{"id":32729,"date":"2023-08-25T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2564ef6d-ef89-44ed-a5e1-ab33d3cd9131"},"modified":"2023-08-25T18:38:26","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T16:38:26","slug":"inside-the-cutting-edge-neuroscience-that-could-create-real-life-star-wars-jedis","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/inside-the-cutting-edge-neuroscience-that-could-create-real-life-star-wars-jedis\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the cutting-edge neuroscience that could create real-life Star Wars Jedis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The force is an an energy that lets you control people\u2019s minds and\u2026 make things float. And it’s a lot more real than you’d think. <\/p>

By Stephen Kelly\n <\/p>

Published: Friday, 25 August 2023 at 16:00 PM<\/p>

\n\n

In Star Wars: A New Hope<\/em>, Obi-Wan Kenobi describes the Force as, \u201can energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.\u201d<\/p>

It\u2019s a more poetic explanation than the one in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace<\/em>, which suggests that every Jedi has a bad case of worms. Or, to be more precise, that they get their powers from microscopic cellular beings called midi-chlorians.<\/p>

\u201cThe idea that a parasite living in a creature could change or determine the way the host behaves is a very real thing,\u201d says Patrick Johnson, author of The Physics of Star Wars<\/em>. <\/p>

\u201cAnd in theory, that small creature could give the host the ability to do things that they might not otherwise be able to do.\u201d<\/p>

A theory that makes more sense to Johnson, though, is that the Force represents some kind of sophisticated control of electromagnetic fields.<\/p>

\u201cThe fundamental basis of electromagnetic fields is that everything that has a charge (such as protons and electrons) creates an electromagnetic field around it,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cAnd depending on how these particles interact, they can either attract or repel one another.\u201d<\/p>

This could explain how Jedi such as Ahsoka Tano \u2013 the hero in the new series Star Wars: Ahsoka<\/em> \u2013 are able to move objects around, says Johnson. \u201cSo, for instance, if I\u2019m hanging upside-down in an ice cave on Hoth and I need my lightsaber, in theory I could make my hand very positively charged to attract the electrons on one side of the lightsaber and pull it towards me.\u201d<\/p>

But, even if this were possible, it would also require you to be able to focus on a specific object. \u201cOtherwise, you would end up attracting all kinds of things,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>

One of the most powerful elements of the Force, however, is how it can be used by the Jedi to control others\u2019 minds. How do electromagnetic fields play into that?<\/p>

\u201cIn terms of Jedi mind tricks,\u201d says Johnson, \u201cour brains have neurons that communicate with one another using electrical signals. <\/p>

“Theoretically, a Jedi with knowledge of brain chemistry could exert very precise electromagnetic fields to cause certain neurons to fire or not. Let\u2019s say the thought \u2018this is the droid I\u2019m looking for\u2019 is neuron one and \u2018this is not the droid I\u2019m looking for\u2019 is neuron two. If I could stop neuron one from firing and cause neuron two to fire instead, that would then create that thought inside of your head.\u201d<\/p>

Johnson is keen to stress that this kind of thought control is highly improbable. There are 86 billion neurons in the human brain and, \u201cit would be very difficult to execute such a precise manipulation of individual neurons \u2013 or to figure out what neurons you would need to control. It would require you to map a person\u2019s brain to a level that we\u2019re currently not capable of.\u201d<\/p>

Even so, that doesn\u2019t mean that scientists aren\u2019t trying. Johnson references a 2008 study in which researchers asked participants to hit a button with either their right or left hand while recording their brain activity<\/a>. <\/p>

\u201cThe researchers were able to figure out what the brain activity would look like just prior to the subjects pressing the button with their left hand versus their right,\u201d says Johnson. <\/p>

\u201cEven stranger, they were able to use this activity to predict which hand was going to be used up to seven seconds before the person made their choice.\u201d<\/p>

So, maybe there\u2019s something to the whole midi-chlorians thing after all.<\/p>

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>