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Technical justification within 12 hours of first prototype

I’m gunna plant me a coconut palm!

While we were all running around at LCA2005, it seems that some ANU people have been busy, or possibly flat out like a lizard drinking.

Dr Darren Lipnicki, from the School of Psychology in the Faculty of Science at ANU, found that people solved anagrams more quickly when they were lying down compared to standing up. [...]

“In theory, there may be greater release of a chemical, noradrenaline, in the brain when standing up than when lying down.

“It’s suspected that noradrenaline inhibits the abilities to solve anagrams and to think creatively so we decided to test the idea that lying down would actually help solve anagrams more quickly.”

Dr Lipnicki asked 20 healthy subjects to solve anagrams in both a lying down and standing posture. There were 32 five-letter anagrams, such as “osien” (noise) and “nodru” (round). [...]

Subjects were also asked to solve arithmetic problems, but the study found lying down made no difference to solving arithmetic compared to standing up.

“Anagrams can be characterised as insight problems, in part because they are often solved in a moment of sudden awareness. Both anecdotal reports and experimental evidence suggest that insight can occur during, or be inspired by, sleep,” Dr Lipnicki said.

So now I can build my laptop stand thingy in the reasonably sure knowledge that it will help my creativity. (-:

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