit into patterns. When an organism dies, the pattern of life is broken (as it were), but the molecules stay the same (until they begin to decompose, that is).

I'm left handed but have to part my hair on the right side because of a swirl in my hair.
What does being left handed in a right handed world have to say about lefties?
This is my intro to symmeytry. I am 68 years old.
Fascinating.

Great episode as always. Lauren's speaking skills drove me up the wall a little bit. Yikes.

Like the comment that your show is exercise for the brain, but that doesn't cover it for me. I get so excited after every episode! It really lights up my imagination! Thank you!

My question is,- if life is left-handed almost exclusively, What happens after the living thing dies. If you look at ashes or very dead things that were alive before under those magical microscopes, are the molecules still ordered in the same way as when it was alive?
Anybody?

This story totally stressed me out. I'm going to be having a chat with my hair stylist.

Why isn't this listed as a rebroadcast? Good show, but disappointing that it was old news.

You should have mentioned "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". The movie has a great animation of the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zU3U7E1Odc

then why are so many people right handed?

Genius, simply genius! I am highly amazed, entertained, puzzled by this show. What a poetic look at science, what a light-feet approach to philosophy!

"Have you ever wondered what happens in that moment? [When the stars aligne and the world falls away...]" I know what happens in that moment... The other half does not "click". And you're left feeling like when the pieces in the box do not match with the assembly instructions nor with logic... We love other people, we're loved by yet other people, and we marry yet other people... The world is out of whack...

Interestingly enough the Superman of the less successful 2006 adaptation parted his hair on the RIGHT side.

Coincidence?

Great. Another plug for homosexuality being just another normal option via classical Greek culture. Didn't work out so well for them either. Guess I'm just a hater.

its really funny cuz artists when making a picture are always encouraged to keep flipping your image because it starts to warp in your mind

Great sound track and love the new nickame: Bobby K. :o)

I made a stop motion video to the story you tell at the beginning of this podcast. I would love to send it to you, but cannot find an e-mail address for you anywhere. Is there one I can contact you on? Thanks!

I looked at the Lincoln - Mirror Lincoln pictures and it still seems like nonsense. If he always parted his hair the other way, the more familiar appearance would seem strange. I couldn't tell any difference. I like the show, but sometimes they say things that simply don't hold up.

Dude- researchers are not supposed to disclose personal information (e.g. names) of their participants.

I listen to podcasts while working out at the gym. Definitely freaked out a girl when she walked into the locker room and I was going from 'blank face' to 'happy face' in the mirror trying to see if my smile was left-handed too. And now I can't stop messing with my part. Thank you for good radio (& podcasts).

Definitely want a "True Mirror" now!

"Trypsin is a three-dimensional mirror image of Malignin." http://www.road-to-health.com/am/publish/printer_56.shtml Donald kelley beat stage 4 pancreatic cancer with a method involving pancreatic enzymes

.The hair parting bit was like nails on the chalk board to this rational skeptic

I'm parting my hair on the left starting today.

Just to note - the left side of the brain is not "more masculine" than the right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain aren't "male" or "female," even if there are sex based differences within specific brain regions (there are less than you'd think). Additionally, the right brain versus left brain argument for personality has been shown to be without foundation. I found it very irritating to hear him say "the left, logical, more masculine side of the brain" - it betrays a poor understanding of the actual science related to this topic.

I was hoping that you would mention that an n- dimensional object can "become" its mirror image if you flip in in an n+1 dimension. For example, a 2D image of a left hand can be lifted into the 3rd dimension, turned and put back into 2D, becoming a right hand. Athur C. Clarke has a cool short story named "Technical Error" in which a man is accidentally turned into his mirror image, essentially by having a turn in the 4th dimension. After the accident the man starts to starve because his molecular machinery is "right handed" and cannot digest "left handed" food. And that is only the beginning of the story.

N. I am having the same problem!

"Have your webmaster kick the computer running the RSS feed and attachments."

What does that mean? How do I do that?

I think that the direction that we read might effect how we look at a face.

Regarding the story of the two Laurens: what popped into my head before hearing Lauren's interpretation of the two outliers was not "this one is similar to Lauren's brain, this one is different." I assumed that the one that understood the story but didn't mirror her brain was a bit unfeeling (jerk?) and that the one who mirrored her brain so emphatically must me a natural Empath.

it is kinda funny that the two lauren are the same because when you here them talking they do sound the same as well!!! i also have moments of times myself^_^

I think it's more likely that the "cool kids" finally felt sorry for the awkward kid and decided to be nice to him. He was lucky to have had the red herring of parting his hair on the other side, otherwise he probably would have concluded that they were setting him up for some cruel prank.

