Great minds.....

Great minds think alike.

Twin's minds think alike.

Here are two of my nephews - both great and twins, and their minds are incredibly alike!

Today we were in Sensation (otherwise known as Dundee Science Centre), and they were playing "Mindball". This game is dependent on brain waves. Players wear a headband with sensors in it and the aim is to control a ball's movement across a table by being relaxed. The more relaxed you are, the more the ball moves towards your opponent's goal. Once the ball has reached your opponent's goal the game is over and you have won.

I played this at the Glasgow Science Centre last summer and I was rubbish - my opponent's brain was so relaxed, or my brain so wired, that the ball didn't even roll slowly towards the goal I was defending - it positively shot down the table at lightning speed.

But these two - well, they were something else.

They are not identical twins and nor are they alike in terms of their characters or in their interests, but by golly, their brainwaves were perfectly matched.

They were at this game for ages because for a long time the ball didn't move away from the midpoint of the table - brainwaves from both boys being so equally pitched against each other. After ten minutes or so, us onlookers began to look around, for nothing much of interest was happening on the gaming zone - the ball only moving imperceptibly from one direction to another. There was a monitor showing the brainwaves from Player 1, another showing the brainwaves from Player 2, and one in the middle showing the brainwaves of both together. It was this latter one that caught my attention, for both sets of brainwaves were so in tune that at times it looked like there was only one traceline on the screen rather than two. The small ascents and descents on each of the two traces were occurring at exactly the same time. It was quite uncanny to watch for even though they are twins, and lots of research has been undertaken into things like this with twins, to see it for yourself - displayed in front of you - was intriguing and difficult to drag your eyes away from.

In the end, someone had to win but I think this only happened because they were starting to get fed up after having sat there at an impasse for ages. I saw them give each other sneaky smiles and that seemed to be the beginning of the loss of "relaxation" required for one of them to keep the ball away from their goal.