Russian X-Ray vision girl

[Matabiri]

Anyone seen this?

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_855907.html?menu=news.quirkies

"Russian scientists have been unable to disprove a teenage girl who claims she has x-ray vision and can see inside human bodies.

Doctors at Saransk's children hospital carried out exhaustive tests on 16-year-old Natalia Demkina whose claims she has x-ray vision has gripped the Russian public."

Admittedly Ananova isn't the most reliable of news sources... but do you reckon she'll apply for the prize?

[zakur]

Jeez...another Russian girl with x-ray vision? The effects of the Chernobyl disaster must have been more widespread than previously thought. ;)

[Matabiri]

I thought the same thing... but if it is she's changed her name and aged pretty quickly...

It was the "doctors are amazed by the detailed descriptions..." that amused me - maybe she had an anatomy book open under the table...?

[bjornart]

I wonder if she's described anything that isn't in a standard anatomy book. Or if she has if the doctors have cut up some patients to see if the were abnormal. :D

[Diogenes]

Why when reporters are ' baffled ', it manages to get translated into ' Scientists are baffled '? NOT !!!


Can she only see into human bodies?

What about other animals? Containers?

[Upchurch]

This would be a pretty easy one to test. Have several people hold different denomination coins in a closed fist. Even if she can only see through humans, she should be able to see what is in each fist.

[headscratcher4]

My Test:

Ten doors.

Behind nine are menwith Guns pointed at her head. One door, no gun, million dollars. The men switch positions every two minutes. She must choose within ten minutes. But can't begin choosing until after the first two minutes have passed.

Let see her X-ray that...I'd give her the million if she pulls it off...

[wayrad]

Originally posted by Upchurch
This would be a pretty easy one to test. Have several people hold different denomination coins in a closed fist. Even if she can only see through humans, she should be able to see what is in each fist. You would need to make sure there is no possibility the people holding the coins can give any kind of cue, even unconsciously. Perhaps one could use objects of the same size and shape but different colors, and not allow the people holding them to see them. Or put them behind a barrier so only the hands show.

[hgc]

Originally posted by Upchurch
This would be a pretty easy one to test. Have several people hold different denomination coins in a closed fist. Even if she can only see through humans, she should be able to see what is in each fist. Jesus Christ, Uppy. Don't you know anything about x-ray vision?!?!

The skin acts in a way analogous to a one-way mirror. She can see through the skin looking from the outside-in, but certainly cannot looking from the inside-out. So she can't see all the way through the body and out to the other side, as in to see something hidden in a clenched fist.

The test would be to have several people swallow different denominations....

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by wayrad
You would need to make sure there is no possibility the people holding the coins can give any kind of cue, even unconsciously. Perhaps one could use objects of the same size and shape but different colors, and not allow the people holding them to see them. Or put them behind a barrier so only the hands show.

The coins should work fine if she does not know they are coins..


That aside.. Why not any small object, and all she has to do is describe it in detail...

[Soapy Sam]

It's odd. All the Russian scientists I ever met were extremely sharp people, who would "see through" (sorry) such nonsense at once.

Where do all the dumb ones come from?

[zakur]

Originally posted by Soapy Sam
It's odd. All the Russian scientists I ever met were extremely sharp people, who would "see through" (sorry) such nonsense at once. I have had the same experience. However, the only Russian scientists I have met are now in America. Perhaps all the sharp ones left, leaving the dim ones back in Russia.

[hgc]

Originally posted by zakur
I have had the same experience. However, the only Russian scientists I have met are now in America. Perhaps all the sharp ones left, leaving the dim ones back in Russia. When the American media claims "scientists are baffled by ...," I am suspicious that no tests of a scientific nature were actually conducted, but that some reporter called some scientists and asked their opinion on the matter, and didn't get a satisfactory answer. I am doubly suspicious of the Russian media.

[Kerberos]

Originally posted by Diogenes


The coins should work fine if she does not know they are coins..


That aside.. Why not any small object, and all she has to do is describe it in detail...
I don't think that would be a good idea. The test has to be conducted in such a way that there's no judging procedure, which means that some exact definition of ”describing in detail” would have to be agreed on? I suppose it's possible, but it seems unnecessarily difficult. Also Randi seems to prefer tests, for which an exact probability can be calculated. Much better to give her a list of ten items and have her guess which are in which hands, with some predetermined number of hits constituting success.

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by Kerberos

I don't think that would be a good idea. The test has to be conducted in such a way that there's no judging procedure, which means that some exact definition of ”describing in detail” would have to be agreed on?

I see your point,.. and I agree.. I was just trying to counter the " people with coins in hands, should't be able to give clues " scenario...

[Hamish]

How does the poor girl get any sleep? I wouldn't be able to if I could see through my own eyelids.;)

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

Believers know that your fallacies are the affliction of humanity!

:hit:

[c0rbin]

Set up each sitter in a booth that they cannot see out of.

Have them slide their hand throught a small opening at waist-level.

Make 6 sets dice with the same number of dots on all 6 sides.

Have one scientist select the dice and place them in the exposed and out-stretched hands of the sitters isolated from the applicant.