Thanks, your symmetry show answered a question I had.
A while back having viewed the
Photographs of athletes from the early 1900's in my club, all with hair parted down the middle I thought to give it a try. I have a full set of hair and years under my belt and always parted my hair on the right.
Parted my hair straight down the middle and began receiving complements such as "a Number of the girls have talked about how handsome you are, they're right. And walking on the street two children looked up at me and said you're handsome mister. And my grandchildren are infatuated according to their parents.

Have kept this to myself until this message, but While the notion sounds somewhat ludicrous it appears to be true.

Wondering whether I should move the part further left?

If that woman wants to be taken seriously, she needs to work on her speaking voice. She sounds like a drugged Valley girl, and I found it really, really distracting and annoying.

This may sound strange, but I would pay 99 cents USD for Robert Krulwich reading the Plato story. Yes, I have the capability to do it for myself. Yes, I will still pay for it if it shows up. Keep up the good work.

Dear Bob and Jad,

Listening to the opening of this episode made me crack up uncontrollably. Do you know the movie "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"? There's a song in it called "The Origin of Love" that is a nice summary of the Plato story Bob described... and in very similar language. It has the effect of hearing someone wisely recite a song, as if they are the authors of its wise prose, even funnier that he's doing it unknowingly. Anyway, it's a great movie with wonderful animations of the story of the Origin of Love. You should check it out and then you'll get the joke.

Thanks for what you do.

I caught most of the show, but maybe I missed any mention of Emmy Noether ? She has an interesting back story and I remember the conservation of charge being mentioned in the context of symmetry so it would seem strange not to mention her work. Maybe I missed it.

I was surprised that there was not more discussion on the brain double portion of the show about the fact that the brain scan of the researcher's fiance was an outlier...the most different from her own brain scan. To me it seems obvious that she found her missing half (the half that the gods separated her from...)!

Did anyone notice that Brandon Routh's Superman had his hair parted the other way? Could it be why he came across so anemic?

I didn't understand the shocked reactions people apparently had to seeing themselves in a true mirror. Have they never seen photographs of themselves? I've got so many photos of my own face (security badge for my job, a state ID, a driver's license, a passport, and probably 15 school IDs--most schools/universities issue a new one every year--yearbook photos, portraits, not to mention hundreds of other random photos), I'm used to myself both ways--reflected and not--and don't really see much of a difference

It's also a simple matter to shoot a quick video of myself if I wanted to see my true self in motion. My webcam also does not reflect my image, so I can use it as a "true mirror" and see my non-reflected self moving in real time. Many webcams allow you to toggle this feature, and they're are much cheaper than a specially designed true mirror, anyway (up to $1500!).

I didn't understand the shocked reactions people apparently had to seeing themselves in a true mirror. Have they never seen photographs of themselves? I've got so many photos of my own face (security badge for my job, a state ID, a driver's license, a passport, and probably 15 school IDs--most schools/universities issue a new one every year--yearbook photos, portraits, not to mention hundreds of other random photos), I'm used to myself both ways--reflected and not--and don't really see much of a difference

It's also a simple matter to shoot a quick video of myself if I wanted to see my true self in motion. My webcam also does not reflect my image, so I can use it as a "true mirror" and see my non-reflected self moving in real time. Many webcams allow you to toggle this feature, and they're are much cheaper than a specially designed true mirror, anyway (up to $1500!).

@Ty... take it up with Aristopheles, Ty.

Once you get your time machine fixed, obviously.

Please, where can I find the passage from Aristophanes, exactly? Or how can I get a transcript of that portion of the program?

They do mention very explicitly the connection between boys & boys and girls & girls and alas boys & girls

I was offended by the heterocentric introduction of the Greek tradition of "double humans," where the hosts mentioned how male/females were joined together as "soulmates," and after being separated by Zeus, pine for the lost half. In the original, there were also male/male and female/female beings, which is offered as an explanation for the love of same-sex couples. Why did the hosts amputate this quite literally "half" of the story?

Cool topic, you should have talked about the "asymmetry theory". That's a real good "mirror" too the symmetry theory...

