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And now for something completely different.

Horizon last night was about decision making, specifically looking at the cognitive processes involved. Whilst it was aimed at quite a popularist audience, there was some interesting science in there somewhere.

Given a situation where there is a random selection of images being shown - some nice, some not - it appears that we can predict the next image with a high degree of accuracy by monitoring skin conductance on the finger.

On the left side, before the axis, is the difference between a nice image, and a not.

The explanation? No-one is sure, but quantum physics suggests that elementary particles have no preference over the direction of time in which they travel. Note: I am not a physicist.

Fascinating stuff, and I wonder why the research doesn’t seem to be more in the mainstream. A quick Google search revealed a paper on this topic. The programme is available on BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days.