1. The Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson's Disease
This is a sad story, but one with a happy legacy. One night I was up late writing (or messing around on Facebook, to tell the truth), and I had the BBC 24-hour news channel on the TV in the background. They ran a feature on this woman, Joy Milne, who can tell if somebody has Parkinson’s by the way they smell.
The story began with her husband developing Parkinson’s disease in his 40s. This is a horrible condition for anyone to get, but at such a young age is devastating. One day, many years before his diagnosis, Joy noticed that her husband smelled nasty, and she asked if he’d showered. I’m guessing he wasn’t too impressed, but apparently, he stank, and he just couldn’t smell it.
2. The Man Who Can See Using Echolocation
This is a cool ability and one that any of us could potentially learn. Daniel Kish is completely blind, yet he is the organizer of a hiking and cycling club, of which all its members are visually-impaired. You might think that such pursuits are unsafe and difficult for those with limited or no sight, but this team navigates like bats and whales, by emitting a sound (like a clicking noise) with the tongue and using the echoes to judge the terrain and landscape. It sounds incredible (because it is), but it is something that we can teach ourselves, with patience and concentration.
3. The Man Who Can Draw Whole Cities from Memory
Stephen Wiltshire can go to a place once, and draw a complete and accurate panorama based on the memories he developed during this one show. His talent for art was noticed as a child when in his younger years he used drawing as a means of communication — Stephen is autistic and experienced delays in speaking
Stephen has produced drawings of many major cities, which have sold for thousands of dollars. He has been awarded a Ph.D., an MBE, and has his gallery on Pall Mall.
4. The Woman Who Can See Invisible Colours
Concetta Antico is an artist with a serendipitous gift. She can see more colors than the average person, even looking at two items that appear identical to regular people and noticing a variation.
5. The Man Who Can Consciously Regulate His Body Temperature
Wim Hof is an extreme sports enthusiast and has taken things to such an extreme that he has developed the ability to mentally control his internal body temperature, allowing him to experience conditions that would kill an ordinary human. It seems that it might be possible for other people to train and similarly acclimatize themselves, but I wouldn’t recommend
6. The Circus Performer Living Life on the Edge
Eskil Ronningsbakken has made a career of balancing on the edge of very tall things. He possesses an extremely good sense of balance, and I’d hope so too, given the nature of the challenges he undertakes. He regularly puts himself in dangerous situations with no safety harness — he’s trusting his skill and instincts to keep him alive while tightrope-walking over Niagara Falls, doing a handstand on a stack of chairs at the edge of a cliff,
7. The Woman Who Can Fit into a 16” Box
I’m fascinated by contortionists, and I wish that I had the flexibility to perform such visually startling moves with my body. There is a large amount of training as well as aptitude associated with this skill, so it can be learned. But to be this good takes decades of practice and a strict diet and exercise regime, which I really can’t be bothered with. Genetics also play a part, as some people’s bodies just won’t ‘do’ that sort of thing, no matter how much stretching they partake
Here's just a regular Australian daytime TV studio with contortionism:
8. The Man Who Can Draw Fractals By Hand
This is another tale of tragedy with something good to come out of it. In 2002, Jason Padgett was outside on the street when he mugged for his jacket. His assailants beat the living crap out of him and he was taken to the hospital to get checked out. He was diagnosed with a concussion and a bruised kidney and discharged a few hours
9. The Man Who Can Tell You What Day of the Week It Was for Any Date
This is another case related to brain injuries — potentially any one of us could develop skills like these, subject to serious head injuries (maybe don’t try that at home). In 1979, Orlando Serrell was playing baseball and got hit on the side of the head by the ball. It knocked him out briefly, but nothing untoward was suspected. He got up after a few minutes and carried on playing (they would never allow that these days!). He was left with a persistent headache, which he didn’t seek treatment for, but stranger than that, he also developed an incredible ability: he could tell you what day of the week it was for any date since the accident — and what the weather had been like on that day
Be Super
10. Those Who Never Forget a Face
Super-recognizers have an extreme ability to remember and recognize faces. They have the opposite condition to prosopagnosia (face-blindness). I have some experience with both of these extremes: I have a friend with prosopagnosia who doesn’t recognize her parents. She has to use different cues to figure out who somebody is — because the facial recognition part of her brain doesn’t work adequately. She uses people’s voices, mannerisms, gait, etc. to recognize who somebody is. At the other end of the scale, I remember people I’ve seen in passing from decades ago and I also associate faces with other faces in my mind — certain faces may look like a celebrity or someone from my life, but only in the head
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