Oops. My bad. After some more research, it appears that many Lincoln images are originally Daguerreotypes, but many of the images have since been laterally inverted, to show the life image. It was his left side that was kicked. Kudos!

Interesting podcast. I really enjoyed it. So much so that I have spent about an hour looking at Lincoln portraits and researching the daguerreotype process. I tend to agree with the one comment I read, here. The pictures of Lincoln are reversed. A daguerreotype is a mirror image process. So, the real life Lincoln parted his hair on the right. The gasp is probably due to the fact that we are used to seeing these images a certain way, reversed, and the difference is what we react to.
Interesting, also, that other research refers to the 'left side' of Lincoln's face was that which was kicked by a horse. It appears that this was the 'left side in the image' which was his right side in real life.

Andrew from Dallas - I like your home experiment, but which "left" did you part it? Your left or the left of people who are looking at you?

Please discuss the entropy-defying symmetry of entrainment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaxw4zbULMs

Please discuss the entropy-defying symmetry of entrainment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaxw4zbULMs

So i just noticed that I normally part my hair to the right. After hearing this episode, I decided to put the left hair part to the test.

I woke up one morning, pushed my hair part over the other direction and the very first person I talked to said, you look good today-- and i quote--"I think its your hair part".

hey whats the music that comes on at 46:30? it is so amazing. i need to get it. if i don't get it my life will no longer have any meaning.

thanks

I was just listening to this episode in the car on my way to work this morning. I actually had started it the other day, but I restarted it because I really enjoyed the story Robert Krulwich read in the very beginning. I liked it so much that I got into work and started doing a bit of research. It's funny that the story Krulwich tells seems to give an entirely different meaning than what Aristophanes originally intended, which was a way of almost poking fun at the origin stories found throughout Greek mythology. After learning this, I prefer Robert's telling of this story. :)

I haven't finished the episode, yet, but I stopped at the true mirror story and I ended up spending a few minutes staring at my reflection in the vanity mirror in my car and trying to visualize how exactly I appear differently in the mirror and to other people. This made my brain hurt. I also tried parting my hair on the other side, too, to see how it would look. It also got me thinking about the mirrors in beauty salons. I wonder if it would be better if those were true mirrors, so that you and your stylist could see exactly how your new 'do looks to everyone else!

P.S. Radiolab has turned me into a fan of Zoe Keating. I LOVE her music. :)

I was telling my boyfriend jokingly about the difference socially between parting your hair on the left and right. To my surprise, he agreed with the show about the left hair part. In junior high, he was a geek that parted his hair on the right, but he switched his part in high school to the left and elevated his social status. I found this quite amusing. Thanks Radiolab for providing interesting stories that spark amusing conversation.

After the talk about brain tests and the exact match girl, I'm now curious about what makes a good listener, if that is indeed what she is. Are some people better at listening than others? How do they get that way? Would that one Lauren match up with just anyone or was it a one-time occurrence? Can you measure if you're a good/bad listener? Does it change with different people or subjects? I was desperately hoping for a rabbit trail on that point...

You've become my exercise buddies. Before I get on the bike, I think nah they can't do it again. And you do. Every time. My brain gets a bigger workout than my body. Guys you are the greatest. 10/10

I noticed that Hitler parted his hair on the right. I wonder if maybe this had seeped into the subconscious and influences their reactions.

i love the imaginativity of these shows - this episode to me seemed disjointed, however - maybe i wasn't paying attention well enough? -

the 'unbackwards mirror' is really interesting too
my hair was first parted to the right, then i did it to the left, then straight back, but now there's not enough to bother with, so that cured itself and there are no more questions about it. I could never tell left from right anyway.

thanks

Are we talking parting to the left in anatomical position is the correct way? So basically parting the hair to that persons left side of his head? Is that the more masculine way?

My favorite show yet. I found myself gasping in pleased surprise at parts of it. Just wonderful.

Is it possible to separate the RSS feed into PURE audio and one extra feed with the video's. I do not need the video's on my AUDIO player, but "Juice" will download everything.

Regards,

Robert

Electrons have dirrering levels amounts of energy. It is unlikely that electrons and positrons with identicle amounts of energy would come together and cancel each other. Rather an electron and a positron would come together and cancel each other, but with some left over matter. It is this left over stuff that made up all the other matter.

I part my hair on the left, and I'm a socially-inept nerd. So if I parted my hair on the right, would I be even more so??