Then have the applicant come through with yet another scientist (ignorant of the dice placed in the sitter's hands) and observe supergirl.

Compare results.

[Barkhorn1x]

"Russian X-Ray vision girl"

...sounds like an old song by The Cure.

;)

Barkhorn.

[tracer]

If she has X-ray vision, won't her eyelids get cancer?

[Darwin'sGoat]

Another article:

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/11797_phenomenon.html

Perhaps, Natasha"s latest surgery has triggered such "vision improvement". Natasha"s appendix has been removed. However, by the time she was scheduled to be sent home from the hospital, she could hardly move. Ultrasound revealed that doctors forgot to remove sanitary cotton tampons from the girl"s intestines. Natasha was once again hospitalized and operated for the second time. In a month after that incident, the teenager was able to surprise her mother with her unique quality. "I see a crimped tube similar to our vacuum cleaner inside of you. I also see two beans and a tomato that resembles a bulls' heart," states the girl. Back then, she was not aware of medical terminology and could not provide a proper name for a heart, a liver, a kidney, or intestines. She simply compared what she saw to fruits and vegetables.

Natasha is capable of distinguishing even the tiniest pathology on a molecular level in the deepest corners of a human body, which are usually left undetected by regular ultrasound. "It's like having double vision. I can switch from one to the other in no time if I need to know a person's health problem," says the teenager. "I see an entire human organism. It is difficult to explain how I determine specific illnesses. There are certain impulses that I feel from the damaged organs. The secondary vision works only in daytime and is asleep at night."

[Todd H]

Originally posted by Barkhorn1x
"Russian X-Ray vision girl"

...sounds like an old song by The Cure.

;)

Barkhorn.

Thanks. Now I can't get the sound of Robert Smith singing those words out of my head! AAAGGGGGHHH!!!!

[Matabiri]

Originally posted by Todd H


Thanks. Now I can't get the sound of Robert Smith singing those words out of my head! AAAGGGGGHHH!!!!

Oh no... what a personal disaster...

(Bonus marks to anyone who identifies the reference)

[Ipecac]

I see a crimped tube similar to our vacuum cleaner inside of you. I also see two beans and a tomato that resembles a bulls' heart," states the girl. Back then, she was not aware of medical terminology and could not provide a proper name for a heart, a liver, a kidney, or intestines.

She doesn't know the proper name for a heart? Huh? Isn't it "heart"? And yet she knows the name for a bull's heart and what one looks like.

Man, people are stupid.

[Hannibal]

Originally posted by Matabiri


Oh no... what a personal disaster...

(Bonus marks to anyone who identifies the reference)

Newman & Baddiel, "Ray"...do I win $1m?:D

Edited to add: I loved their Robert Smith doing the laughing policeman song!:D

[Aoidoi]

X-Ray? Darnit, I thought it was X-rated. Nevermind.

[tracer]

Originally posted by Ipecac
She doesn't know the proper name for a heart? Huh? Isn't it "heart"? And yet she knows the name for a bull's heart and what one looks like.
Don't forget, we're getting an English translation of what the girl said. She was undoubtedly speaking Russian. Perhaps Russian has a word for "bull's heart" that's common knowledge among farm peasants, and a totally separate word for "heart" when used in human anatomy.

[Kerberos]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Darwin'sGoat
[B]
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps, Natasha"s latest surgery has triggered such "vision improvement". Natasha"s appendix has been removed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, I got my appendix removed years ago! Why didn't i get any cool superpowers? :mad:

[Nucular]

Originally posted by Darwin'sGoat
"I see a crimped tube similar to our vacuum cleaner inside of you. I also see two beans and a tomato that resembles a bulls' heart," states the girl. Back then, she was not aware of medical terminology and could not provide a proper name for a heart, a liver, a kidney, or intestines. She simply compared what she saw to fruits and vegetables. Is a bull's heart a fruit?

Anyway, sounds more like she's describing a diagram she's seen in a book than what you'd actually see if you could look inside someone (which I never have, so I'm only guessing).

On a related note, I remember being convinced I had x-ray vision when I was about six years old - it was to do with when you look at something with slightly crossed eyes, and you see two of them which both look see-through. After a while I decided to actually test it, and had to eventually admit to myself that it wasn't x-ray vision after all. But that was after I'd told all my friends about my 'super power'. D'oh!

[Darwin'sGoat]

Originally posted by Kerberos
Hey, I got my appendix removed years ago! Why didn't i get any cool superpowers? :mad:

You should have insisted that they leave a bunch of sanitary cotton tampons in your intestines.

[Ladewig]

It's odd. All the Russian scientists I ever met were extremely sharp people, who would "see through" (sorry) such nonsense at once.

Where do all the dumb ones come from?


Imagine one is in a stagnant economy and is unable to get a job in the field one has studied for one's entire life life. Might one be tempted to say, "these powers are remarkable - of course, we will need more funding to document everything."

[Yahweh]

Russian Girl with X-ray vision, meet Robotic Scientist with ability to think (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_855497.html?menu=news.technology).