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" The episode &amp;quot;Of Human Action&amp;quot; kicks off with sirens wailing and police rushing to the aid of a teenage kidnapping victim. As the cops swarm the vehicle, the two suspects climb out of the car, unarmed. As one utters the prophetic, &amp;quot;You have no idea who you&amp;#039;re dealing with,&amp;quot; another officer begins to back up toward the ledge of the high-rise parking garage with a look of shock on his face. He throws himself over the edge. Another officer unexplainably begins firing at her co-workers before turning the gun on herself.  The Fringe team arrives at the scene, and instantly Dr. Walter Bishop, mad scientist turned special investigations specialist, declares the cause of death for the two police &amp;quot;subliminal hypnosis of a violent nature.&amp;quot; But, his son Peter Bishop points out, hypnosis alone can&amp;#039;t make you do anything you don&amp;#039;t want to. All signs seem to point to mind control on a much higher level than hypnosis.  Also factoring into the kidnapping/mind control mystery is that the initial victim, Tyler Cabot, is the son of a scientist at Massive Dynamic, the company founded by Bishop&amp;#039;s mysterious ex-partner Dr. William Bell. Agent Olivia Dunham notes the obivious: Everything seems to lead back to Massive Dynamic.  After more people fall victim to mind-controlled violence, a trap set for Tyler&amp;#039;s captors reveals that it was the suspects themselves who were the victims of the kidnapping, and that 15-year-old Tyler is the one toying with minds. Quickly, the team establishes that Tyler&amp;#039;s ability is due to a mind control cocktail of ADD medication and a brain-wave enhancer allegedly stolen from an experiment his father was working on at Massive Dynamic.  A clever theory, but is any of it possible? &amp;quot;The simple answer is no,&amp;quot; says Steven Novella, neurologist and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society. &amp;quot;The brain does not produce enough energy to project brain waves out like that. The skull would also act as a barrier.&amp;quot;  Novella says the idea of projecting brain waves, even if the skull were not acting as a protective barrier, would follow Newton&amp;#039;s inverse-square law of physics. So as the waves radiated out, the strength would become weaker as the waves would ultimately spread out in surface area. To be effective, the strength of the waves would need to be massive at the base to just project a few feet with some effect. &amp;quot;An increase in the activity of the brain stimulation that could remotely effect anything outside of the skull wouldn&amp;#039;t work,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;The energy levels are just way, way too low.&amp;quot;  Another rather strange detail about mind control incidents on Fringe is the fact that victims seem completely conscious as they&amp;#039;re being controlled against their will. (Some even beg for help.) Peter Bishop is taken hostage by the 15-year-old who, it turns out, is on a mission to find his mother, who he previously believed to have died in a car accident--a lie told by his father. As Peter is forced though mind control to shoot fellow Fringe team member Agent Phillip Broyles, he is completely aware of the fact that he has no control of his motor skills. This, Novella says, is an idea that isn&amp;#039;t entirely unfounded.  &amp;quot;The manifestation [of this type of mind control] would take place in the motor cortex,&amp;quot; Novella says. &amp;quot;The control would be of the motor cortex and not of your consciousness. That&amp;#039;s theoretically possible because the two are not connected.&amp;quot; However, Novella also notes that something like this would be extremely difficult as the controller would never be able to force others to perform physical tasks that seem straightforward--such as walking. &amp;quot;Coordination is a very complicated mechanism, especially if you disconnect it from conscious control.&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s basically implausible at every step.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/a4858/4336792/>