In all honesty, I haven't finished listening to this episode yet. But I've listened to the first part about the BD. The professor at Columbia's reasoning about how you wouldn't have thought it so amazing if it were simply that another person's heartbeat matches yours, as opposed to brain activation, is quite interesting. I'm pretty certain that, if it were another, less scientifically-oriented, more spiritual community, the fact that the heartbeats matched might have been far more impressive than the harmony in brain activation. This exact point might of course illustrate to us that indeed there is no such thing as an Aristophanesian (!) second half, for the attributes we look for in a second half are all in our head, in our culture, and perhaps, therefore, arbitrary?

Any transcripts?

The theory regarding hair is very true. It actually happened to me too, I didn't notice it myself but i remember that during high school my hair was part toward right and one day my friend randomly told me that I need to change it to the left because it looked better. I did and ever since it has been like that. Because everytime I try to switch it back to the right i notice there is something wrong.

Every episode of radiolab always amaze me! I really want to try out a reverse mirror. I don't mind even replace what I have as mirror now. Anyone know a good digital version of it to try out?

For those who are wondering...

One of the songs used towards the end of the first segment was The Album Leaf "Belladonna"

Huge Album Leaf fan, it was cool hearing a song of theirs in a RL piece.

I can't download the episode automatically from the feed, can't download manually from the website, can't listen to it from the web page.
Have your webmaster kick the computer running the RSS feed and attachments.

http://www.truemirror.com/

This episode was so amazing! I could relate to the beginning story of humans in clumps. My best friend and I have known each other for two years, but I feel like I've known her for several lifetimes. Robert Krulwich summed up the experience perfectly. My friend and I don't know what we expect of each other. We just are.

I was surprised that your symmetry episode didn't talk to any mineralogists. Geologists, mineralogists especially, deal with symmetry all of the time, and some of the most amazing naturally symmetric things I've ever seen are minerals. Radiolab should talk to earth scientists more, I think, but with symmetry it seemed like a no-brainer! Twinned minerals alone are rather freaky.

Love RadioLab. This was a great episode. But I'm curious about why you said nothing about group theory. Group theory is a branch of math that actually studies and classifies different types of symmetry. Everything you said about mirrors, reflections, the shape of molecules. These all result from research in group theory. In fact some of these examples have the exact same type of symmetry.

Back to form! Killer show, you guys were slippin for a few shows there...haha... Thanks
for the great work you do!

Apropos writing presidents about their grooming styles, this famous letter from an 11-year old girl to Abraham Lincoln, advising him to grow a beard.
http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln50.html

Amazing. I teach classical drawing and painting and have noticed weird things happen when trying to represent symmetrical objects. There always seems to be a bias towards one side of the object, usually the one on our left. I've noticed this not only in myself but many of my students. If doesn't happen every single time but the percentage of times it does happen is so high that it has weirded me out a bit. It now all makes a bit more sense. Thanks for the great show guys!!!

I saw those true mirrors at Burning Man last year. Definitely a little strange.

Regarding the true mirror, the OSX app Photo Booth inverts the image. Presumably this is because people are so used to seeing their image flipped by a mirror.

I was disappointed with the skip over thalidomide, but I can understand it. We are not all chemists. Would like to point out quinine though, in tonic water. One side gets your heart beating normally, the other side stops malaria!

I can't find the Lincoln or hair part pictures on here. A little help? I loved this episode. :)

I would have liked to have heard more explanation for why proteins are all left-handed, or at least how they got to be that way.

Hehe, I just made a digital version of the "magic mirror". Go check it out and change your hair part! ;)
http://henner-woehler.de/magicmirror/

I saw true mirrors set up at the Burning Man festival last year, and I and many other people left comments after seeing ourselves "truly" for the first time. Some of the best comments are collected here: http://truemirror.com/2010/images/best_of_comments_from_BM_2010.jpg. It was a very strange and wonderful experience.

What are the titles of the Zoe Keating tracks in this episode? I also would like to suggest that the titles and artists of the backing tracks for all the episodes be listed on this site, for it is really good music and deserves a place in my library.

The Abe Lincoln photo is under the Mirror, Mirror podcast.

Adolf Hitler parted his hair on the wrong side too...the world could have been a different place if had had only switch sides

Where is the Abe Lincoln Photo?!

Does Jad really call Robert "Bobby K"?

