Bradford Science Festival and Airportsecurity

On the matter of safety, lots of new things came up the last few years. One of the interesting places were such creations are presented is at the British Science Festival, one of Europe’s largest science festivals, taking place each September. This year the city of Bradford got the opportunity to be host from Saturday 10th September – Thursday 15th September.

British Science Festival --Exploring new worlds-- Bradford 10th - 15th September

The festival regularly attracts over 350 of the UK’s top scientists and speakers to discuss the latest developments in science with the public. Over 50,000 visitors regularly attend the talks, discussions and workshops.

No inhibitions…just Exhibitions- it says but the festival also replies to the question: How do you look for dark matter if it’s impossible to see?

Apparently 96% of the Universe is missing. People should come along to the event ‘The elusive universe: The search for dark matter’ to discover the evidence scientists have found for the existence of dark matter, and the cutting edge methods being used in the search.

On the tenth birthday of 9/11 most people thought of the destruction of a world system, but in Bradford the question ‘Was the Universe created?’ was on their lips.

This year’s Festival includes events on the ground breaking achievements of local Victorian scientists and the centenary of the discovery of atomic structure, as well as a chance to get out and explore the fantastic heritage West Yorkshire has to offer.

New Zealand chemist and Nobel Prize laureate Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)

At ‘Rutherford and 100 years of the atomic nucleus’ they celebrated the centenary of Ernest Rutherford’s famous paper in which he described for the first time the structure of the atom. By proving the existence of a dense nucleus at the atomic centre, the discovery opened up a range of scientific disciplines which have had huge benefits for our modern technological society.

“Solve a forensic mystery in 90 minutes?.” challenged visitors of all ages using techniques like fingerprinting, chemical testing and chromatography, while engineering was everywhere and there was a plethora of events to bring out the engineer in anyone.

‘The magic of Harry Potter! Can we make cloaking a reality?’ explored whether electronic engineers could genuinely make things invisible.

And that brings us to the airport of today were lots of things are wished to be brought in invisibly. Security officers have to look for dark matter sometimes impossible to see.

The passengers are assured the things hidden between their socks or towels are invisible for the attendants at the check in and control points.
But from the agents who ask if the passengers have no liquids, shampoos, deodorants, laptops, ipads, electronic book-readers and the lot in the luggage, is expected that they have iron nerves and closed eyes.

In case there would be several Christians, of denominations where they still use the confessional box, they would have to take their queuing number and have to find lots of people offering their confession.
It is not that there are a lot tales told out of school, but lots of concoction are fabricated at the terminal.

At the airport lots of people seem to be in a sort of trance or in living in the world of dummies. For those the answer is given on the evening of 13th September. Or are it the security officers who have to learn all about the science of being hypnotized at ‘Hypnosis and the science of consciousness’? In that talk people can find out how hypnotisable they are by taking part in a group hypnosis session, and why some people are more susceptible than others. Surprising findings linking hypnosis to mental states will be explained which shed light on conditions such as schizophrenia.

Many other events throughout the Festival will explore a diverse range of subjects in psychology, including how our brain allows us to navigate, how we judge what others are thinking, what happens in the brain of a beatboxer and the inner turmoil of the adolescent brain. Visitors will even be able to take part in cutting edge psychological research at our ‘Psychological Science Observatory’ being held over 14th-15th September.

Those inventions and excuses brought by the passengers are made cashable by a system, which will analyse expressions, eye movements, blood flow and temperature changes, and will be a ‘complete step change’ from traditional polygraph lie detector.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming Facial Expression

I wonder how it can give good results at a quick check in the airport because the system works best if it can first establish a facial baseline for each subject when they are feeling relaxed and have no reason to lie – and then look for changes that might accompany lying. But for certain countries which are afraid for problems with the ‘privacy’ law this could be a solution for preferring the facial scanner instead the body scanner which shows a lot many people do not want to be seen either and which have nothing to do with bringing others in danger but more with personal affairs.

Prof Ugail gave a hypothetical example of an airline passenger being asked routine, unthreatening questions while checking in for a flight to the US. This baseline profile could then be transmitted to the American authorities for use on his or her arrival in the US.

The researchers said they knew of no similar system of facial analysis for lie detection in development in the US or anywhere else. Beyond security applications, they anticipate possible medical applications for detecting early stages of diseases that affect facial expression, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. It could also be used by marketing companies to assess consumers’ reactions to new products.

According to the makers of the machine poker faced liars could be caught out by this new technique that monitors tiny changes in expression and blood flow. The system picks up give-away clues such as lip-biting, slips of the tongue, nose-wrinkling, and blinking.

A thermal imaging camera is also used to measure flushing and blood-flow patterns around the eyes.

“When a person is being deceitful, when a person lies, there is increased brain activity and this is reflected in the face through involuntary facial expressions and blood flow.” said Professor Hassan Ugail.

Would it also be a product for the Brussels Airport?

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Please do also find:

The British Science Association

The Face in Deception and The Clues to Deception
Observers usually are looking at the face of the person who deceives rather than their legs or arms, creating a dual dynamic for the process of deception and its detection. But security officers should have an eye for the whole body language. Concentrating only at the face would give an incomplete, not to say, a wrong picture.
To many psychologists that the clues for deception might be more apparent in the body than the face. Though according to others the body has an important roll in nonverbal communication, how much it can reveal about deception is probably not as great as how much can be uncovered in the face.
Paul Ekman (1934), a well known authority on deception, lying, and the face’s role in deceit, calls attention to the varying ability of people to lie, saying that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to tell whether some people are telling the truth or not, if they are skilled in deceptive interactions. Some occupations require such skills, whether for good or ill.
(Ekman’s work on facial expressions had its starting point in the work of psychologist Silvan Tomkins.)

Airport to test ‘facial’ lie detector
(Financial Times)

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