Plus: Mind-Reading Technology, Oil Spill Images, Ozzy Osbourne’s DNA and the LEGO World Cup.

Mind-Reading Tech Predicts Human Behavior
Brain scans may be better able to predict people’s behavior than the people themselves, a recent study found.

Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles tested 20 subjects by having them record their intentions for using sunscreen over a week, then employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track how their brains reacted to messages about sunscreen, according to Reuters. The results showed that brain scans were more accurate than the self-evaluations in predicting the subjects’ actual behavior.

“From this [medial prefrontal cortex] region of the brain, we can predict for about three-quarters of the people whether they will increase their use of sunscreen beyond what they say they will do,” Matthew Lieberman, a co-author of the study, told Reuters. “This region is associated with self-awareness, and seems to be critical for thinking about yourself and thinking about your preferences and values.”

This knowledge could prove valuable in advertising, communications and public policy.

Hearing the “God Particle”
Ever wondered what the sub-atomic world sounds like? Well, it’s been pretty much silent until now. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator and most expensive scientific instrument ever, have started converting particle reactions and cosmic phenomena into music to aid in their work.

Using a process known as “sonification,” LHC engineers are simulating sounds made by particle collisions and producing music from the data they collect, Reuters reports. Scientists believe that making their data audible will help them to detect the Higgs boson, or “God particle,” when reviewing the results.

“Sound seems the perfect tool with which to represent the complexity of the data; our ears are superb at locating the source and location of sounds relative to one another, we can hear a vast range of frequencies and distinguish timbres (different instruments) before they have even played a full cycle,” one of the team members said in April at the project’s blog, LHC Sound.

“When you are hearing what the sonifications do, you really are hearing the data. It’s true to the data, and it’s telling you something about the data that you couldn’t know in any other way,” an LHC software engineer told BBC News.

A calorimeter measures the energy produced by particle collisions, and the note and pitch of each sound varies according to the amount of energy released. Plans are being made to stage a concert of cosmic particle songs from the LHC later this summer. You can hear the full library of particle music HERE.

Visualizing the Oil Spill
As the massive, ongoing oil spill continues to devastate the Gulf coast and authorities struggle to deal with the effects, it may be difficult to put the extent of the spill itself into context. Now, a Web site called If It Was My Home allows users to see what it would look like if the oil spill were centered around their own area.

For example, if occurring in New York City, the spill would currently cover the eastern seaboard from Philadelphia to northern Massachusetts.

Based on daily data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Web site takes an image of the oil spill and overlays it on a Google map to provide some perspective of the disaster. Try it where you live.

Ozzy Osbourne Contributes to Science
Although better known for his music and decapitating winged mammals, Ozzy Osbourne is about to make a contribution to biology by having his genetic code mapped in order to help researchers understand how someone can survive after decades of alcohol and drug abuse.

The hard-living rocker will be one of the few people to have his genome fully mapped, according to Sky News. At 61, Osbourne “has lived a life that would presumably kill any ordinary person.”

“Genome sequencing is an exhaustive process that ultimately determines the order of the 3 billion chemical building blocks — the bases abbreviated as A, T, C, and G — that make up the DNA of a person’s 23 different pairs of chromosomes,” Discovery News explains. “The first full genome took 13 years to be sequenced and was finished in 2003. Today, analyzing a genome takes about three months and costs around $40,000.”

While some may wonder why the former lead singer of Black Sabbath is receiving such serious consideration from the scientific community, the results of his genetic testing may lead to insights on surviving a wide range of health disorders, including a genetic disorder similar to Parkinson’s disease, which has afflicted Osbourne for years.

LEGO World Cup Highlights
Nearly everything can be improved by making a LEGO© version of it. Now, fans of the World Cup can enjoy their favorite moments in LEGO-brick form thanks to German soccer fan Fabian Moritz, who has painstakingly recreated game highlights using the popular building blocks at his Web site, Legofussball.eu.

“Moritz began making the films three years ago for matches of his local club Hanover, using a highly time-consuming technique called stop-motion,” Agence France-Presse reports. “This involves taking an individual photo for every frame of the video, and moving the Lego pieces by hand in between. One goal can require up to 80 photos.”

Here’s a clip of the England-U.S.A. match done in LEGO, vuvuzelas included:

Have a great weekend, folks.