I love this show, but I must point out the existence of D-glucose, albeit not a protein, but right handed oriented nonetheless, and a fairly important molecule for life. So when scientists "look inside life" and see glucose, its not oriented left.

I attended a live show and eagerly listened to the podcast in the hope of hearing Zoe Keating's remarkable work again. I understand that time constraints prevented its inclusion in the recorded podcast, but I wish I knew the names of the pieces she played in the live performances. I recall the first one was written for her son, and it was lovely, but the second one blew my mind and I would love to know the name of the piece and on which cd it appears.

A friend videotaped me talking naturally and when I watched it several times I started to feel better about myself, it improved my self image. I think it overrode my negative self image. Whats up with that?

The comments about thalidomide's handedness relating to its toxicity were incorrect:

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2002/11/11/thalidomide_in_the_mirror.php

Great show. Anyone who is interested about chimerism in molecules should read a great article in the December Wired issue.

sure is a lot of asymmetry in the comments here :)

Dear Radiolab,
Do you believe your audience is made-up of seven-year-olds? Then why do you produce programs like this one that seems sound-designed for their intelligence levels and attention spans? I'm a grown-up and I understand science. Please remember that.
Love,
Eric

zosthrowin,

I remember reading that story of the spherical human wholes in Plato's Symposium. In that book, a load of ancient Greeks, Aristophanes among them, hang out together but are too hung-over to get drunk on wine again. They decide that it might be entertaining to have each one tell a story about love instead.

Weird and wonderful.

There is a reference at the beginning of the program to a play by Aristophanes, that used this imagery from Plato. Anyone know what play this is?

Help! What's the music they play after the first segment? I've had it stuck in my head for years and never known the name of it!

I'm surprised you guys didn't mention the "left gaze bias" and how we unconsciously look at the left side of a persons face to better determine their emotions. Interestingly enough, studies have shown that dogs do the same while looking at humans, an adaptation via domestication.

At first I was intrigued by the idea of a hair part playing a role in a person's success, but the evidence is pretty weak. Parting hair from the left could just as easily be a trait shared by right handed people since it is easier to pull hair from left to right rather than push it right to left. Since more people are right handed, you would have plenty of "sucessful" people to choose from that part their hair in that direction. I wonder how many people no one has ever heard of parts their hair left to right...just a thought.

I loved the symmetry show. The origin of love - so sad and so beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UGaJBv6YSM&feature=related

"Deny me and be doomed..."

I like how Robert added the "lucky wind" part, alluding to the Stochasticity show :)

Oh my. I honestly and quite literally LOLd w/ the hair-part part ... And now... I'm investing in a True Mirror.

While I was listening to this episode at work I came across this website. It seemed too good to be true. This site shows the work of two painters, side-by-side, and how they mirrored each other in near symmetry. Unbelievable.

Check it out:
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2005/cezannepissarro/index.html

Radiolab is not a science show in the same way This American Life is not public affairs programing. Just look at their mission statement on their About page. Listen to their earliest episodes, they're more ontological inquiries than straight reports on the latest scientific research, more an ethnography on science, or if you will a poetics of science. I agree that some of the theories posited have been specious sometimes outlandish (like that one about the walking rate in cities), but science begins with speculation and truth is as much about the negotiations (ethical, logical, emotional) as the cold hard facts.

I attended the Seattle show. I have to concur with HCaruthers--this was not Radiolab's finest hour... and I'm a hardcore fan of the show.

It's the origin of love :)

I saw the Symmetry show in L.A. It was amazing!!! You should do more shows in public.
One of the best moments of the show was the video of blind folded people trying to walk straight and ending up walking in circles. That would be great if this video could be available on your website. Thank you very much in advance!

Has TED used up all the science? This episode was softer than a moist towelette and less objectively valid. This was a uniquely cringe-inducing RadioLab, half as good as the second-worst.

I enjoyed the music in this episode more than I have in any other episode. I admit that often I have sat restlessly through intermission music, waiting to get back to the topic, but not at all this time. Zoe Keating was fantastic.

Where are the pictures of Abe Lincoln and Superman/Clark Kent with hair parts swapped?

George: if you do a Google search for "true mirror," it's the first result. TrueMirror.com

In the "symmetry" episode, a guest who makes "true" mirrors was interviewed. Question: Where can one purchase a "true" mirror? Such would be a novel gift - for one to view his right side to be "on the right" and the opposite for his left would be unique.